Shark Fin Soup ... bleh !!

[paradicio]

Take heart all, my wife is Asian and I've managed to convince her and all of her (our) Asian friends not to eat Sharkfin soup! We can turn the truly devoted.

As has been mentioned the Sharkfin adds absolutely no flavor to the soup. It adds only texture. With that in mind you could add finely shredded chicken or pork (Sharkfin soup broth is usually chicken or pork based) as an alternative and come out with a better tasting soup.

 

[cmburch]

I have never had shark fin soup. I heard it is high in mercury. Does it taste good?

The first time I went to a Dim Sum restaurant, I did not recognize any of the food that was brought to the tables by carts. I heard chicken and that sounded familiar, so I said I'll try some. I put what looked like small pieces of fried batter into my mouth. It fell out of my mouth so fast. It was chicken feet. We had a good laugh as long as you weren't sitting across from me.

I want to try sea urchin gonads sometime though.

I also tried duck tongues at a Chinese restaurant in Fremont. A delicacy in China and expensive. Cheap here though.

 

[Damselfish]

I finally tried the chicken feet at a dim sum place we frequent and they were surprisingly good. As someone said, it's really about the sauce.

Assuming there's no obvious endangered species lurking on the carts, it's really best to just eat and not try to hard to figure out what it is. Going there with people with allergies is a bit scary, though.

 

[ScubaSteve]

.......Cheap here though.

Perhaps it was not the tongue then

 

[siikik]

I also tried duck tongues at a Chinese restaurant in Fremont. A delicacy in China and expensive. Cheap here though.

I wonder why?




Ken

 

[cmburch]

I love Vietnamese soups. In San Jose, I had a bowl of chicken eggs before the shell was formed. It looked like the hard boiled yoke part. Many small about 1/4"-1" diameter round yellow yokes connected together with some thin tissue.

There was another special soup that has beef, tendon, tripe, and blood. The blood looks like a piece of opaque jello, but is firm and solid.

Oh back to chicken feet. You would think that I could eat chicken feet if I could eat the chicken ovary or tube thing with little pre eggs, and blood jello, and duck tongues. But the thought is gross and it will never get in my mouth again.

Shark fin off California is high in mercury, so bad for women in child bearing years and young children. Methylmercury from contaminated fish can cross the blood brain barrier and inhibit brain development.

 

[Bubbletrubble]

I feel compelled to address some of your remarks.

I have been to Hong Kong and China and was once served Shark Fin soup....and only once. I know that when served it is a very bad business move (yes I was there on business) to refuse so the first time it was served to me, I took a couple of tastes and stopped eating it. We were conversing at the time and I informed the interpereter that I was not feeling well (after the soup), he made an excuse for the host and from that point forward he ensured no more shark fin soup was served.

Hey, I understand. We all have to pick our battles. Declining to eat such an expensive delicacy might have been construed as an insult from your host's perspective. You declined to eat sharkfin soup under the auspices of it "not agreeing with you" rather than using the opportunity to take it up as a discussion point. That's a tough situation. First of all, there's the language barrier to contend with. Everyone knows that communicating through an interpreter can be like playing a game of telephone. Human language is nuanced -- it's likely that the tenor of your words might not survive the translation. Also, since you were there on business, I'm sure you were representing the interests of your company...and not just your ideological stance on marine conservation. In your cited example, you valued your job over the welfare of the sharks. That's fine. I hope you can acknowledge that people in the food industry involved in the procurement of sharkfin product may be making that same choice. Pretty much everyone involved from the fisherman to the fishmonger to the chef is just trying to make a living.
Perhaps rather than just decrying the "injustice of it all" we should try to approach the problem with a little more cultural sensitivity. There's way to much ethnocentrism/xenophobia in the world as it is. Education is the answer. I submit that stepping up endeavors to popularize scuba diving in China might be a more constructive way to make the case against sharkfinning. It would surely instill an awareness of man's impact on the environment.

Remember the good old days when women could not vote? Or when the slaves picked cotton? Lots of things were not new things but guess what? They were still stopped because they were wrong. Women have the right to vote (not everywhere but everywhere that I want to live)! There are no slaves (same qualifier as last point). And sharks should be allowed to live without fear of finning or extinction.

