The Edible Birds Nests are categorized into 2 types:
- Cave Birds Nest
- House Birds Nest
The Cave Birds Nest
- Built by
swiftlets in caves and it absorbs minerals from the cave.
- Yellowish
in color.
- Much more
solid compared to the House Birds Nest and does not break easily.
- Contains
more impurities thus require longer time to clean.
- More
delicious and can be stewed for longer hours.
The House Birds Nest
- Built in
swift hourses and used by swiftlets for breeding purposes.
- Nests are
cared by the Swift Farmers and will be harvested once the young swiftlets leave
the nest.
- Whitish in
color.
- Higher in
quality and has lesser impurities.
- Easily
break and will dissolve into water after stewing for long time. (Stew
30-45 minutes for excellent taste.)
- These are
the two main categories for Birds Nest. However, it can also be further
classified based on other elements such as edibility, features, quality,
colour and etc.
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| Birds Nest Category |
Birds Nest Grade
Birds Nests can be graded into 3 stages and each stage is segregated
according to the order when the Birds Nest is harvested.
White Nest
- Can be
collected early of the year (January to April)
- Birds Nest
pieces are much more solid and thicker due to the high amount of saliva
produced by Swiftlets during the raining season.
- The nest
is made entirely from the Swiflet’s saliva.
- Much more pricey due to its superior quality.
Grass Nest
- This type
of Birds Nests are usually seen during May to December.
- Leaves are
collected and mixed with the Swiftlets’ saliva to form nests for the young
swiftlets.
- (The
climate change will reduce the Swiftlet’s food source and thus result to
the decline of saliva productivity by Swiftlets).
- Requires
thorough cleaning before being processed.
- Looks
transparent, glossy and grayish in color.
- Price is
much cheaper compared to White Nest as the glutinous strand only takes up
5-15% before being processed.
Feather Nest
- This type
of Birds Nests are usually seen during May to December.
- Feathers
are mixed with the Swiftlets’ saliva to form nests for the young
swiftlets.
- Requires
thorough cleaning before being processed.
- Looks
glossy with a tinge of milky white colour.
- Price is
much cheaper compared to White Nest as the glutinous strand only takes up
5-15% before being processed.
Birds Nests – The Most Expensive Local Ingredient?
I always knew that
the limestone mountains and cliffs in Northern Palawan were the home to
swiftlets (collocalia whiteheadi) or birds that made their nests that are
unfortunately (for the birds), a delicacy for mainly Chinese diners. On a trip
to El Nido two years ago, I was told that the name El Nido meant Birds Nest…
At any rate, I was under the mistaken impression until recently that you had to
scale the razor sharp cliffs to find little crevices where the birds would
nest…it turns out the nests are mostly in bigger, darker, slippery caves
instead, not on the cliff faces. This post is something the Food Gods
absolutely divined, for how on earth could I have chanced upon a native who
would not only give me a crash course in Birds Nest, but also happen to have a
few on hand for me to photograph?! While on the fantastic small strip of sand
at Banol Beach, and burning up in the hot sun, an older lady approached to
collect the “fee†for using the beach…after we paid, she sat down in the hut to avoid the sun we
started to chit-chat…
Two views of the material that makes the Birds Nests
Turns out she is a Tagbanuan, and has lived on the island since birth as
have her forefathers and ancestors… She explained that there used to be so
nest2much more Birds Nests in the mountains but that the supply had rapidly
declined. When pressed for her view of the situation, Manang Herminia Aguilar
believed the culprit is cyanide fishing. She felt that the birds, called Balinsasayaw
locally, which she said “ate†the bubbles on the surface of the sea, which
were contaminated with traces of cyanide (which is used on fish and which kill
off coral) and the result was the poisoning of the birds. Some research
suggests two views of the material that makes the Birds Nests. One view is that
the birds eat seaweed such as agar-agar and regurgitate this when they get back
to their nests as they build them. Another view is that they simply use their
saliva. At any rate, the “prized†delicacy is reputed to be good for
one’s blood circulation or other medical rationale, so it is highly sought
after. Of course my suggestion that natives simply stripping the caves of all
nests might lead to a lack of bedding for new born chicks wasn’t considered a
reasonable explanation. It seems they are supposed to limit their collection of
nests to only January to April, though everyone says that rule is flaunted…After several minutes of discussion, I asked her if I could find some Birds Nests to photograph for this blog and lo and behold, she whips out these two small bundles from her cloth bag. Carefully wrapped in a soft cloth, she gently took them out to show me. She nest3explained that many people had died over the years trying to harvest these nests as the conditions in the caves are treacherous. She pointed out that she had two bundles classified by quality. The first bundle of noticeably whiter nests was Class A and was sold to traders from Manila for a whopping, hold your seats, PHP200,000 a KILO!!! Omigod is all I could think. This little bundle was about 20 grams or PHP4,000 pesos worth! The second bundle was Class C because of its color and the foreign matter embedded in the nests, this would retail for a much less shocking PHP120,000 a kilo and her bundle here of roughly 25 grams would garner PHP3,000 from the traders. So, in the photos here are roughly PHP7,000 pesos worth of dried saliva; now if only dried buggers were so highly valued as a flavoring agent for some special dish…ugh, that was a gross thought Marketman!
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