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| 29-11-2007: | "Who gives a spit about Bird's nests?" |
| 02-02-2007: | "Bird's nest soup: A swift way to empty your wallet" |
Who gives a spit about bird's nests?
Nov 29, 2007 It's called the edible-nest swiftlet because its nests are edible. This is the only reason anybody cares about it.
They are used to make soup.
The swiftlets are an Asian relative of our chimney swifts. swiftlets, and swifts, are stunningly drab, grey and darker grey. None is as long as the thumb of an average National Basketball Association player. They're usually seen a long ways up, flittering on narrow, sickle-shaped wings as they hoover in high-flying insects.
Bugs. That's all they eat.
If they aren't roosting or nesting, they're airborne. They feed their fledglings on the wing. More than that, they mate on the wing. Apart from man, they are the only creatures capable of doing it. Unlike man, they do it on their own wings.
The edible-nest swiftlets that swarm from mountain caves 2,800 metres above sea level qualify for automatic membership in the Mile-High Club.
What distinguishes edible-nest swiftlets from their cousins is that the nests they build in the subterranean dark incorporate little by way of twigs or mud. What they're made of pretty well exclusively is spit.
Their particular spit is goopy and dries to the consistency that elderly readers will be familiar with if they recall the brittle gunk caked around the mouths of paste jars when they were in elementary school.
Certain kids (the kind who were encouraged by their parents to run away and join a circus) enjoyed eating that gunk because, with any luck, some other kid watching this would throw up, so there's not much about edible-nest swiftlets' nests that should put off an adventurous eater, which you're not if the idea of eating swiftlet spit, or that the spit is the end result of a digestive process fuelled by bugs and nothing but, bothers you.
The soup made from these nests is always described as "glutinous.'' The next most frequent adjective is "tasteless.''
Yet the demand is such that, according to The Nation, a Bangkok newspaper, the Thai government has collected more than $9.7 million from nest-harvesting companies for concessions in the last four years. The black market is so intense that the swiftlets themselves hover near the edge of extinction.
A Thailand Research Fund report has identified corruption running seamlessly from poachers to government conservation agents to local politicians to, of course, Thailand being Thailand, the police. It's one of the busiest arenas for money laundering in the country.
When we were there two weeks ago, Thai news organizations were attributing the murder of an administrative official on Koh Mak Island, one of 200 cave-riddled coastal islands where the swiftlets nest, to the trade.
The total number of similar deaths in recent years gets rounded off as "running into the hundreds.''
For soup. That tastes like flour-and-water paste. Made from bird spit.
Hong Kong is crazy for it, importing $25 million worth of nests a year. A kilogram of the finest kind goes for $2,000.
A bowl of it can set you back $100.
And you probably guessed why. It's another one of nature's sure-fire treatments for erectile dysfunction. At least certain men think it is.
They ... uh-oh. Hold on a minute. It just occurred to me that the two stories I came back with from my Southeast Asia journeyings (Tuesday it was eating dogs in Vietnam) fall into the same category: masculine stimulants. And it also occurs to me that there might be something weird about this.
If it wasn't a fluke, I hate to think what else is going on in my subconscious.
Because I, personally, don't have any problems in that regard. Seriously. None at all. Considering my age.
FROM: http://www.thestar.com/News/article/280934
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Birds' nest soup: A swift way to empty your wallet
Friday, February 02, 2007 - One of East Java's many delightful experiences is driving out of the fog of pollution that hangs above the squid-like, industrial center of Surabaya and up into the cooler and cleaner hills nearby.
Back to nature? Hardly, because the population of this province is around 40 million, leaving little room for pristine parklands. Almost every square metre is used to sustain humans, not wildlife.
Only the most adaptable survive -- and the creature at the top of this evolutionary chaos would have to be the little and most aptly named swiftlet, or walet in Bahasa Indonesia.
The best places to see these nimble birds perform their extraordinary aerobatics are the tea plantations, located on the cool mountain slopes about 1,000 meters above sea level -- and 900 meters above smog level.
Here, squadrons of the dusky grey aviators hurl themselves just a few feet above the shiny green leaves, their mouths agape. They do this at breakneck seed, though never colliding. The birds transmit clicks to guide them, a system known as echolocation, or reflected sound, and feed on the insects attracted by hectares of monoculture.
This is where they get their meals -- but they live far away on the plains below and prefer towns.
It's not that the swiftlets are too fast for kids' slingshots, or nest in places unreachable by vandals. They survive because their preservation brings profit.
swiftlet nests are the basis of a Chinese culinary treat, bird's nest soup, enjoyed only by those who can enter an eatery determined to love their meal, whatever the size of the bill.
This correspondent does not fall within this group, so can only report that those with the cash reckon the taste is sweet.
