It’s the annual visit from my Chinese-Malaysian father-in-law, who came bearing bird’s nests again for bird’s nest soup. In the nearly one year I’ve been doing this blog, one of my first posts, Bird’s Nests and Asian Cuisine, has been my most-viewed post. And so, for popularity’s sake, I’ll visit it again in more detail.
Bird’s nest soup, made from the saliva shells of swallows/swifts, is a status-proving delicacy to Asians—think caviar class, only hugely more expensive. Supply of the coveted nests doesn’t begin to reach demand. So I do not take my evening bird’s nest soup lightly.
My father-in-law soaks the nests in water for several hours to hydrate them. Then he boils them in a double boiler in water with sugar cane and dried Chinese red dates for hours. The result is still-intact bird’s nests, but they will come apart with a spoon. They are gelatinous and opaque—like I would imagine gummy grass to be if someone would please invent that. It can be served hot or cold. I choose cold. So into the refrigerator it goes after it has cooled a bit. Before I go to bed, I slurp bird’s nest soup, which is deliciously sweet and … springy.
I can’t even imagine where you could buy bird’s nests in the U.S. But you could have them imported, and I looked online for a source. I don’t necessarily recommend this supplier, since I’ve never dealt with them, but here’s the website: http://bird-nest.net.
Normally the nests are removed at great peril from cliffs and caves, but in Thailand, they’ve found ingenious ways to build this industry. You can watch it on this YouTube video http://bit.ly/Vp2kK.
I think there is one serving left of bird’s nests before my father-in-law returns to Malaysia. Next time I travel to Malaysia, I should bring him an American delicacy. Hmmm. I wonder what that would be. Any ideas?
Jody
(PS, the American wonders he is taking back with him, that he can’t get in Malaysia, are trail mix and paper towels.)
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