Urban Birds Nest
Bird nest soup is very popular among the Chinese. With the right concoction its supposed to balanced up the yang the ying (whatever they are). And in the market they are sold in ‘tahil', a fraction of ounces. Don’t know what the values are but they are expensive and one can hardly buy it just for fun.
When one think about birds nest one always think about dark caves in some remote regions of Asia (Borneo or South Thailand) where these birds nest are collected, probably in the high ceilings of these caves, vision of some half naked natives natives climbing flimsy bamboo poles or such similar structure. They are paid pittance compared to the market price of these birds nest.
Wikipedia has got a good description of bird’s-nest-soup at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bird's_nest_soup
This site describes what Malaysia offers in birds nest market. http://www.alibaba.com/countrysearch/MY-suppliers/Birds_Nest.html
And this site describes further on birds nest. http://chinesefood.about.com/library/bltrivia33.htm
What is interesting about this site is that it reveals the fact that the birds nest that are consumed are, “Authentic bird's nest soup is made using the nests of the swiftlet, a tiny bird found throughout southeast Asia.” This brings to what I am trying to describe below.
Just last week while walking about in my town I heard this shrill bird sound coming from the back of a row of shop houses. I could not see the birds. I saw a lot of swallows, http://birding.about.com/od/birdsswallows/Birds_Everything_About_Swallows.htm (swift, http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/08/0821_020822_swiftlet.html I suppose is the correct name for them). In Malaysia and in this monsoon season there are a lot of swallows (or is it swiftlets) about. These are migratory birds.
On examining further, I saw these shophouses, brick walled at the back with holes made in them.
And these bird noises were coming from these holes in the brick walls. And birds were coming in and out of these man made holes. I asked the tenants below these shop houses and they told me that the upstairs in the back they breed (I suppose more correctly attract) birds (swallows or swiftlets) for making birds next. And they told me that the top houses tenants do not like people to snoop about looking at these bird nest making premises. Well I did not ask further.
In another part of my town I saw these other shop houses with the same purpose. I managed to take more photos.
Now one can see more clearly that in the ‘opening’ these small high pitch speakers, playing recordings of bird noises (swallows or swiftlets), attracting these high flying birds into the premises, inducing them to make nests to breed. And the owners of these premises collecting these bird nests, extracting the edible part to be marketed. Clever idea.
On further enquiries I was told that not only such usage of buildings are in my town, but also in other nearby towns in the State. In fact in some rural areas they make special houses and buildings just for the purposes of attracting these birds, inducing them to make nests and collecting the edible part of the bird to be marketed.
It’s a very lucrative business.
When one think about birds nest one always think about dark caves in some remote regions of Asia (Borneo or South Thailand) where these birds nest are collected, probably in the high ceilings of these caves, vision of some half naked natives natives climbing flimsy bamboo poles or such similar structure. They are paid pittance compared to the market price of these birds nest.
Wikipedia has got a good description of bird’s-nest-soup at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bird's_nest_soup
This site describes what Malaysia offers in birds nest market. http://www.alibaba.com/countrysearch/MY-suppliers/Birds_Nest.html
And this site describes further on birds nest. http://chinesefood.about.com/library/bltrivia33.htm
What is interesting about this site is that it reveals the fact that the birds nest that are consumed are, “Authentic bird's nest soup is made using the nests of the swiftlet, a tiny bird found throughout southeast Asia.” This brings to what I am trying to describe below.
Just last week while walking about in my town I heard this shrill bird sound coming from the back of a row of shop houses. I could not see the birds. I saw a lot of swallows, http://birding.about.com/od/birdsswallows/Birds_Everything_About_Swallows.htm (swift, http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/08/0821_020822_swiftlet.html I suppose is the correct name for them). In Malaysia and in this monsoon season there are a lot of swallows (or is it swiftlets) about. These are migratory birds.
On examining further, I saw these shophouses, brick walled at the back with holes made in them.
And these bird noises were coming from these holes in the brick walls. And birds were coming in and out of these man made holes. I asked the tenants below these shop houses and they told me that the upstairs in the back they breed (I suppose more correctly attract) birds (swallows or swiftlets) for making birds next. And they told me that the top houses tenants do not like people to snoop about looking at these bird nest making premises. Well I did not ask further.
In another part of my town I saw these other shop houses with the same purpose. I managed to take more photos.
Now one can see more clearly that in the ‘opening’ these small high pitch speakers, playing recordings of bird noises (swallows or swiftlets), attracting these high flying birds into the premises, inducing them to make nests to breed. And the owners of these premises collecting these bird nests, extracting the edible part to be marketed. Clever idea.
On further enquiries I was told that not only such usage of buildings are in my town, but also in other nearby towns in the State. In fact in some rural areas they make special houses and buildings just for the purposes of attracting these birds, inducing them to make nests and collecting the edible part of the bird to be marketed.
It’s a very lucrative business.
Labels: bird nest
posted by mylias | 9:41 AM
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