Did You Know-Bird’s Nest Soup
Credit: Chanin/ Adobe Stock
Bird’s nest soup has been a luxury in Chinese cuisine for centuries. A delicacy made from the hardened saliva nests of swiftlets (birds), which cling high on cave walls.
Harvesting them has always been perilous, requiring expert climbers and creating a built in scarcity that pushed prices sky high.
Although swiftlets resemble the barn swallow, they are not related.
Credit: Arun Roisri / Getty Images
In imperial China, especially during the Ming and Qing dynasties, the nests were reserved for nobles and elite banquets, prized for their rarity, supposed medicinal properties and gelatinous texture when cooked. Even today, the soup can cost you $100 a bowl.
The value remained high because each nest took weeks for a bird to build and was often damaged if not removed carefully. By the 19 century, entire maritime trade routes connected Southeast Asian nesting sites to Chinese markets.
Even today, top grade nests can cost thousands per kilogram, a testament to their centuries long reputation as one of the world’s most unexpected luxury foods.
http://www.InDianesKitchen.com
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Categories: Did You Know, Soup
Fascinating
Thank you Derrick, enjoy the rest of the weekend!
Its amazing how daring they people must be to collect these nests. Mind you, knowing what it’s made of puts me off it tbh, that and the price of the bowl of soup! LOL
I think it’s because of the danger climbing the rope ladder to get to the nests and trying to climb back down with them. Many people fell and died. It could be free and I wouldn’t try it. Lol
Thanks for the lesson about Bird’s Nest Soup.
You’re welcome Betty! I doubt you will be grabbing a nest at the campground anytime soon! 😂
Great story I will pass and save my money 🙂 I know what’s inside bird nests 🙂
Haha Thank you Eunice!
You find the most unusual little tidbits!
I have fun doing it too. Not that I would eat something like this though!
When a youth in Hong Kong 1951 i was told by our cook that birds nest soup as a myth it is fine noodles set into a nest and soup added. He made for us English children how it was made and we loved it . No on in Asia accepted European lies about their culture and no one ever dared until a yank said birdsnests on a cave roof make best soup .He was mocked by all Chinese there in that kitchen i remember vividly .I was home in England that day after that to school in Shropshire . I never went back to China but miss it always
A long time ago I watched a National Geographic show where they showed the difficulties climbing the rope ladder’s, reaching the nests then getting back down without ruining the nests. They said many men died from falling. I never forgot that show because I was amazed by the fact that they risked their life for a nest. I would love to visit China!
It’s fascinating to think about the delicacies that exist in other cultures. I don’t think I’ve ever had birds nest soup, as it’s quite pricy, and it also sounds very appetizing – not. 🤣 But shark fin soup is something I’ve definitely tried.
Now you did it, shark fin soup is going to be a post! I saw a documentary showing a ship full of dead shark in one pile and the fins in another. They said they kill the shark just for the fin! Isn’t shark fin soup pricey as well?
Only had them at Chinese wedding banquets. Definitely not something I’d regularly consume because of how they are harvested!
That was one expensive banquet!
I have heard of this but never knew the origin. I do not have fancy tastes because this nor the whale item you had last week I would have to pass up. 🙂
You especially wouldn’t like it when you found out they used tweezers to pick out the feathers. Lol I eat a lot of strange things but this one is not on my menu.
Ugh! No, I could not do that – someone tricked me into octopus soup once … I saw the suckers after I’d already eaten some and thought I’d lost it (literally). 🙂
I always told my kids everything meal new was chicken. My daughter threw that back at me just the other day. 😂 When my son was young, I bought the canned octopus (like sardine cans) and took out a leg and suction cupped it to my tongue. When he said what are you eating, I stuck out my tongue with the leg attached. We cracked up and will never forget that. He’s the child that will try about anything, just like his mother!
Oh my! Well, he wasn’t freaked out about the octopus on your tongue then. He is brave too trying new things to eat. I am laughing at telling the kids it was chicken and I guess they believed you. 🙂 The octopus stew or soup that I had wasn’t all bad as it was spicy with a tomatoy base. He was Maltese and did the cooking, not my aunt. The dish I could not get past was a bouillabaisse with not only the clam shells floating around but some fish heads … we went to a tiny restaurant in Spain. I tried everything I had in front of me, but that I had to order something else. Also, those little pop-up bars they had in Spain. They served the pencil-sized eels and shrimp that were not de-veined first. The eels were in a long dish sitting out on the bar and you just grabbed one and ate it. The shrimp they reached into a barrel with one hand and threw it onto the grill for a half-minute, then put them in a cone or paper dish of some sort and served you.
I am NOT a fish eater and I would never eat that fish cooked in less than a minute, yuck! I would try the eel if it was cooked. Shrimp cooks in close to a minute or two in a pan so those I would eat too. You were so fortunate to be able to go with your friend to Spain!
I just couldn’t stomach it at all … but I did not grow up in a fish-eating family. We had fish almost every night on vacation and I spent 10 days in Puerto Rico with them when they lived there and they liked going to seafood restaurants. They taught me how to use a boning knife for whole fish (with the head still on) as the fish was usually not fileted. I was freaked out by a lot of my meals, but they said “you have to try native fare.” I put my foot down when I stayed with them in Puerto Rico and she made breakfast every morning before we out … very runny soft-boiled eggs. I decided I could not eat that and had to ask if she could cook them longer or better yet I’d just have toast. We had soft-boiled eggs at home, but my mom always left mine in a little longer … she liked dipping her toast in them, but did not eat them runny and gross looking. 🙂
There is no way I would filet my fish before I ate it, if I ate fish. Lol The only fish I eat with the bones on is smoked catfish. The meat pulls away from the bones and skin so easily. I love my eggs over easy, I can’t stand any uncooked white part. One of my followers told me about a silicone soft boiled egg set that you crack the egg into it and boil, so I ordered it. I still need to try it out. Terry will only eat egg yolk by dipping toast in it like your mom.
how interesting
I thought so too Yvette!
🙂
Very strange indeed!
I wonder who decides to climb up to the ceiling with ropes (and how they attached them) then think “Oh this dirty birds nest looks yummy!” 😂
This is delicacy I don’t think I would be willing to try.
I’m with you Linda!
Very interesting but I don’t think I would want to eat it. My husband would try it but I’m more fussy !
I’m not that fussy but if I knew what I was eating, in this case, I wouldn’t be inclined to try it either.