In Vietnam, where the average income
is $151 a month, Mai Vu and husband David Nguyen routinely spend
$250 on edible bird’s nest.
The couple accounts for the soaring appetite among
Vietnam’s young and upwardly mobile population for one of the
world’s most expensive foods, congealed saliva of Asian
swiftlets. The country’s expanding middle class hungers for
healthy food. Bird’s nest is believed to ward off diseases and
feeds a growing demand for luxury products.
| The edible nests, shown here cleaned and soaked, are as much as 70 percent protein, one reason aristocracy has consumed the delicacy for thousands of years, according to Massimo Marcone, an associate professor of food science at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada. Photographer: Jerry Redfern/LightRocket via Getty Images |
| Read the story on Bloomberg Business Week |
