Birds' Nest : Food of Love

 If you listen well to stories told by your aunts and cousins you might catch a story of cleaning of birds' nests back  in the olden days in Sibu.

Cleaning of birds nest, taking out the downs and small feathers from a wild birds nest took hours in the kitchen. As the sun rose higher and higher, the girls and the mother might have to rush a bit to finish the cleaning. Before noon, after more than four hours of concentrated cleaning with a tweezer each, every oe would be having eye strain and back aches.

Then, the mother would place the cleaned birds' nest in a China made flowery enamel mug, add some water and one or two pieces of rock sugar. The Chinese style of steaming required a wok filled with water, and a light wok cover, or a big fat enamel pot in which would sit the the enamel mug, over a charcoal or kerosene stove. The slow steaming would take 3 hours and with very careful watching. It was a pleasant noise, to hear the slow sounds made by the enamel mug as it touched the bottom of the wok in the simmering water. The goroo goroo goroo could lull a young girl tasked to watch the slow fire to sleep!!

The steaming of birds' nest must be constantly supervised and the steamer/wok must not dry up. One mug of the birds' nest in the steamer might be worth $50 in those days which was a lot of money for the family. And the birds' nests were from the wild, the best of the products.

The Steaming would take about 3 hours and when the father of the family came home from work, he would have the precious nutritious food for dessert or before he went to bed.

This was truly an act of love, preparing birds' nest for steaming in the olden days.

The mother and the daughters took this kind of chore as part of their life, respecting and honouring the father, the bread winner of the family.

Today with greater affluence, the tedious tasks of cleaning birds' nests would no longer be the chores of the female members of the family. Well cleaned birds' nest can be bought in Chinese sinseh shops or birds' nests outlets all over Sarawak.

Well educated daughters or daughters who marry well can bring home store bought birds' nests for their parents. They too would make sure that their mothers have birds' nests for desserts.