EEEWWWW!

35 Replies

Now, I love honey.  I like it on toast, I make a wonderful bread with it, many desserts use it.  It has been around for more than eight thousand years, that we know of.  It was used to coat wounds on the battlefield! (Not recently, that I know of) Jars of it have been found in Pharaohs’ tombs and it was still viable! Yep, Honey is popular stuff.  But did you know . . .

Many years ago, I was invited to a Chinese New Year dinner. It was in Chinatown and very few people there spoke English. I was lucky enough to be seated beside a woman who did speak English. And it was a fascinating trip through each course.  She warned me early on that there would be many courses.  And while each offering was delectable, I did pace myself. This kind woman answered all my questions about the food I was eating. I was curious.  As one of the few Occidentals at the table I’m sure many of my questions were amusing. And then came the soup course.

It was delicious. Since the waiter had given me this soup using Chinese to identify it, I didn’t have a clue what it was. So, I turned to my dinner companion. She asked if I was enjoying it, to which I replied emphatically: yes!  It was at this point that she got an odd look on her face, smiled and said “I’ll tell you later”. Now my nature is one that does not backdown from curiosity. I wanted to know. She explained that if she told me, I would stop eating it. I put my spoon down, thought about it for a moment, took another sip and said no, I want to know. That’s how I found out it was called Bird’s Nest Soup. What does that actually mean you ask? Oh, let me explain…

My companion told me that actual bird’s nests are boiled to extract the saliva that holds the nest together. The effluents, feathers and other detritus are, hopefully, boiled off. What you’re left with is the stock for the soup. I thought about it for a moment. Smiled. Took another mouthful and said:  Bird Spit Soup, I like it! I have since watched documentaries on how this particular soup is made and it does look disgusting.  I would eat it again in a second!

I don’t know why I starting wondering about honey. But I did read up on it. Honey is basically churned up in the stomach of one bee, vomited into the mouth of another and then deposited on the honeycombs. That is what we collect and put on our toast in the morning. Yum!

But hey, none of that matters. Isn’t it all about taste? And what about that famous coffee from Asia that gains its exotic flavour after having passed through the intestines of a civet cat? And you wonder why I drink tea?

 

35 thoughts on “EEEWWWW!”

  1. delphini510

    I do love this tale of yours about honey and your meal in Chinatown.
    You hold us in suspense over that soup … then calmly proceed to eat it.
    Honey now, there is also some spitting involved. I love honey too.
    As to that particular tea, I never heard about it. 😊 .

    Miriam

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  5. Garfield Hug

    Bird’s nest is an exotic and expensive dessert. The special swallow spits and makes nests in the Indonesian caves and pickers vicariously goes out literally on a limb to climb collect these “cup” like nests. The nest is processed to remove the bits of feathers, impurities etc before it is dried into chunks of yellow white bird’s nests. These can cost hundreds of dollars a tael or per gram depending if it is blood nest or top quality standards. It has healing properties and is touted to be great for asthma sufferers or nourish lungs and skin.😃 You are brave and lucky to have tried it👍😃

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  6. Murphy's Law

    I imagine if we knew the details about a lot of what we eat we might starve to death. I would not have been able to continue eating the soup knowing how it’s made. Yet, even though I didn’t know the history of creating honey, and now do, I have no problem still consuming it. Go figure! 🤔

    You always manage to come up with information that makes us say, “Wow! Really?” and then immediately think, “Crap! Really?” 😂😂😂

    Enjoy your tea today with some honey in it!!

    🐾Ginger 🐾

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  7. dweezer19

    I’m certain there are more examples of edible terribles out there.the bird saliva doesn’t bother me as much as the fact that I know bird excrement usually covers their nests. I don’t like soup enough to get past that. Honey is okay but I don’t care for it right out of the comb. It had a very strong, pungent taste to me at that point. The best honey I ever tasted had been infused with lavender. Happy eating Pam!

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  8. Mark Lanesbury

    Now that I’m off the floor from laughing Pam (not at you by the way 😀 ), but at your circumstances 😀
    And then the explanation of our honey set me right off 🤣 🤣
    Your words were so…so…just so explanatory 🤣
    I don’t think I’ll ever look at honey the same again…but then again, some of the stuff we eat that has had so much poison, chemicals and the like in them, that somehow at least yours is at least natural 😀

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  11. Donna Florack

    I did know that about honey. I can’t stand the taste of it myself. My grandma always had a bottle of it on her table. I call it bee vomit. You are braver than I am, my friend. I would not have eaten that soup!

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