shark's fin soup

[nature boy]

i have a feeling most of you guys saw this already, it's pretty old now, but i was thinking about it the other day when i was at that restaurant at metro because everyone was talking about wanting shark's fin soup.

[Duncan]

i've seen some restaurants separate the shark fin and the soup itself so you can choose if you want it in your soup... but that's only a select few... most i've gone to still just serve it regardless...

i used to love the soup but these days i only drink it because it's there and if i don't drink it, someone else is usually more than willing to drink it...

[nature boy]

doesn't change the fact that the shark is dead though. did you try the soup without the shark's fin? was it any different than with it in?

[Duncan]

yea, that's my point though, since the shark's already dead, me not drinking it kinda makes no diff... the biggest diff would be if people who were getting married requested no shark fin...

i tried it w/o the shark fin... it tastes the same because it's obviously the same soup base... and if you watch the clip you posted, the fin is actually cooked separately from the soup it the fin has no impact on the taste... it's just the texture's different but you could easily add some kinda jelly noodle to supplement the fin texture...

it's pretty cruel how the sharks die because they just sink in the ocean waiting to die after a few days, or if they're lucky enough to be eaten by another creature... i have the documentary Shark Water on bluray if you guys wanna borrow it.. it sheds even more light on the gruesome harvesting of sharks... it's pretty disturbing

[nature boy]

yeah, but then where does the animal cruelty stop? we can stop serving shark's fin, but then we should also stop eating steak.
it's tough to eat with regret i think.

[Duncan]

well, i think the diff between steak/sharkfin is that cows are (or at least should be) killed humanely. Cows usually are killed in a slaughter house instantly so they're not supposed to feel pain... and this should be how it's done because if the cow tenses up before it's killed, the meat becomes very tough. Cows aren't left to suffocate or slowly die of blood loss/starvation just so we can eat them.

Also, another difference is we eat cows for nutritional sustenance. I know we can eat other things to get our protein and iron and become vegetarian or vegan, but for the most part, we eat meat because our body requires those nutrients... shark fin doesn't really provide any essential nutrients that you can't get elsewhere...

i agree, it's hart to eat with regret, but at the same time, we can't be ignorant about practises either... shark populations are being fished into extinction because of this demand for shark fin soup.

[nature boy]

maybe it's not cows then, but i heard that some animal (which i thought were cows) are sometimes killed by cutting off the tongue and allowed to bleed to death. and the cows that are lining up to the slaughterhouse actually sound like they're crying. crazy stuff.

but yeah, i don't think i could eat shark's fin again without thinking about this video.

[Duncan]

not sure i've heard about the tongue thing... although chinese do eat cow's tongue lols...

I think i heard that the cows line up and a high air pressure gun is shot into their skulls to kill them instantly... but yea, if you ever go to a slaughter house, it'd probably be enough to make you vegetarian... until you smell the wonderfully juicy steak that someone beside you is eating haha...

you should watch sharkwater... it's even more disturbing because it goes more into the corruption behind it with the governments and policing... lemme know if u wanna borrow it

[nature boy]

no more blu ray player lolz

[geForce]

The difference is, however inhumanely a cow is killed, we still make the most use out of its parts for food.

The shark, we just kill for its fins... fins which have no nutritional or medicinal value at all aside from the magical properties it has been given by ancient lore. The fin also has no real distinguishing taste, so really all you're eating it for is the texture which can easily be emulated with rice noodles.

[nature boy]

ya that's true.
ok, no more shark's fin.

[geForce]

I think Canada is trying to outlaw the import of shark's fin.

And in HK even, they're not outlawing it, but the restaurants are giving discounts to people who opt for non-shark fin soup.

[Duncan]

[nature boy]

[Wetundies]

ppl eat it just cuz it's expensive.