About Bird Saliva Soup - Types of Bird Saliva Soups

Bird Saliva Soups are classified according to the location where the nests are built, edibility, external features, colour, quality and cleanliness and they can basically be classified into two main categories:

• Cave Bird Saliva Soup: (including whole cave Bird Saliva Soup pieces, cave Hydrochous Gigas and Collacalia Maxima)

Cave Bird Saliva Soup refers to the nests built by swiftlets in natural stone walls or limestone caves. These Bird Saliva Soups absorb lots of minerals and they are usually beige or yellow in colour and they are more solid. They contain more fine feathers compared to house Bird Saliva Soups and contain more impurities. They expand 2-3 times upon soaking and require longer soaking time. They are delicious after stewing, taste better and can be stewed for longer hours.

• House Bird Saliva Soup: (including common white Bird Saliva Soup pieces and house Hydrochous Gigas Bird Saliva Soup)

House Bird Saliva Soup built in swift houses and used by swifts for nesting. Swiftlets build their nests on the beams and walls in these houses, resulting in a slight taste of sawdust in such Bird Saliva Soups. Houses used by swiftlets to build nests are known as swift houses. Workers check the Bird Saliva Soups on a regular basis and will only harvest them when the time is right. As Bird Saliva Soups are covered with feathers and other impurities, it is necessary to send them for cleansing at the Bird Saliva Soup factory where feathers and other impurities are removed. House Bird Saliva Soups are higher in quality, with less feathers and less impurities. They expand better in water and on the average, they expand 5 to 7 times their original size. They taste smoother but they cannot be stewed for long hours. They are normally stewed for 30-45 minutes before they are ready to be served. If stewing exceeds such periods (more than 1-2 hours), the Bird Saliva Soup will dissolve in water and disappear.

About Bird Saliva Soup - Types of Bird Saliva Soups

*Whether it is house Bird Saliva Soup or cave Bird Saliva Soup, they are nests built by Collocalia ciphaga swiftlets and their nutritional value is almost at par.

• Edibility

Swiftlets normally use twigs, straws and earth to build their nests and there are no edible contents. There are only three major types of Bird Saliva Soups and the purity in protein contents and nutritional value of the saliva secreted by Collocalia ciphaga swiftlets is the highest.

• Collocalia ciphaga Bird Saliva Soup {Official Bird Saliva Soup}:

Collocalia ciphaga Bird Saliva Soup means Bird Saliva Soups built with pure saliva of swiftlets, with minimum impurities, in strips, with high affinity for water, able to expand 7-8 times and is the best quality Bird Saliva Soup. They are usually white, yellow, red or grey in colour.

• Collacalia Maximus Bird Saliva Soup:

Collacalia Maximus is a type of cave swiftlet and they have less saliva. They build their nests using feathers mixed with saliva and they are lighter in colour, usually white or yellow.
Collacalia Maximus Bird Saliva Soup require more processing. The nests must be broken up and soaked in water before feathers and impurities are removed. They are then made into Bird Saliva Soup strips, Bird Saliva Soup balls and Bird Saliva Soup biscuits.
As it requires more processing, their nutritional value and price are lower than Collocalia ciphaga Bird Saliva Soups. Collacalia Maximus Bird Saliva Soups also have a lower water affinity compared to Collocalia ciphaga Bird Saliva Soups, thus they do not expand so much.

• Hydrochous Gigas Bird Saliva Soup:

Hydrochous Gigas Bird Saliva Soup may be divided into house Hydrochous Gigas Bird Saliva Soup and cave Hydrochous Gigas Bird Saliva Soup. They are mostly found along the coastal regions. From their name (in Chinese), we know that Hydrochous Gigas swiftlets use their saliva and straws to build their nests, and that is why these Bird Saliva Soups contain pieces of straws. Hydrochous Gigas Bird Saliva Soups come from swiftlets with specially sticky saliva. These swiftlets love to use young straw and their saliva to build their nests. Their Bird Saliva Soups therefore are high in impurities and their Bird Saliva Soup content is the lowest among the three types of swiftlets and so is its price. They are usually sold as broken Bird Saliva Soup and Bird Saliva Soup strips.

• External features and shape

They are principally divided into whole Bird Saliva Soup pieces, narrow Bird Saliva Soup pieces, Bird Saliva Soup corners, broken Bird Saliva Soup, Bird Saliva Soup balls, Bird Saliva Soup biscuits and Bird Saliva Soup strips. Whole Bird Saliva Soup pieces refer to Bird Saliva Soups which are intact after having undergone cleansing.

• Whole piece Bird Saliva Soup:

These are curved or boat-shaped Bird Saliva Soup which has been selected from the Bird Saliva Soup harvested, with feathers removed, before they are sold. As whole piece Bird Saliva Soups are naturally obtained, their shapes and sizes differ but these type of Bird Saliva Soups are thicker than other types of Bird Saliva Soups. They also possess higher nutritional value, with better flavor and better expandability when soaked. They are the cleanest among all Bird Saliva Soups and they have high expandability. If swiftlets built their nests on the beams in swift houses, the Bird Saliva Soups produced will be boat-shaped.

