When I was young, shark fin soup used to be a common soup that would be served especially during Chinese weddings.
With the need to protect sharks, Shark Fin was replaced with ingredients like sea cucumber, glass noodles, cucurbita ficifolia, vermicelli or gelatin.
Below was one of the shark fin soup substitutes that was served during one of our meals.
The taste of it did not move too far from the original taste as long as we have our usual vinegar and pepper added.
Vinegar and pepper were what most Chinese love in the soup so most Chinese are readily accepting the substitutes to avoid the killing of sharks.