Swallows Nest?
I was watching iron chef one day and the theme was swallows nest, a white sting like material, i can only assume it was some king of veg. what is this stuff, how does it taste, what can i use it in, how much does it cost, where can i buy it??
Answers:
gosh..haven't heard of swallows nest in a long time.
my aunt use to buy them whenever she thinks her face/skin getting more wrinkles or less shiny than she used to..haha
anyways, it's also known as "birds nest". when u eats swallows nest, u're actually eating the birds saliva.
it's not a vege. how do u categorise the nest ? hmm..it's like when u eat a dietary supplement, some days u need more C, & other days u need a complex-B. it's just a nutritional supplement part of the chinese culture. very exotic & very expensive. u can get them dry/wet. some oriental markets sell them in bottled jars (already cooked w/crystalised sugar), u can try tt, & c how it taste like), cheap like 9 bucks for 6 bottles, some say they're not the genuine ones/sometimes they're made of the v/low grade/syntetic swallow nest). OR u can buy them "dry" in those chinese herb medicinal shops where they sell all grades of cheap-to-expensive ginseng/other herbs. v/v/v/ expensive, the real thing !! range from 50-hundreds/ounce. u have to soak them overnight just like white fungus/lotus nuts for chinese desserts, cook them in low fire, for a long period of time w/crystalised sugar. the real thing taste much better. according to some chinese women, it's suppose to add a great nutritional value to their skin, just like Vit.A & C.
Other Answers:
swallows nest is very expensive and you should try a china town market. Its a pretty specific item. The nest is...well...its swallow 'spit' for lack of a better term.
It's incredibly expensive, and I doubt you will think that the taste justifies the price. And yes, it's actually part of the nest a bird makes with its own saliva, which binds together whatever the bird has been chewing on to make the nest.
In Chinese medicine, swallow's nest is/was thought to have very impressive curative powers, which is why some people will pay a lot for it. Also, it's expensive to collect these nests. It must be done by hand, by someone who is skilled at climbing up a sheer rock face to collect nests from the birds high perches.
There are plenty of substitutes for genuine swallows nest in Chinese markets, just as there are many substitutes for super-expensive saffron to make yellow rice. You probably want to start with the substitutes.
More Questions & Answers...