Is this true or just a joke?

[Yamix]

I've seen or heard this in quite a few movies. I think the last time I saw it was in The White Dragon. There was an old lady who was eating, well... bird nest.
I was wondering if that's for real or just a joke...

[snorky2k]

I friend of mine was born in China. He told me long ago that it was partially true. There was a time when people were so poor that they would pour boiling water through a bird's nest for flavoring. But, in a American Chinese restaurant it just looks like a bird's nest. A thousand year old egg is also only aged a year and is treated to look like it came from a dinosaur. The other practices that he told me about were that a partially formed chicken in an egg was viewed as better than fresh. Also, chickens are fresh air aged without refrigeration to make them very soft.

I've also had the aged chicken in Des Moines, Iowa from a Lao food market. It can be a little hard to look at for a typical American of European ancestry without fore warning. Selling air aged chicken has since been banned.

[XrayMind]

It's TOTALLY true. It's basically dry bird saliva that bird use to make their nest. And it's every expensive, so it is usually serve at Chinese wedding banquet.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bird%27s_nest_soup

[SusieQ]

No, isn't bird's nest soup made with literal bird's nests? We're not talking the twig kind, though. See Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bird%27s_nest_soup

Also on wiki there's a dish where the nest is made out of fried taro root.

[HongKongChick]

bird nest soup isnt made with just any birds nest. it has to be Swiftlet. they dont use twigs or grass to build their nests, rather with saliva. so after soaking the nest for a long time, wash them, get the feathers out and all that, it can then be made into a soup. and there are several different kinds of Swiftlet nests that are more expensive than others