Our Photo of the Day shows a bowl of Nido Soup or Bird’s Nest Soup, a soup based from edible nests made of solidified saliva of swiftlets found in the crevices of the limestone cliffs in El Nido, Palawan, Philippines.
I ordered this Nido Soup when I went in El Nido on August 2012 with my college friends
The most heavily harvested nests are from the edible-nest swiflet (Aerodramus fuciphagus) and the black-nest swiftlet (Aerodramus maximus). The Aerodramus fuciphagus (balinsasayaw) is found in the Philippines, specifically in El Nido, a municipality in Palawan whose name literally translates to “the nest.”
The edible bird’s nests are among the most expensive animal products consumed by humans, being sold at approximately US$ 2,000 per kilogram. The nests have high levels of calcium, iron, potassium, and magnesium. They are traditionally believed to provide health benefits, such as improving the voice, easing digestion, alleviating asthma, raising libido, and strengthening the immune system.