Something should be known about the Edible Bird’s Nest: (part 1)

Edible Bird’s Nest is a name of a kind of famous foods-drugs which is made of a nest of Swallow. It’s a great delicacy for East Asian countries such as Japan, Korea, China, Viet Nam, and other countries…( extracted from “Vietnam’s medical herbs and medicine” by Do Tat Loi  and other materials)

Swallow has its scientific name as collocaliasp, belong to the Apodidae. There are many species: Swallow in Java island (Collocalia Thunbergi), Collocalia Inexpectata Hume, Collocalia Unicolor Gordon, Collocalia Linchi Affinis Bearan
The Swallow lives scatter in the Island of Asia’sSoth-East: Indonesia, Philipines, The southern of China… and in Viet Nam, they live in large population along the coastal from the province of Quang Binh to Ha Tien. There are three famous areas: Cham isle of Quang Nam, Dan Nang) Mui Yen, seaside of Binh Dinh Province and Khanh Hoa.
People usually find swallow for nest harvesting. Unlike different birds, it comes to the breeding season, the swallows build their nest by their own saliva. The nest soup is considered as a famous, nourish food- drug. It’s served as a great delicacy among East Asian countries such as Japan, Korea, China, Viet Nam, and other countries. In Viet Nam, it is listed as one of eight precious dishes. The nests harvested are white bird Aerodramus fuciphagus and the black swallow’s nest. Among them, the white and pink nests are more nourish and precious. The soup is considered a medicine for strengthen health, helps improve one’s accent, reinforces the immunity,…

Something should be known about the Edible Bird’s Nest: (part 1)

Classification Through Origin

1. Wild/Cave Nest

There are two kinds of cave nest: Fuciphaga and Maxima. But just the nest Fuciphaga only knew as the wild/cave nest on the market. Maybe it is because the dangerous feature of harvesting the nest on cave, so this kind of nest is high worthy than other nests on the market. The nest in cave with the condition of nature has the shape like a bowl having the thick body and hard leg. The shape like bowl can help protecting the egg or the young bird from other animals. The leg of nest must be hard to firmly fix on the wall since most caves have high humidity. This kind of Edible Bird’s Nest is easily found in Vietnam, Thai, Malaysia, and Indonesia.
2. House Nest
The cave Esculanta nest is a kind of nest usually found in house. Rasing swallow must require a great investment not only in the time to entice it but also in the food feeding it. We cannot feed it with the manmade food because of the wild characteristic of the bird, it catches the insect for food as flying. Depending on the color of the Edible Bird’s Nest, the nest’s color is usually ivory white, the quality of the nest according to the area having food for bird. The foods for swallow usually are insect, ephemera… The nest can be harvested 1 -4 times per year, and the swallow bears all year round.

Classification Through Color

The reason why the Edible Bird’s Nest has different color is still a controversy. According to Vietnam’s folk, it is believed that the old bird and the bird in the period of food shortage must use their own blood mix with their slaver to build the nest. That is the reason why their nests have the color of red or pink as well as the less openness of blood nest than white nest. However, the question for the temperature, humidity and the food required to create a nest is till studied by scientist. When the white nest built on the red cliff absorbing the water from the cliff, it also has the red color. But the openness of this kind of blood nest is equivalent to the white nest. ( 7-9 times)
Blood Nest
This is a kind of fresh red nest which has a highest value among the other nests because of its scarceness and high consumption. Not all manufactures have this kind of nest. And if any, the nest is only harvested once to twice a year with the tiny amount. The number of blood nest and pink nest account for smaller than 10% of the gross of nests on the market.
Pink Nest
Similar to white nest both at the price and scarceness, pink nest has the orange color, but this color can be changed from the orange of tangerine to the yellow color of egg yolk.
White Nest
White nest is the most popular nest on the market. It is harvested three-four times a year. The number of white nests (including the above three kinds ) are sold on the market account for 90 percent of the gross of nest on market…

Classification through vietnamese people's view:

Nest-harvesting in Viet Nam has been a hundred year of career and it contributes to the source of income for area having this natural product. The professional nest- harvester and nest -seller usually classify the nest as the class as follows:
Blood :red color, due to the blood of bird
Pink: pink color and less plasma than the blood nest
Quan: big nest, more than 10 gram in weight
Sky: white nest at the top, 8- 9 gram in weight
Bai: small than 6-7 gram
Earth: nest at the bottom of the cliff, black and dirty
Vun : the nest is broken during the process of exploiting and transportation.