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What is Bird's Nest?
What is Bird's Nest?
Bird's Nest is a well known Southeast Asian drink. From what I can tell, it originates from the Chinese culture where the drink or soup is made from the nests of swiftlets. (While these birds look like they're related to swallows I know back home, the internet tells me they are actually more related to humming birds). According to my Cambodian friends, this drink is frequently given to sick children and adults because it is considered to be healthy - providing strength and recovery to the person who drinks it.
I think it's amazing that it is so naturally and regularly given to sick people in this culture, because it is actually naturally thick as well. Presuming that the frequency of people who are sick correlates to the frequency of people who have dysphagia... and presuming that thicker is safer to swallow (which we know it isn't all the time, right? Anyone got a citation for me?), I wonder if the there may have been a natural tendancy for people to give it to their sick loved ones over the decades and centuries, not even realizing that they were treating their dysphagia or aspiration risk!
Where do you get it?
Where do you get it?
In Cambodia it is available on the shelf of every single grocery store or convenience store in which I've been inside. It comes in multiple brands and multiple flavors. It costs, on average, about a dollar per single serve bottle. Most of my patients and their families who are in the hospital already have it at bedside before we ask them for it.
Does it have the right level of thickness?
Does it have the right level of thickness?
Amazingly, the average bottle of Bird's Nest seems to be approximately an IDDSI level 2, give or take, which means that it is naturally thick– a great tool to have readily available for our swallowing assessments. Some brands have more 'chunks' than others (sorry if the word chunks grosses you out), so I guess technically it is a mixed consistency if I were being strict about it. But it seems that the chunks have little to no texture at all, really... one might call them a transitional or dissolvable solid, if one were a swallowing nerd like myself... I can feel them in my mouth, but they do not require any chewing. E asked me if it is like drinking Boba tea and I see the similarity, but you absolutely have to chew Boba (regardless of the type) where as this can just be swallowed or maybe, at the most, mashed briefly with a tongue or teeth before swallowing.
What does it taste like?
What does it taste like?
The first introduction I had to Bird's Nest was by one of our amazing interpreters, who quite calmly said to me during the middle of an evaluation I was observing, "It's like drinking someone else's saliva." Ironic, maybe, because the Swiftlets absolutely make these nests with their saliva. So it isn't LIKE drinking someone else's salivia, it is ACTUALLY drinking someone else's saliva - a bird's.
Despite that amazingly positive introduction, I was willing to do a taste test, like the good swallowing therapist I am. I bought two flavors/brands at the store - one ginseng and the other honey. The flavors were mild - like choosing to drink a watered down chicken broth or a baby food that intentionally doesn't have a strong flavor. Similar to my taste tests of a variety of brands of pre-thickened liquids or powder/gel based thickeners at home, I certainly wouldn't choose this drink. But I'm glad to have tried it.
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