Betamax (Grilled Blood)

You might think that this is your ordinary Betamax ®, but it is not. It’s actually a street slang for grilled chicken blood. Wait a minute, did I read it correctly? How can you grill something that is in liquid form? Most of you might be wondering how this happened, let me just give you a brief background on how this is done.

Chicken blood is extracted from the chicken in liquid form. When the blood is placed in an open container and cooled down a little, the texture becomes thicker and somewhat gelatinous. The “gelatinous” blood is scalded to have a more solid form then cut into rectangular pieces. The rectangular blood resembles the shape of a Betamax® tape and this is the reason why it was called such. It is not the same as the one in the image below.

I used to have this in the Philippines regularly when I was in my teens. After a tiring basketball game in the afternoon, my friends and I would usually go to the “kanto” (village entrance) and have a feast of Betamax and “isaw ng baboy” to satisfy our hunger. Betamax is the cheapest merienda (afternoon snack) next to grilled chicken intestine. Imagine a serving (3 pcs on a stick) would only cost us a Peso (about 2 to 3 cents USD) during those days.

Grilled chicken blood has no taste at all, it’s not gamy or foul smelling as it may seem. It’s just like chewing something without any taste. The best way to compliment this is by dipping it in vinegar and chili mixture. I find toasted blood better because it absorbs more vinegar which is the main source of flavor.

I also liked mine over grilled to the point that it is somewhat burnt. The texture of the blood is sponge like at that point. This means that it can absorb more spiced vinegar when dipped.

Have you tried this before?