subject: What is Birds Nest Soup? [print this page] When one lands at the dock at Koh Pi Pi, they immediately notice that the south part of the island is sheer cliff and totally inaccessible. One thing they probably don't realize is that is one of the world's major sources of nests for bird's nest soup.
Bird's nest soup is controversial for many reasons (for me it's controversial for the sole reason that it costs around fifty bucks for a bowl of tasteless soup!). For one thing, over-harvesting of the nests endangers the sparrows that produce them (the nest is actually made from the bird's salvia, which is what the soup is all about sorry to say). For another, many men have died over the years from falls while harvesting them. As intimated, they are found on very high, sheer cliffs, cliffs that often actually lean toward the sea rather than away from it. The harvesters are unable to use ladders due to both the height and gradient of these cliffs, and must use ropes. Although accidents are worse in Indonesia than Thailand, as a whole they are still high enough to represent a source of protest.
China takes a beating internationally for being a buyer of exotic animal products, and the bird's nest is no exception. Like many other unusual animal food products, the Chinese believe it to be medicinal; an aid to digestion and a booster to the immune system, among other benefits. Although it is consumed in the Chinese restaurants of Southeast Asia, China is by far the biggest importer. And like other food products such as tiger testicles and monkey brains, these medicinal claims are unrecognized by western science.
