Gosh, Slang, the food you photographed looks really appetizing and certainly no more dangerous than I have seen in Mexican mercados many times. They have wrapped it very nicely, and that helps a lot because in the wet markets you have to beat the flies off the food in order to examine it. One of the things I hope you can photograph is the LECHON, the roasted piglets which are tremendously popular there for parties. They are truly delicious, but you have to purchase the one you want before it has been standing out on the street in traffic all day. Lu has some great photos of those which she sent me before, maybe she can post them here.
Zippyt, yes, balut make you strong like bull. Filipino bull maybe, hee hee. But I have heard that the people who can't even afford balut have ANOTHER gross delicacy that they scavange as a substitute. It is so gross that I doubt Lu can be persuaded to tell us about it. There is also a tradition of releasing all the dogs in the pound to the homeless beggars on Friday afternoon. Yes, so they can have dinner
Luisa's aunt rescued one of their own pet dogs from such a fate after it had escaped from their compound; she actually had a tug of war with a man who was just about to begin butchering the mutt.