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15/05/2007: "DIHUA STREET ...... Shark fin soup recipe"

Dried and canned abalone, dried mushrooms, anchovie type fish - even dried jellyfish amongst the herbal products. It's an amazing street to visit.

A few dried shark fins too. The recipe for shark fin soup goes something like:

Soak fins in fresh water for 24 to 48 hours (depending upon something - maybe the species).

Boil for 30 minutes in wine with ginger. Throw away the liquid.

Next boil the fin with a whole chicken for three hours (or maybe six hours if it was the other species of shark fin).

What happens next is a guess. Maybe other vegetables were with the chicken?

As China becomes increasingly wealthy, anyone with any real money to spare is going to want to taste shark fin soup at least once in their lives. It's a status thing.

This means hundreds of millions of shark fins are required. There is no avoiding this demand. It is real.

The solution to this looming threat to sharks would seem to be something artificial which copies the taste - a salty, thick soup not unlike chicken soup - which figures.

Trying to remove the attraction is a simple and wishful hope - at best.

An expensive and tasty alternative is required.