Soup · Old Hong Kong Cart Food

Wun Zai Chi (碗仔翅, Imitation Shark's Fin Soup)

Photo: Gloumetcadao / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0

One popular story says early vendors used shark fin scraps left over from restaurant banquets before switching entirely to cheap noodles.

A thick, savory soup of shredded chicken or pork, mushrooms, egg, and mung bean vermicelli is thickened until the noodles mimic the texture of real shark fin, then ladled into small bowls from street carts and finished with vinegar, sesame oil, and white pepper.

Why it's made this way: It emerged among Hong Kong street hawkers in the 1950s as a cheap way to recreate the luxurious texture of banquet shark fin soup with inexpensive vermicelli, letting ordinary people taste a 'shark fin soup' for a few coins.