Post by tetsujin070561 on Jan 11, 2018 2:51:51 GMT -5
Hello Kathleen. "Swallow's Nest" or "Bird's Nest" is indeed a processed product made from the excreted saliva of certain swifts which utilize it to create yearly nests attached to the walls of caves. It is gathered by people who climb very very tall makeshift ladders to remove the nests. It does not have a pronounced taste, but has an unusual texture, and is typically used in soups and desserts. I have had it once, in a coconut-based dessert soup at a Cantonese cuisine restaurant, and I enjoyed it very much. To me, the texture (and taste, to a degree) reminded me a bit of a very high class oatmeal.
In various locales around Southeast Asia, enterprising people are now using abandoned multi-story buildings to house the construction of these nests for commercial harvest, once the birds have finished rearing their chicks. They are attracted to these buildings by recorded vocal bird calls broadcast using megaphone-like speakers. Here is a link to a BBC story about this:
www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-pacific-12274825
Sakai-san used this ingredient in a dessert soup he made in "Battle Melon" from 1997, which was a dessert battle.
This is a highly expensive item, and many products claiming to be "bird's nest" are actually made from pork fat or other illegitimate sources. If you wish to obtain some, I would recommend going to a big city Chinatown and purchasing it from a Chinese apotheacary, as they sometimes will sell it. In PRC, one of the leading outdoor sports stadia, constructed for the Summer Olympics a few years ago, is the "Bird's Nest Staduim" which closely resembles the shape of a typical such nest.
In various locales around Southeast Asia, enterprising people are now using abandoned multi-story buildings to house the construction of these nests for commercial harvest, once the birds have finished rearing their chicks. They are attracted to these buildings by recorded vocal bird calls broadcast using megaphone-like speakers. Here is a link to a BBC story about this:
www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-pacific-12274825
Sakai-san used this ingredient in a dessert soup he made in "Battle Melon" from 1997, which was a dessert battle.
This is a highly expensive item, and many products claiming to be "bird's nest" are actually made from pork fat or other illegitimate sources. If you wish to obtain some, I would recommend going to a big city Chinatown and purchasing it from a Chinese apotheacary, as they sometimes will sell it. In PRC, one of the leading outdoor sports stadia, constructed for the Summer Olympics a few years ago, is the "Bird's Nest Staduim" which closely resembles the shape of a typical such nest.