 Photo by Mark Godfrey |
Eating exotic foods can be thrilling and repulsive, and the experience can leave a wonderful or unpleasant taste in your mouth.
鈥淎round the globe, delicacies are highly prized for their delicious flavors and supposed ability to, say, increase libido or improve memory,鈥 I for 爆料公社 three years ago. For the story, I spoke with , a food scientist at Ontario鈥檚 University of Guelph and author of In Bad Taste, a book about odd delicacies the world over. 鈥淒ecadence has to be tempered with being responsible,鈥 he said.
For swiflets in Malaysia, cave-dwelling birds that make nests from dried saliva that people use in soup, the effort to get these nests 鈥渉as been absolutely devastating,鈥 Joseph Hobbs, a geography professor at the University of Missouri-Columbia and an expert on edible nests in Malaysia, a few years ago. 鈥淧eople are literally climbing over themselves,鈥 he said, 鈥渂ecause the nests are so valuable now.鈥
Bird鈥檚 nest soup鈥攁nd other foodstuffs made from the efforts or body parts of threatened species鈥攊s not usually found on most menus. If those items were, most conservationists probably wouldn鈥檛 eat them anyway. Yet there is a way to eat nests without endangering any birds: Make them from chow mein noodles and butterscotch chips.
Ellen Lambeth of The National Wildlife Federation that you only need a few ingredients for this delicious treat:
Ingredients
One 12-oz. package of butterscotch or peanut butter baking chips
One 5-oz. can of chow mein noodles
Blue jelly beans or Jordan almonds
Two cookie sheets
Wax paper
Saucepan and spoon
Directions
1. Stir baking chips in a pan over low heat until melted and smooth.
2. Stir in noodles until completely covered.
3. Plop 8 to 10 spoonfuls of mixture onto cookie sheets covered with wax paper.
4. Shape each spoonful into a cup-shaped nest.
5. Put in the refrigerator to chill.
6. Add several candy "eggs" to each edible nest.
There are other options, too, when it comes to making nest-like cuisine, like birds鈥 nest pastries, also called Kadaif, which are sweet and made with butter and cheese. (Check out from Eating Well.) Sugar and spice sounds tasty--and better than spit.