A little unexpected

The winning article in the 2004 Shiva Naipaul Memorial prize.
There were more than 60 entries from a total of eight countries. The runners-up were Horatio Clare, Simon Matthew Kingston, Joanna Kavenna, Bertie Cairns and Barnabas William Erskine Campbell.

In the Jollibee burger bar, Kuya Virgo held out his hands. Cradled in each palm was a duck’s egg, still warm from its boiling water. He looked at us expectantly; we looked back. My husband reached out first. ‘Thank you, po,’ he said smilingly. I followed swiftly, attempting a little bravado: other British visitors had apparently responded to the ultimate Filipino culinary challenge with enthusiastic fits of vomiting.

Under Virgo’s instruction, we tapped the eggs at the tapered point on the Formica tabletop. Peeling back a little of the cracked shell, I could see what I took to be a kind of avian amniotic fluid inside. Kuya Virgo pushed forward a little bowl of salt, and we each took a pinch to season the liquid.