So, I decided to try my hand at making tito polo. You see it everywhere online, these bright orange, skewered eggs, and everyone says how good they are. Figured, hey, how tough can it really be to make a snack? Famous last words, right?
The Grand Plan and Gathering Supplies
My brilliant idea started on a lazy Saturday. I was bored, scrolling through food stuff, and bam, tito polo. Looked simple enough. The mission: recreate that street food magic in my own kitchen. First up, ingredients. Quail eggs, that was the main thing. Found ’em at a local Asian market after striking out at my usual supermarket. They’re tiny! Then, flour, cornstarch, some seasonings, and the crucial orange food coloring. Oh, and wooden skewers, can’t forget those.
Getting the food coloring was its own little adventure. I wanted that specific, vibrant orange. The first bottle I got was more like a sad tangerine. Had to go back for a different brand. Small details, you know, they matter. Or so I told myself.
The Quail Egg Challenge
Okay, boiling quail eggs. Sounds easy. It is, mostly. But peeling them? Man, that was a test of patience. Those little shells are delicate, and I swear half of them wanted to take a chunk of egg white with them. My first batch looked a bit mauled, to be honest. I was aiming for perfectly smooth little ovals, but ended up with some that looked like they’d been in a tiny fight.
- Boiled them a bit too long at first.
- Peeling was super fiddly.
- Lost a few good ones to bad peeling jobs.
Batter Up! And Making a Mess
Next up, the batter. This is where the magic orange color comes in. I mixed flour, cornstarch, a pinch of salt, some pepper, and then the food coloring. Getting that consistency right was tricky. Too thick, and it’s like a heavy coat. Too thin, and it just runs off. I was aiming for that perfect clingy texture you see in the pictures.
My first attempt at the batter was way too watery. Added more flour. Then it was too thick, like paste. More water. Back and forth. And the orange? My counter looked like an art project gone wrong. Orange splatters everywhere. It was a controlled kind of chaos, mostly.
Skewering and the Frying Fiasco
Once the batter seemed okay-ish, it was time to skewer the peeled eggs. Three or four to a stick. That part was fine. Dipping them in the batter, though? That was messy. Some eggs didn’t want to get fully coated. Others got too much batter. My fingers were bright orange.
Then, the frying. Heated up some oil in a small pot. I don’t have a deep fryer, so it was pan-frying, carefully turning them. The first few went in, and they cooked fast! Maybe too fast. Some got a bit darker than I wanted, almost brownish-orange instead of that iconic bright color. Others, the batter sort of… puffed up weirdly. It wasn’t the smooth, even coating I was hoping for. Some even tried to slide off the skewers in the hot oil. Talk about a learning curve.
The Moment of Truth… and Reflection
So, after all that, what did I end up with? Well, I had a plate of something that was definitely orange and on sticks. Were they beautiful, picture-perfect tito polo? Not quite. Some were lumpy, some a bit misshapen, the color wasn’t perfectly uniform. But hey, they were homemade.
Taste-wise? They were okay. The crunch was there on most of them. The egg inside was, well, a quail egg. But something was still missing from that street food flavor I imagined. Maybe it’s the atmosphere, or some secret vendor technique I don’t know about.
What I learned from this whole tito polo escapade is that some things look way easier than they are. And I have a newfound respect for those street food vendors who churn these out perfectly, hundreds a day. It’s not just throwing things in a fryer. There’s a knack to it, for sure. Will I try making them again? Maybe. Or maybe I’ll just find a good spot that sells them and save myself the orange kitchen cleanup. Sometimes, it’s just better to leave it to the pros, you know?
