Shark Fin Soup - Taste

Taste

In shark fin soup, the fins themselves are virtually tasteless. The taste comes from the soup, while the fins are valued for their texture. Keith Bradsher of The New York Times describes it as a "chewy, sinewy, stringy" texture. Krista Mahr of TIME called it "somewhere between chewy and crunchy." Dave Lieberman of OC Weekly wrote that it is a "snappy, gelatinous texture". Most westerners' reaction to eating shark fin soup for the first time is that it has almost no taste. However, texture is prized as much as taste in Asian cuisine.