"I always say that chicken, pork, fish and duck are the original heroes of the board, each with a flavor of its own, each with its distinctive style; whereas sea slug and swallows nest are commonplace fellows with no character, in fact they're mere hangers-on (despite their costliness). I was once invited to a banquet given by a certain Governor, who gave each of us 4 taels of plain boiled swallows nest, served in enormous vase as huge as flower-pot. It had no taste at all. While other guests were obsequious in their praise of it, I said: 'We are here to eat swallows nest, not to take delivery of it wholesale.' If our host's object was simply to impress, it would have been better to put a hundred pearls into each bowl. Then we should have known that the meal had cost him tens of thousands, without the unpleasantness of being expected to eat the uneatable." "Recipes of the Sui Garden" Yuan Mei
「余嘗謂雞、豬、魚、鴨，豪傑之士也，各有本味，自成一家；海參、燕窩，庸陋之人也，全無性情，寄人籬下。嘗見某太守宴客，大碗如缸，白煮燕窩四兩，絲毫無味，人爭誇之。余笑曰：我輩來吃燕窩，非來販燕窩也。可販不可吃，雖多奚為？若徒誇體面，不如碗中竟放明珠百粒，則價值萬金矣，其如吃不得何！」 《隨園食單》清．袁枚
