How to Cook Chinese Birds Nest (燕窝)

A step-by-step guide to cooking the Chinese delicacy, edible Birds Nest, to maximize nutrition and achieve great taste.

When you open the menu of a big restaurant in China, chances are you’ll come across a small section listing extremely expensive dishes with exquisite names. For example, Birds Nest soup, shark fin stew, and braised sea cucumber. These dishes can cost hundreds of dollars for a small bowl, and they may look very plain, like a regular bowl of chicken soup.
Today I want to take you on a tour to a lesser-known part of Chinese cuisine by introducing one of the most popular food items for female beauty – Chinese Birds Nest.

What is Chinese Birds Nest

Chinese Birds Nest, or yàn wō (燕窝), is is one of the most expensive foods in the world, with a price of up to $2000 per kilogram (according to Wikipedia). The nests are made of the hardened saliva of the male swiftlet, a type of swallow found in many coastal caves of Southeast Asia.

Sounds super weird right?

Well, the cooked nest is almost tasteless and has the texture of jelly. It is often served sweetened and has quite a refreshing taste. When I cooked the nest for the first time in my US home, my husband thought it was super weird. But once he tasted the sweet soup, he actually enjoyed it and drank it all.
The culinary and traditional Chinese medicinal (TCM) use of edible swallow nest dates hundreds of years back, as a highly nutritious therapeutic supplement and a delicacy in Chinese cuisine.
Due to the extremely high protein content (about 70%), namely collagen, Birds Nest is prized by females for its ability to improve skin condition and release stress. So they will keep the last of their youth, as well as have a long and healthy life and a strong body. It has neutral energetic properties in TCM (not too cold or too warm), so it benefits people of all ages and is especially good for the lungs, kidneys, and stomach.
Moreover, eating swallow nest is regarded as a privilege in China. It’s a luxury like shark fin. In ancient times, only the emperor and nobles had access to it. So it’s a symbol of social status and wealth.
Lastly, the value of Birds Nest is high due to its rarity. When people are in a business meeting in a restaurant (as is Chinese tradition), they order precious items such as Birds Nest in order to display their sincerity. It is just like ordering an expensive bottle of wine in the Western world.

How to Cook Chinese Birds Nest (燕窝)

How to prepare and cook with edible Birds Nest

Edible Birds Nests come in different colors, ranging from white to dark brown, depending on the grading and the type of bird. When you purchase Birds Nest, always try to buy from reputable brands to make sure you’re getting a quality product.
Preparing Birds Nest might look intimidating if you’ve never cooked with it before, since most products don’t usually come with instructions on the package. In reality it is extremely easy and requires just a few simple steps:
(1) Decide how much to serve.
Birds Nest is preserved dry and it stays good for a month in the fridge once you open the package. It is important to decide how much you’re going to serve before preparing the nest, to ensure maximum freshness.
When you purchase Birds Nest, the nest usually comes in pieces and the package tells you how many servings it contains. For example, the Birds Nest I used said 1 ounce (28 grams) serves 4 people. It is a good serving size if you’re serving the nest restaurant style. If you’re using it for nutritional purposes and will consume it frequently (once or twice a week), you can serve smaller portions, about 1 ounce (28 grams) for 8 servings.
(2) Soak the edible Birds Nest with cold water, for at least 6 hours or overnight.
This step is very important. Do NOT use warm or hot water to soak the nest because it might destroy the delicate texture. Once the nest is fully hydrated, it expands a few times larger and has a slightly tough gelatinous texture. Use your hands to tear it into smaller pieces along the threads. Try to do it without breaking the threads so the finished nest will have a better texture.
When you’re soaking the nest you might notice a fishy smell. Don’t worry about it. The fishiness will disappear once the nest is cooked.
(3) Cook the nest using a double boiler.
Although Birds Nest can be served either sweet or savory, most people prefer to serve it sweet, as a dessert. To enjoy the Birds Nest, you should use minimal seasoning, just enough to eliminate the fishiness from the nest without masking its flavor.
Using a double boiler will preserve the most nutrition and ensure the nest is fully cooked and tender, without turning it into mush and melting it into the soup.
My favorite method is to cook the nest with Asian pear. The pear will magically eliminate all the fishiness from the nest and impart a refreshing sweet aroma. To make the appearance fancier, I carved the pears into small bowls and cooked the nest with a bit of water and goji berries. If you want an easier version, simply chop the pears into small pieces and add them into a bowl with the nest.
There are many ways to cook the nest, such as with different types of fruits and Chinese red dates. Once cooked, the nest has a light gelatinous texture that is tender and transparent. Serve the nest cold with syrup and milk, with more fruits if desired.
In the recipe below I teach you two of my favorite ways of cooking Birds Nest – Asian pear with rock sugar, and coconut milk with papaya.

Edible Birds Nest is hot sell among Vietnam’s emerging middle class

In Vietnam, where the average income is $151 a month, Mai Vu and husband David Nguyen routinely spend $250 on edible Birds Nest.

“You want to impress people.”

The couple accounts for the soaring appetite among Vietnam’s young and upwardly mobile population for one of the world’s most expensive foods, congealed saliva of Asian swiftlets. The country’s expanding middle class hungers for healthy food. Birds Nest is believed to ward off diseases and feeds a growing demand for luxury products. “It’s one of the most valuable products one can give to those who have everything,” said Vu, 28, who works at an international bank in Hanoi and was shopping for Birds Nest for her toddler daughter at a new, upscale mall. “You want to impress people.”
The demand for Birds Nest, once reserved for emperors and their courts, has created a global market with annual revenue as high as $5 billion that caters to Asia’s growing wealthy consumers, said Tok Teng Sai, president of the Federation of Malaysian Birds Nest Merchants Association. Vietnam is racing to catch up with Malaysia and Indonesia, the region’s top producers of the delicacy, and cash in on the demand.
“People have a lot of money now, especially people in China,” Tok said.
Known as the “caviar of the East,” edible nests sell for $1,000-$1,500 per kilogram wholesale and about $2,500 per kilogram retail, according to Le Danh Hoang, founder of Ho Chi Minh City-based NutriNest.

“A lot of people are making a ton of money,”

“A lot of people are making a ton of money,” said Loke Yeu Loong, group managing director of Malaysia’s Swiftlet Eco Park, which produces an array of Birds Nest-based products, from coffee to skincare, and is targeting the Middle East as a new market.
Indonesia produces about 70 percent of the world’s Birds Nest, followed by Malaysia with 20 percent, Tok said.
The edible nests are as much as 70 percent protein, one reason aristocracy has consumed the delicacy for thousands of years, according to Massimo Marcone, an associate professor of food science at the University of Guelph in Ontario.
Some Vietnamese say Birds Nest has other powers, including keeping bodies youthful for decades.
Concrete, four-story structures replicating the natural coastal cave habitat of the birds have been erected across Vietnam among paddy fields and neighborhoods to capitalize on the boom. After an initial investment of $70,000 to $500,000 to build a bird structure, and monthly costs of about $50, a successful house can earn its owners as much as $1 million annually, said Hoang, who founded a Ho Chi Minh City-based Birds Nest business as a college student in 2005 and now advises provincial governments on the industry.