This recipe was updated on 11 July 2013. Some instructions
and ingredient quantities were changed, and metric measurements added.
I was thinking about making a pasta salad with seafood, and
low and behold, shrimp came on sale. So my timing was good since you can really
use any available seafood to make this salad. I decided to add two “fake”
seafood ingredients, imitation crab flakes and imitation shark’s fin. Most
people are familiar with imitation crab flakes, but probably not with imitation
shark’s fin. I’ve always used imitation shark’s fin in soup, so this is the
first time I’ve used it in a salad.
Imitation shark’s fin is a gelatin-based product that is
made to resemble the real shark’s fin long transparent cartilage strands. Both
the real and imitation shark’s fin have no taste, but it’s the texture that
makes it an interesting ingredient. The imitation version comes packaged frozen
and when defrosted, look like transparent brown noodles. I prefer to use the
imitation given how the real version is obtained.
Another interesting ingredient is fresh seaweed. You can get
fresh seaweed (and the imitation shark’s fin) at your local Asian market and it
comes as long strips or tied into bow-ties. I used the bow-tie version in this
dish and it gives an added crunch to the dish, as well as a distinct flavor.
Enjoy!