Chinese Swallow Birds Nest is one bizarrely cool dish to get tweeting about

Recipe

Cooking Time 0-30 minutes
Number of Ingredients 0-5

The Swallow Birds Nest is the word

Swallow Birds Nest may sound like a crazy Chinese urban legend of a dish, you know, one so bonkers it can’t be real or it’s just a funny lost-in-translation name, but the delicacy is indeed an authentic one. Rather from being made from twigs and bits of moss, they’re made from the hardened saliva from swiftlet nests and dissolved in a broth.
Head to SeeWoo or Royal Dragon to get your bowl of delicious Swallow Birds Nest
If that still doesn’t sound too appetising, don’t worry, today they’re harvested entirely for human consumption and super-high in minerals like calcium, magnesium and potassium. Believed to enhance the immune system, aid digestion and improve libido Swallow Birds Nest has been keeping the Chinese healthy (and horny) since 500 AD during the Tang dynasty. A dish for the elite, it was only imperial nobility who dined on the unique broth. According to legend it was the great admiral Cheng Ho who bought the Swallow Birds Nest to Southeast Asia for the Chinese Emperor.
These days, whilst still a rare delicacy, Swallow Birds Nest is easily accessible for mere mortals. In Chinatown you can find the sacred dish at Gerrard Street’s Royal Dragon or if you want to prepare it at home, dried nests can be bought from SeeWoo supermarket on Lisle Street.
Here’s how to make your Swallow Birds Nest.

Chinese swallow birds nest is one bizarrely cool dish to get tweeting about

METHOD:

• Soak the Swallow Birds Nest for 6 hours or leave overnight until it has softened and expanded
• Remove and chop into portions, allocate 15g per person
• Add the portions to the chicken stock with the ginger and oil and stew for 20 minutes over heat until the nests have dissolved
• Add seasoning or adjust stock levels to taste then it’ll be ready to serve!