When Kathy Chen visited Hong Kong in the early 1990s, she hoped she could dig into a bowl of delicious shark-fin soup at every meal. Although the international foodie still talks up the delicacy with love, she hasn't touched a fin in years.

"Now I eat cellophane noodles instead. They taste just like the real thing if cooked by an experienced Hong Kong chef," said the marketing and communications director with Hotel Kunlun in Beijing. "I have witnessed the campaign for shark conservation in other countries, and agree that shark finning is simply too cruel to support."

China is the biggest market for shark fin, but as more and more people come to realize the harm of shark finning, many diners and restaurants have decided to swap shark fin for some ingenious substitutes.

Intimation shark-fin soup, made from cellophane noodles or vermicelli, is a popular dish in Hong Kong, through which 80 percent of the world's genuine shark fin is traded.

Shark fin is largely tasteless, the associated flavors usually arising from the chicken soup, crab and other ingredients. Even for those like Chen who have experienced the real fin, an imitation which is cooked with dried black fungus, egg and water chestnut flour is just as satisfying and delicious.

In Japan, another major consumer of shark fin, close imitations can be found that are made from pork gelatin, and vegetarian shark fin is often cooked from soy-based ingredients.

 

Tough decisions

In coastal cities like Ningbo and Xiamen which are rich in seafood, if the guests ask for shark fin, hotels would usually recommend other seafood dishes, such as fish maw, another expensive dish that could make ends meet.

For some restaurants, however, the decision to switch away from shark fin was not as clear-cut. Haomenjipin, a Shanxi-based restaurant group that serves mostly expensive seafood, removed shark fin from the menu at the beginning of this year. It also gave away the remaining stock, worth a whopping 500,000 yuan ($79,217), for free to local residents.

"Now we don't serve it even if our regular guests asks for it," restaurant owner Shangguan Junle told the Global Times. "It of course affects our income, and we've been agonizing over ways to make up for the lost revenue."

Given that the restaurant group usually goes through a massive 50 million yuan in shark fin product each year, which represents one-third of their entire income, Shangguan's decision was particularly difficult.

"It is hard to replace the status of shark fin in the eyes of Chinese people, but we can make it up to the guests with some of the other high-quality ingredients from around the world, such as Spanish ham, caviar from Iran and French truffles," he said.

Shangguan used to be a shark-fin aficionado himself, but after watching the French documentary Oceans, which depicts how the fins are hacked off while the sharks are still alive, he was shocked and appalled.

"I told my managers and partners that if we are going to make a decision, let's not allow it to be driven by profit this time," he said.

 

Traditional tastes

Over 70 million sharks are killed each year to provide the market for shark-fin soup, and around 80 percent is consumed in the Chinese mainland, according to Steve Trent, president of WildAid in China.

WildAid is an internationally recognized NGO working in wildlife protection.

With over 10 years of experience working in China, Trent sees the passion for shark fin among Chinese people as a mixture of old customs and new wealth.

"In the past, shark fin was a dish for the emperors, a dish for a small number of people," he told the Global Times. "Now more and more people are entering the market with big incomes, keen to experience something like shark fin."

"It's a status thing. People like to show off in front of guests, for example, and serving shark fin is a pretty efficient way to do that," he added. "There is nothing that can directly stand in for it, but people need to do more research about the issues surrounding the harvesting of shark fin. If you want to honor a guest or show them respect, why not give them a gift like a silk scarf?"

Considering Chinese people's growing interest in wine, Trent believes a bottle of fine imported wine can also serve as an option.

"The key thing is that the alternative has to be sustainable," he said.