Braving New Foods: Bird's Nest and Hamsar

I just tried some new food this weekend.  Bird's nest.  I may have had it before but I am not positive, so I am going to chalk this up to a new food experience.   And hamsar, which I had never heard before and now I know is the ovary… from a frog.

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What is bird's nest?  Well, exactly that.  A nest made by a bird.  With bird spit.

Chinese people believe that bird's nest and frog ovaries are very good for the skin and body - enriching, soothing, moisturizing.  You should hear the reverence in the voices that expound the health and beauty benefits of bird's nest.  Clearly bird's nest is believed to be a youth elixir.

I went to Hui Lau Shan with my friends.  My friend's friend, visiting from Taiwan, really wanted to have birds nest.  Intrigued by her enthusiasm, I decided to jump on the bandwagon and try these strange foods in dessert form.  The bird's nest was served along with the hamsar in a coconut with heated coconut milk.

It looks innocuous enough… the hamsar is a clear jelly like substance and the bird's nest is barely noticeable, especially in the hot coconut milk.

My friends got two other desserts - one ultra mango with tapioca and one stewed egg with bird's nest and black sesame paste.  You can more clearly see the bird's nest in the stewed egg dessert.

I didn't mind eating the desserts with these random things featured in them - the bird's nest was tasteless and, before I knew I was eating frog's gonads, the hamsar was actually pretty lovely - slippery and smooth.  The only thing I could really taste was the hot coconut milk, which was really my favorite part of the whole thing.