Page:The Chinese cook book.djvu/127

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THE CHINESE COOK BOOK
101

SHARK FINS


YUE

CHE

This dish has an interesting history. A ruler of China found a large shark in the South Sea. It was killed. Later, in deciding how best to use each part of the animal, a cook by the name of Lang Pow invented this dish. He discovered how delicious and tasty it was. This was in the year 50 b.c.

Shark fins are prepared as follows:

The fins and tails are steeped in boiling water for ½ hour. The skin is then scraped off with a knife; and the fins and tails are boiled for an hour or until they fall to pieces. Every piece of meat, skin, and bone is then removed. Only what is left, a fin soft yellow in color, is kept. This is dried and sold from two to three dollars a pound as shark fins.

(a) Buy 2 pounds of dry shark fins from a Chinese grocery store. Soak in cold water for 3 hours.

(b) Boil the fins with a few pieces of dry