Facts About Birds Nest Soup

Birds Nest soup is a popular and rather expensive soup that originated in China. This soup used to be served to the affluent. But thanks to China’s booming economy, nouveau riche is able to afford this specialty soup. For a soup that has a mild flavor and very little nutrients, it commands hundreds of dollars per bowl. What’s so special about the soup anyway?

It’s Virtually Flavorless

Just like shark’s fin, Birds Nest has no flavor of its own. When making a soup, the chef relies on other spices to flavor the dish. Essentially, the Birds Nest adds texture and minimal nutrients to the soup. Birds Nest is best consumed on an empty stomach. This way, the body can absorb the nutrients.

Quality by Color

Birds Nests are sorted according to their color. The whitest of all are the most expensive. Grayish or even red-colored Birds Nests are often more affordable. The color of the nests did not come from the swiftlet’s blood. It’s caused by two things: oxidation or absorption of chemicals.

Facts About Birds Nest Soup

No Proven Healing Benefits

Although revered in Traditional Chinese Medicine, Birds Nest soup is not proven to cure any disease. However, the nest contains a type of protein that may strengthen the immune system. But scientific evidence is needed to support this claim.

May Accelerate Recovery

The Chinese usually serve Birds Nest soup to sick people. According to TCM specialists, the pre-digested proteins in the soup may help speed up recovery. But again, there is no scientific data to back this up.

The Dark Side of Destroying Swiftlet’s Natural Habitat

Tons of Birds Nests are being exported to China from Southeast Asian nations per year. Over- farming and habitat exploitation caused a sharp decline on swiftlets population – particularly in the Philippines, Indonesia, and Malaysia.
In Malaysia where Birds Nest is an emerging industry, business owners started building swiftlets farms. Unfortunately, conditions have to be perfect for the swiftlets to nest. According to one study, “internal airflows, relative humidity, air temperature distributions and light intensity are needed to create the right environment for swiftlets to breed.” Without taking these factors into consideration, Birds Nest farming will fail.
Conservationists around the world warn about the dangers of exploiting the population of swiftlets. The caves in which they live have fragile, self-sustaining ecosystem. The dwindling population of swiftlets will also affect the other animals that live in these caves.

How to make Birds Nest soup

The bird is the word

Birds Nest soup may sound like a crazy Chinese urban legend of a dish, you know, one so bonkers it can’t be real or it’s just a funny lost-in-translation name, but the delicacy is indeed an authentic one. Rather from being made from twigs and bits of moss, they’re made from the hardened saliva from swiftlet nests and dissolved in a broth.

If that still doesn’t sound too appetising, don’t worry, today they’re harvested entirely for human consumption and super-high in minerals like calcium, magnesium and potassium. Believed to enhance the immune system, aid digestion and improve libido Birds Nest soup has been keeping the Chinese healthy (and horny) since 500 AD during the Tang dynasty. A dish for the elite, it was only imperial nobility who dined on the unique broth. According to legend it was the great admiral Cheng Ho who bought the Birds Nest to Southeast Asia for the Chinese Emperor.
These days, whilst still a rare delicacy, Birds Nest soup is easily accessible for mere mortals. In Chinatown you can find the sacred dish at Gerrard Street’s Royal Dragon or if you want to prepare it at home, dried nests can be bought from SeeWoo supermarket on Lisle Street.

Here’s how to make your Birds Nest soup.

METHOD:
Soak the Birds Nest for 6 hours or leave overnight until it has softened and expanded
Remove and chop into portions, allocate 15g per person
Add the portions to the chicken stock with the ginger and oil and stew for 20 minutes over heat until the nests have dissolved
Add seasoning or adjust stock levels to taste then it’ll be ready to serve!

Healing Powers of Birds Nest Soup Remain Mysterious

At as much as $4,500 per pound, edible Birds Nests are among the most expensive foods on the planet.
Made from the saliva of cave-dwelling birds called swiftlets, the nests are dangerous to harvest, laborious to prepare and have, according to traditional Chinese medicine, a long list of health benefits.
Traditionally consumed in soup, edible Birds Nests are now being turned into food and drink additives as well as put into cosmetics, say two Chinese researchers who have assessed just what is known about the nutritional and medicinal properties of this expensive, and to Westerners, strange-sounding health food.
Science cannot yet explain the healing powers attributed to the soup, they conclude. Birds Nests "bioactivities and medicinal value are still open to question as there (is) not much scientific research on the medicinal properties," Fucui Ma and Daicheng Liu of Shandong Normal University in China write in a review article to be published in the October issue of the journal Food Research International. .
Swiftlets live in limestone caves around the Indian Ocean, in South and South East Asia, North Australia and the Pacific Islands. Males primarily build the nests, attaching them to the vertical walls of the caves. Removing them can be dangerous and painstaking work, and, depending on the type of nest, it can take one person eight hours to clean 10 nests, the researchers write.
For possibly 1,200 years, the Chinese have prepared and eaten the nests as a soup. The nests are considered to have a high nutritional and medicinal value, believed to have everything from anti-aging and anti-cancer properties to the ability to improve concentration and raise libido.
Protein is the most abundant constituent of the nests, which contain all of the essential amino acids, the building blocks out of which proteins are made. They also contain six hormones, including testosterone and estradiol, the researchers write.
The nests also contain carbohydrates, ash and a small quantity of lipids (naturally occurring molecules that include fats). Previous research has indicated that the nests contain substances that can stimulate cell division and growth, enhance tissue growth and regeneration, and that it can inhibit influenza infections.
But not everyone reacts well to them. Birds Nests are known to cause anaphylaxis, a life-threatening allergic reaction.
Little research has been carried out on their biological function so far, and more is needed to better understand the qualities attributed to them, they conclude.