When I had it as a kid it was like a savory thin strip of jelly basically, it absorbed the flavor of the broth/soup. If you’ve had jellyfish before it’s like that but smoother.

Which is what makes this so incomprehensible. If it had one shred of a health benefit, then it would still be a horrific practice, but knowing that it’s all because there are some full ass grown adults that still believe in fairy tales is beyond infuriating

It doesn’t taste like anything at all. Once it is processed and sold, it is nothing more than cartilage. Literally a shark shaped piece of jello.

Not exactly. It's eaten for its texture rather than its flavor. It's still cruel and unsustainable, but not completely pointless the way rhino horn is.

there's a subtle fishy taste given it's fish, but it's eaten primarily for texture. A good imitation is literal gelatin strips. So if you've eaten just some plain gelatin before, that's basically it (that's why they're used as imitation sharks fin). I'd say the key difference is that sharks fin does have a slightly softer overall texture (so not as ridged as gelatin), but also has crunchier pieces like cartilage (because that's pretty much what it is).

It's just a status symbol at this point because it's expensive to get. Similar to Bird's nest where the stuff is rare and hard to get, but mostly doesn't taste of anything unique.

>Apparently even the fin doesn't taste that great from what I've heard,

its pretty much tasteless. like bird's nest.

what u taste is the rich chicken/herbal soup its cooked in.

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Some friends had it. Said it taste like Asian glass noodles

It's the msg broth we all eat it for, it's the same even with snake, it's boiled to jelly like and it's all good