Imitation shark fin soup
Street imitation shark's fin soup (碗仔翅), also known as 'wun tsai chi' in Cantonese (literally shark's fin in a little bowl), is one of Hong Kong's common street snacks, usually sold in small bowls by street vendors. Imitation shark fin soup is a staple of Hong Kong's street vendor cuisine.
It’s somewhat of a substitution for the real shark's fin soup, as the genuine article tends to be more expensive due to its ingredients. Since there is a rising concern on shark finning as it is considered cruel by the general public,[1] imitation shark's fin soup is a shark-friendly, vegetarian alternative to shark's fin soup, as it contains no shark fin, only bean noodles.
History
Imitation shark's fin soup originated from Temple Street in Hong Kong during the 1950s and 1960s. [2] People at that time could not afford to eat real shark fins, therefore, the street vendors collected the broken parts of shark's fins in the food waste dumped by Chinese restaurants, cooked them with mushrooms, egg, pork, as well as soy sauce and other ingredients. Cooking the mixture into a soup, it was served in a small bowl. This soup was inexpensive and lacked the authentic flavor but since it was cheap, tasty and contained lots of ingredients, it was popular among the poor and became one of the famous street-side snacks in Hong Kong.
Modern variations
There are no longer real shark's fins in the soup because the cost of shark fins has increased significantly (up to $650/kg in 2014).[3] Therefore, some may use vermicelli to replace it. Also, there are more varied ingredients added included - for example, chicken, crab meat, fish maw. Apart from the street-side in Hong Kong, imitation shark's fin soup may also be found in fast food stores, expensive Chinese restaurants or even on mainland China.
Practice
First mushrooms, fungus and fans soaked wash. Mushroom stalks, cut into shreds. Fungus cut the top part and finely chopped hard. Pink cut wire segments. Respectively, shredded chicken breast and lean pork, spare. Then boil the soup and water; add chicken wire, shredded pork, mushrooms and fungus silk cook for a while. Then add fans. Pour seasoning (to increase or decrease their salt to taste and). Then roll after Thickening (uniform gravy). Finally, add the egg broke up, deft mix well, and then turn off, poured into a small bowl to enjoy. Some people will accompany with little vinegar, sesame oil and pepper, some fish and shredded lettuce as well.
Features
It is ready to eat right after you brought, the production speed is comparatively faster and cheaper than those fast food restaurants, which can definitely meet efficiency in saving time in Hong Kong. Many of the streets food are not very healthy. Old Hong Kong popular street snacks such as fried dumplings, fried crisp box (with a dirty-unwashed device, such as ink-like oil) contain a lot of fat and in the curing process to spend a lot of sugar or salt. Although it’s promoting a healthy diet recently, but in the streets of Mong Kok there are still many different kinds of fried food (such as fried stuffed peppers, fried squid, etc.) or a high sugar snack (such as egg puffs, waffles, etc.),comparatively Street's imitation shark fin soup is healthier than the other street's food.
Controversy
According to the news article, the Trade Descriptions Ordinance in Hong Kong, all false trade descriptions to goods and not services are prohibited.[4] Therefore, imitation shark’s fin soup is facing the challenge of changing its name since ‘wun tsai chi’ in Cantonese may mislead customers there is real shark fins in it. However, many Hong Kong people argue for this new policy. Some of them claimed that imitation shark’s fin soup is one of the Hong Kong people’s collective memories and represents the history of old Hong Kong. Hong Kong people used to call it as ‘wun tsai chi’. If the name has been changed, it will be inconvenient for the tourists to find imitation shark’s fin soup. As there are many oppositions towards it, some people also suggest that Hong Kong government should consider whether customers are misled on purpose or not before carrying out the policy in order to act as a deterrent while keep the local snacks culture.