Checkeye's lunchtime globe-spanning smorgasbord. (Michelle Pemberton / Indy.com)

Checkeye opens a Durian from Southeast Asia with work gloves, hammer and chisel. The spiky fruit has soft custard like lobes inside. (Michelle Pemberton / Indy.com)

Indy.com reporter Ryan Checkeye went shopping at Saraga International Grocery Store to try some foods he had never seen or heard of before. Here he checks purchases his international food of mystery. (Michelle Pemberton / Indy.com)

I'm eating a duck fetus.

Technically, it's an embryo. But I should back up a bit: I've been shopping at Saraga, the large international grocery store just south of Lafeyette Square Mall. As always, the trip has yielded a cartful of mysterious wonders, and, as always, some of the cryptic packaging will yield Lovecraftian horrors of flavor, while others will create more amazing sensory memories than Proust's stupid cookies.

Brothers Jong Sung and Bong Jae Sung opened the store in 2005 to not only cater to the city's increasing ethnically diverse citizenry, but also to expose their customers to other cultural experiences. And today, my goal is to expose myself. To other cultures.

As I enter Saraga, my senses are overwhelmed -- the mix of '80s New Wave playing through the speakers, a temperature that's more befitting an ice rink, an almost palpable haze of global spices, and the cartoonish Japanese packaging that suggests everything from there is marketed to children. The store also boasts a meat section that would shame Noah, if his ark had been an abattoir.

I fill my cart with anything that looks interesting. Some things I'm familiar with; others are completely foreign. Pun intended. In the meat aisle, I debate whether to buy a whole, dried squid. When I realize I have no idea how to cook a whole, dried squid (and that I can't read the package, which is in Korean), I put it back in favor of the roasted barbecued eel (which has handy English instructions). Plenty of Japanese junk food goes into the cart as well. I try to balance this with some fruit and vegetables -- a durian, some longan fruit, a pear and seaweed join the pile.

After adding more odds and ends, I take my purchases over to a friend's house to prepare a lunchtime globe-spanning smorgasbord. Some of the food was amazing and some of it foul, which is exactly what I'd hoped for.

There were several highlights. A Saraga deli item labeled Dong Grang Daeng turned out to be delicious Korean meatballs. Also from Korea was the Sweet Cinnamon Punch, which was like drinking cinnamon toast. The roasted seaweed was deliciously crispy and seemed to melt in the mouth. One of the mystery items was Sakura Mochi, a Japanese dessert made from glutinous rice. This delightfully pink treat had a consistency somewhere between very moist brownies and Vaseline.

When I finally hacked open the durian, whose spiky exterior was so tough that it required a screwdriver, hammer and cleaver to get it open, it filled the kitchen with its trademark stench. My lunch companions loved it, comparing it to a sublime custard. I, however, couldn't get past the bar-restroom odor. All of this we washed down with Mexican Coca-Cola, which, unlike American Coca-Cola, is made with cane sugar, as opposed to high-fructose corn syrup. The result is a completely different beverage (and one substantially more delicious).

Also included on our menu were two types of eggs. The first, a century egg, is a Chinese delicacy. It's packed in salt, lye and clay, and then buried for weeks to months. The result is a dark green egg with a mottled brown center and a jellylike consistency; it tastes like mushrooms.

The other egg is the balut. Balut is a Filipino food, as common as hot dogs. It is a fertilized duck egg, aged between 10 and 18 days, that is cooked and eaten. That means there is a mostly formed duck fetus inside.

As I cook the balut, I wonder what it could possibly taste like. Will the beak be hard? Will the tiny bones gag me? The timer sounds; the egg is done.

The shell is cracked; the balut is lying on my plate, looking every bit as if it's just fallen out of a Francis Bacon painting. It's covered in veins -- some bluish-purple, others blood red. Not having the balls to just pick it up and eat it, I cut it up with a fork and knife. To my great relief, the consistency is that of a hard-boiled egg. And in the middle, there it is. Hey, everybody! Duck fetus.

The first bite is down: yolk, fetus and all. It has a familiar taste, albeit a bit gamy. By the third bite, I've pinned it. Balut tastes like mild liver. It's not bad. Certainly, if you like liver, balut is a quick snack that you'll enjoy.

I hear there's even a chicken version of balut. I'd definitely try that, if I ever stumble across it at Saraga.

Saraga International Grocery Store

3605 Commercial Drive, (317) 388-9999

What went into my cart:

Ginger Cracker - Korea

Appolo Mango Ice Bar - China

Kabayaki roasted eel -- Japan

Coca-Cola (355 ml. glass bottle) -- Mexico

Baby Star Chow Mein Snack -- Japan

Periyar Pakkavada -- India

Asian Taste Preserved Duck Eggs -- Vietnam

Sultan Maamoul Date Cookies -- Saudi Arabia

Assi Sweet Cinnamon Punch -- Korea

Durian -- Southeast Asia

Onnara Olive Oil Roasted Seaweed -- Korea

Pocari Sweat (a beverage) -- Japan

Meiji Yan Yan Strawberry Cream Snack -- Japan

Pimenta Malagueta -- Brazil

Longan fruit -- Southeast Asia

Balut - Philippines, Cambodia, Vietnam

Sakura Mochi (gooey pink things) - Japan

Spicy stir-fried squid - Korea

Red D'Anjou pear - France/Belgium

Goma Kombu seaweed - Japan

Kasugai Pineapple Gummy - Japan

Dong Grang Daeng (flat meatball) - Korea

Meltyblend Framboise - Japan

-- By Ryan Checkeye