• Narrow Bird Saliva Soup pieces:

These are whole piece Bird Saliva Soups which have been accidentally broken during harvesting and delivery or whole piece Bird Saliva Soups which have been cut into narrow strips or Bird Saliva Soups which have been separated after careful selection. Although they are not attractive physically, their quality and method of preparation are similar to whole piece Bird Saliva Soups.

• Bird Saliva Soup corners:

They are the hardest portions at both ends of whole piece Bird Saliva Soups and they are the places where the concentration of saliva from swiftlets is the highest. They require longer soaking time (six to eight hours) and Bird Saliva Soup corners are normally separated from whole piece Bird Saliva Soups and soaked separately. The Bird Saliva Soup corners are usually torn into smaller pieces prior to soaking so that they expand more easily. They expand more compared to whole piece Bird Saliva Soups and are more crispy.

• Broken Bird Saliva Soups:

These are as a result of breakage during harvesting and transportation or during the cleansing process and they are made up of small amounts of Bird Saliva Soup.

• Bird Saliva Soup biscuit:

These are made from broken Bird Saliva Soup during harvesting which have been processed and compressed into different shapes (such as rhombus, sphere, crescent and rectangular) and their quality is one grade below that of whole piece Bird Saliva Soups.

No Bird Saliva Soup please, I can’t breathe: A look at some unusual allergies

People with food allergy must steer clear of the food item as it can turn fatal

 Avoid an allergic reaction

Having a fancy dish threaded with golden Bird Saliva Soup may make most people's eyes shine, but not for 39-year-old Grace Chung.
Instead, she would poke and prod at her food to make sure there is none of the prized delicacy hidden somewhere.
Another person cannot exercise or exert himself within a few hours of eating shellfish.
These allergies, while uncommon, can cause unpleasant and even serious reactions in some people.
Last month, a 60-year-old woman who was allergic to prawns died after eating two pieces of prawn.
She had anaphylaxis, a severe reaction in which the immune system releases a flood of chemicals that can cause one to go into shock.

This causes the blood pressure to drop suddenly and the airways to narrow, possibly blocking breathing.
A month before that, a three- year-old boy with a relatively common peanut allergy had to be given anti-allergy medication on board a Singapore Airlines flight.
He was vomiting and could not speak properly when other passengers started opening their packets of peanuts that had been served as a snack.
Though it is rare for a peanut allergy to be so serious, the incident is a reminder of how people's innocent actions can really hurt someone who has a serious food allergy.
Most food allergies are caused by common products such as shellfish, milk, nuts and eggs. The best way to avoid an allergic reaction is to avoid these foods altogether.
Here is a look at some of the less common allergies.

BIRD SALIVA SOUP

Last year, Ms Grace Chung took a bite of a mooncake, saw streaks of white jelly in it, and spat it out. It was a good thing the chief operating officer of Gleneagles Hospital acted fast as she is allergic to Bird Saliva Soup, a costly delicacy used in the mooncake.
It has been 29 years since she tasted Bird Saliva Soup at the age of 10. "Until now, every restaurant that I go to, I will ask if Bird Saliva Soup is on the menu," she said. "I even asked the roadside stalls that I went to in Bangkok."
When she first tried Bird Saliva Soup, the premium item was not as common as now. "I got very excited and ate a whole bowl of it," said the 39-year-old. "Within five minutes, I felt breathless. I then had a choking feeling and was gasping for breath."
Ms Chung, who had childhood asthma, thought it was a very severe asthma attack. Her mother took her to the nearest hospital, where the staff gave Ms Chung medication, pumped out the Bird Saliva Soup from her body and put her on oxygen.
It was not just her breathing that was affected. Her eyes were also swollen and she had rashes all over her body.
Yet, within the year, Ms Chung ate Bird Saliva Soup again as her mother wanted to be sure it was indeed the culprit. "Mum bought it from another shop and gave me just one teaspoon. I had a similar reaction," she said. "I thought I was going to die. My mum took me to hospital in a cab. She was crying."
Ms Chung has since stayed away from Bird Saliva Soup. Regarded as the caviar of the East, it is made of the saliva of the swallow-like swiftlet.
Bird Saliva Soup allergies were once the most common cause of food-induced anaphylaxis in Singaporean children in the 1980s and 1990s, said Dr Elizabeth Tham, an associate consultant at the division of paediatric allergy, immunology and rheumatology at the National University Hospital.
Although it is no longer the case now, people with the allergy are still seen regularly, doctors said. Those with suspected reactions should stop eating Bird Saliva Soup and seek medical help immediately, said Dr Tham.
"Patients with such allergies may develop swelling in the lips or eyes, hives and throat tightness, and have difficulty breathing or even faint."
Dr Tham said there was an eight-year-old who went to the hospital's emergency department after eating a bowl of Bird Saliva Soup. Within minutes of eating it, he had hives, swelling in the eyes and lips, as well as wheezing and difficulty in breathing.
"He received an adrenaline injection and antihistamines and was admitted for observation," she said. A skin test later confirmed the allergy.
Some people who have food allergy may occasionally test to see if they still react badly to a particular food "to try and allow their body to get used to it", said Dr Tham.
"This is highly discouraged. It is very dangerous and may lead to life-threatening reactions," she added.