Saturday, March 14, 2015

Edible Bird's Nest - PhotoHunt

nest

Photohunt Theme : Nest

On a trip to Malacca years ago, I chanced upon these swiftlets and their nests in an old hotel.

The swiftlets have been making one hall of the hotel their permanent home by building their nests in it.

The swiftlets constructed the nests using their saliva. From its sublingual salivary glands, the male bird produces a long, gelatinous strand of condensed saliva which is then woven into a half-cup nest, bonded to a vertical surface.

These bird nests, after careful cleaning, are edible.

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Edible bird's nests from Sarawak

The much sought-after and relatively tasteless nests are collected and made into savoury or sweet soups. According to Chinese traditional medicine, the bird's nest soup maintains youthfulness and enhances our complexion.




11 comments:

  1. regarding the spiders, the Ang Mos have a different concept from us. Just yesterday, a colleague was trying to get a spider down, and then release it so nobody hurts it. I usu just leave them alone in my house, so u see webs in my house.

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    1. So hard to find a spider when I am looking for one.
      I remember my brothers and the neighbourhood boys catching spiders weekly when we were living in a village years ago. Nowadays I have to show my young nephews pictures of spiders from a book! haha....

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  2. Now many old shophouse are being converted into house for birdnest. No sure whether it's a good thing or not.

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    1. Yes, I saw quite a number of swiftlet houses when we were driving around in Johor and Malacca.Seems a lucrative business :)

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  3. Great shot for this week's theme. Those nests would need to be cleaned VERY carefully before I'd consider eating them. :-)

    Have a great weekend.

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  4. Love the birds, and their nests, but not sure about eating them! :)

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  5. Very cute!
    I had a wren who thought she would build a nest on my porch.. I had to send her in another direction!
    Happy Hunting ;-)

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  6. Did you manage to grab a few? Do you have my postal address?

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