Sun-Times Food: Bird Spit

• Leah A. Zeldes pulls the rug out from under all those folks comparing today’s hard economic climate to the Great Depression, citing statistics and oral histories that have families living on nothing but starch, making do without refrigerators or heat-regulated ovens, and hot dogs that cost ten times as much as potatoes. That setup doesn’t really work in today’s microwaves-and-additives food culture, now does it?

• Remember that Anthony Bourdain episode where he eats birds’ nest soup? According to Lisa Donovan, not only is the soup valued for its rarity — the nests in question have to be harvested from caves, dried and processed — but it’s also known for its restorative and beautifying properties. The title of this article, I could not make this up if I tried, is “Botox in a bowl.” This is a surprisingly accurate analogy, only inasmuch as Botox is the voluntary injection of the botulism toxin, and birds’ nest soup is the voluntary ingestion of bird spit.

• Phil Lempert launches his new “Shopping Smart” column, which promises to be chock-full of helpful tips and tricks to get the most out of your grocery store experience. He then proceeds to give information that we suppose will be novel and life-changing to people who have never been to a grocery store before.

[Photo of the Edible nest swiftlet, so named because its nests are used in soup, and then eaten. Via Lip Kee’s Flickr]

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Sun-Times Food: Bird Spit