Nutritious pigeon eggs

I've recently discovered pigeon eggs.

Not that I never knew pigeons reproduce via eggs, just that the thought of eating them has never occurred to me. Until my acupuncturist (yes, I go to one, another story another day) recommended that I may want to consider this as a rich food source. Pigeon eggs apparently contain 5 times the nutrition of a chicken egg and yet only 1/5 of the cholesterol. Sounds like a marvel food to have.

As with anything new, I first start off researching this. I did my usual search on the net but couldn't find anything about this. I stumbled across many sites talking about how to raise pigeons, homing pigeons and even recipes for cooking the bird itself. But weirdly nothing about eating their eggs.

So I switched to researching in Chinese. Yeah, I can do this if I really need to, thanks to my 4+ years of being an analyst based in Shanghai. Its not my preferable means, but I must admit, there are loads of information on the Chinese web. So its off to Baidu.com.

And wow...this is a really hot topic in the Chinese world. A quick baidu found that

• Pigeon eggs are indeed superior in nutrition in the world of egg comparison
• Known as "the ginseng of the animal world" (WOW!)
• Benefits children especially for nourishing their growing brains
• Good for post-partum mothers
• Ladies who suffer from anaemia, irregular menstrual cycle and general weakened "Qi"
• Helps improve skin texture
• Strengthens the body, good for the physically ill

鸽蛋的蛋白质和脂肪含量相对较低，钙含量却较高。

鸽子蛋被人称为“动物人参”含有丰富的蛋白质，对皮肤好，小朋友也可以补脑，身体不好的人也可以吃，对生完小孩的妈妈特别的好，鸽子肉跟鸽子蛋是紧盆骨的！再说一句，生完宝宝的妈妈们吃鸽子汤最好了！中医药学认为，鸽蛋味甘、咸，性平，具有补肝肾、益精气、丰肌肤诸功效。《随息居饮食谱》介绍鸽蛋时说：“甘，平，清热，解毒，补肾益身。”《本草适原》说鸽蛋“久患虚赢者，食之有益。”有贫血、月经不调、气血不足的女性常吃鸽蛋，不但有美颜滑肤作用，还可能治愈疾病，身体变得强壮

I checked with a few people I know who live across Asia and its true, apparently pigeon eggs are revered in many Asian cultures as being a good food. I also learnt that its really much costlier than our regular chicken eggs. Sometimes up to triple the price.

Interestingly enough, pigeon egg whites turn translucent when hard boiled. So you can see the yolk through it. The white is really tasteless but the yolk is contrastingly rich and full bodied. Really yummy, if you like chicken eggs.

We've started having some for 2 weeks now and even little R is starting to like them. I've served them boiled and peeled, soft boiled with soy sauce and pepper and in omelet styles. R was a little turned off by the weird translucent white at first and it took few tries to get her to like it, but she loved the yolk from the start.

A definite must have in on our menu now.