A reasonable bird's nest soup will set you back at least Rp 400,000 (US$45). If you're looking for top quality, add 50 percent more.
Think this is dear? These prices are giveaways compared to Hong Kong, where you'll need three-digit greenbacks for a one-person bowl -- and this is normally a banquet dish.
A good rule of thumb is to choose your restaurant carefully. If the chef isn't skilled in the preparation of this delicacy, all the reputed nutritious and aphrodisiac elements will be boiled away by overcooking.
You may have paid for a dish that's supposed to bring longevity and immunize you against almost every disease known to medicine, but if the pot has been left too long on high heat, you're just slurping a slimy soup and burning a hole in your wallet.
The other problem is that to get all the real or imagined health benefits, you need to enjoy about 10 grams of the soup a day. (It could be that this prescription was probably written by the nest-sellers so they can enjoy good financial health.)
Apart from a limitless credit card, for this delight you also need a cultural fine-dining tradition strong enough to repel concerns about the origins of the food.
The nests are made of swiftlet spit and used to raise baby birds. And as every parent knows, toilet training takes time and there are many accidents before lavatory skills are mastered.
The nests are built in cool dark places like caves, sheds and barns that would never get a certificate of hygiene from any Singapore health inspector.
So the nests are imported from Java and no questions asked. Indonesia produces 80 percent of the world's edible bird's nests. Most are exported to Hong Kong, Holland, Singapore and Taiwan.
The last official published figures show Indonesia's annual overseas sales at around 27 tons.
"The nests are washed in the restaurants where they're soaked to remove impurities," said Surabaya distributor Dendy Van Hallen, who does the rounds of known swiftlets farmers, buying on the spot.
"The best nests can fetch around Rp 10 million ($1,100) a kilo. These are rare. I've got nests here from Papua that have been collected in caves and are full of feathers and dirt. They're worth only Rp 1 million ($110) a kilo," he said.
High-quality nests need to be almost transparent, and it can take 30 to 40 nests to make a kilo.
"I send to restaurants on demand. Most ask diners for a week's notice so they can prepare ahead -- it's not a dish you can order on the spot. The bulk of our nests go to Jakarta."
swiftlets are impossible to tame. If you fancy setting up a bird barn, you can't just fly to your nearest roadside aviary and come home with a pair of tweeters. Swiftlets are like cats -- they choose their owners carefully.
Motorbike workshop owner Achmad Basuni and his wife Siti Mariah have a typical story of good fortune, visited upon them by a pair of swallows.
A couple of years ago, they started building extensions to their house in the central East Java village of Jeru. The walls hadn't been finished when a pair of honeymooning swallows reckoned this home improvement was just the ticket. So the pair moved in and started a family.
To the non-ornithologist, a swallow is a swiftlet. Wrong.
Swallows are migratory international travellers, flitting to and fro across the equator. swiftlets are closely related to swallows, though slightly smaller and darker. In flight, they look like boomerangs.
Swallows are wingloose -- frequent fliers with intercontinental landing rights. swiftlets are homebodies; they live only in the tropics and usually return to their birthplace again and again.
"I don't know why we were blessed," said Achmad. "We're just ordinary Muslims, certainly not fanatics about faith. Some people broadcast birdcalls through loud speakers; others use paranormals and black magic to attract passing birds. Ours just arrived."
Achmad knew he'd been chosen, but would have to move fast to consolidate the family's luck. When the swallows laid their first clutch, he switched their shells with a pair of swiftlet eggs bought from a friend for Rp 60,000 (US $ 6.50).
The unsuspecting parents raised their adopted hatchlings. The little ones followed their instincts and the next season, brought their chosen lovebirds home to meet Dad and Mom.
By now, the older birds had flown -- presumably suffering from empty-nest syndrome. So the kids started a colony. At last count, Achmad and Sita had 40 birds. The windows to the extension have been bricked up, and all plans for a new kitchen have been abandoned.
No one was complaining. The couple's feathered lodgers have doubled the real estate value to about Rp 300 million ($33,000).
Few householders are willing to reveal they're harboring swiftlets, because a big problem with the industry is thieving. But you can pick out likely barns in many East Java towns by the flat windowless walls in two-story houses, where the entrances are a couple of brick-sized holes.
Nests are harvested every three or four months after the chicks have flown. A pair of swiftlets can raise two or three broods a year, with each family needing a new residence.
Some conservationists worry that harvesting isn't always well managed. Robbers who won't wait till chicks depart can be a problem.
Maybe this is the case in some places. But in East Java, swiftlets in their zillions zipping across the green hillsides suggest that survival, like love, is in the air.
Let's hope they don't get bird flu.
FROM: http://www.thejakartapost.com/misc/PrinterFriendly.asp
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