I'm surprised you didn't bring up the Holocaust or the white man's mistreatment of the Native American Indian.
Actually I sensed some anger and exasperation in your words. The examples you cite (women's suffrage, slavery) were injustices perpetrated against other human beings. Let's not elevate sharks (or any other animal, for that matter) to human status. The discussion could get silly.

What makes you think there is any movement by the Chinese attitude? I wish there was but it is not happening.

Oh, boy. Such pessimism. Be patient. It won't happen overnight. As I attempted to state in my initial post, the food tradition in Chinese culture runs deep.

 

[NeilJ]

It's such a shame that some people can be so barbaric. I know China isn't the only country with these problems, but I consider them more advanced than "developing countries," so I hold them to a higher level. Shark finning isn't the only problem. Bear claws and gall bladers are used as a delicacy, or in traditional chinese medicine; while tiger pelts and elephant ivory are considered luxury items. And we can not forget the eating of dog meat.

The sooner the East catches up to the West with it's animal right policies, the better off our world with be. The great white shark is a preditorial masterpeice of evolution that has survived for millions of years. The fact that it is now endangered, due to rich business men eating shark fins for socail statues, is infuriating.

Here are some great articles if you want more info, but be warned they are a hard read!

» Ivory sale may reopen with China as importer Wildlife Trust of India - NEWS: News about Wildlife Trust of India and its efforts for Wildlife Conservaton in india.

Smugglers Nabbed At Russian-China Border With Tiger Pelts, Hundreds Of Bear Paws: ENN

Help us save Bears In Chinese Bile Farms. Sign a petition. Read more ...

China - animal rights and wrongs « The Rambling Man

Animal Rights Africa

 

[ScubaSteve]

I feel compelled to address some of your remarks.......

OK

...........people in the food industry involved in the procurement of sharkfin product may be making that same choice. Pretty much everyone involved from the fisherman to the fishmonger to the chef is just trying to make a living........

While I do agree with you, there is a huge difference between me wanting to negotiate a better supply line and price than the inhumane slaughter of animals. I could accept the comparison if my job was chopping the feet off of crocodiles and throwing them back into the water.

..........I submit that stepping up endeavors to popularize scuba diving in China might be a more constructive way to make the case against sharkfinning. It would surely instill an awareness of man's impact on the environment........

I do agree that Education is a must however to pussy footing around gets the world nowhere. I suppose I will suggest we have this conversation in in a couple decades when we are still trying to teach people and the bottom of the sea is littered with spent shark carcases that were "finned".

..................I'm surprised you didn't bring up the Holocaust or the white man's mistreatment of the Native American Indian.
Actually I sensed some anger (nope) and exasperation in your words. The examples you cite (women's suffrage, slavery) were injustices perpetrated against other human beings. Let's not elevate sharks (or any other animal, for that matter) to human status. The discussion could get silly..........

My point was apparently missed. You implied that this culinary practice is acceptible because it has been done for a long time. My point was that many things were done for a long time but we (most of civilized society) have since realized they were unacceptable practices. Thus, in my opinion, just because we have always taken a shark, stripped a couple fins off it and then thrown it into the water to sink and drown, does not mean it should still be considered acceptable.

........Oh, boy. Such pessimism. Be patient. It won't happen overnight. As I attempted to state in my initial post, the food tradition in Chinese culture runs deep.

I agree about my pessimism on the subject however if nothing is visible today then why would I be optimistic that a massive global cultural update and shift was going to take place? The fact that the food tradition runs deep is common sense and does not need to be stated. This is the primary reason that I am hesitant to think that the change has begun.

Like I said. If a shark were to be caught and wholly consumed similar to a cow or a pig is in North America, it would not be as bad. In North America we kill the animal by what we deem to be humane methods. Many of the sharks are caught, finned and thrown back in the water to drown. This sounds more like a Mob hit to me than a culture practicing survival.

Just my 2 psi.

 

[cmburch]

The OP was talking about SD San Diego. Also just because a restaurant has shark fin soup does it mean that the shark's fin was cut and then dumped back in the ocean alive? Are people jumping to conclusions about shark fin soup in California? Or is this the only way that shark fins are obtained in California, by cutting the fin off and throwing the live shark back in the water? Leopard shark is a sportfish in California. How do people eat them? You do not see finned sharks on the beaches of California. You do see shark bit seals and sea lions.