Posted By: saundra (20/03/2007 9:34:15 AM)
Comment: Gary Chu’s in Santa
Rosa is serving shark fin soup. Sharks are captured,
their fins cut, then they are thrown back in to die of wounds or eaten by
others. This is unacceptable and illegal here in the U.S. Please be responsible diners
and don’t order the soup, hopefully they will stop!
So what’s the deal? BiteClub tracked down Chef Gary Chu for some answers.
Chu says that this traditional Chinese delicacy was taken off the menu at his restaurant several years ago after some complaints, but that he continues to serve it–by special request only–at banquets. “This is a very traditional Chinese food,” he says.
And although it is illegal to harvest the fins (a death
sentence for live animals) in US waters, it is legal to serve the soup. Dried fins are usually
purchased from sources in China, where the practice of taking the fins from live or dead sharks is not regulated.
Chu says that he can make the soup from imitation shark fins, made with gelatin, but that some customers request the real deal. “When people special order we have to use the real ones, but this is not an everyday thing,” Chu tells BiteClub.
Is this another foie gras fight in the making?