From Yummy To Yucky

I used to love birdnest. To me, it was a wonderful treat every few months when mum would double-boil it with rock sugar and red dates. My sis and I would "wallop" the most of it (sometimes even fighting for the last drop), while my parents would share a bowl. It was a kinda luxury as birdnest is not a very cheap treat, definately more expensive than my beloved Red Rock Deli chips.

There came a day when I discovered I had NPC aka nose cancer. Relatives and close friends of our family flooded us with birdnest, and I really mean FLOODED. From a evey-few-months treat, it became a weekly treat. At first, I didn't mind. I was actually enjoying it! As the tumor in my nose became smaller, my sense of smell became better. Although my taste buds died on me, I could smell and "taste" food through my airway. For a few months, I was practically living on soy bean curd and could smell and "taste" the fragrance of soy bean and sugary syrup as I ate through my airway, not my taste buds.

Same with birdnest. Soon, the "protein" smell of birdnest got to me and I hated it! In the past, when I smelt the "protein" smell, I was happy because mum is making birdnest. During the period I was sick, there was a gradual decrease in excitement till the point I was, "Huh? You making birdnest again?!" The "protein" smell, "fragrance" and taste irked me ,and it became worse when I felt like vomiting when I ate it. I told mum, no more birdnest please. The other day, she made a whole lot of birdnest. If it was 2-3 years ago, I would have "wallop" and ate like no tomorrow. Now, I actually told my mum to get sis to eat.

For the past few days, I had not enough sleep. Plus, I had serious ance outbreak issues during the preparation of the last exam, which till now is slowly getting better. Mum kept advocating the birdnest would be good for me to (in a sense) "neutralise the yin and yang" in my body and make me feel less tired, etc... She nagged some more when I told her I missed this morning class just now in the kitchen. I was thinking, "How much can a bird's saliva actually help you!?" In the past, I would think, "Oh, because of the high protein content, blah blah..."