ちばき屋 chibakiya: fin de siècle

by rameniac | 19 May 2008

Eco-politics aside, there’s always been something slightly off-putting about shark’s fin soup. In Chinese cuisine, the dish is emblematic of opulence; banquets, in particular, live and die by the stuff. A course of shark’s fin is the Cantonese equivalent of bling; serve it and you’re basically flaunting your riches to your dinner guests. Substitute a generic “seafood” or egg flower soup, and you might well come off a plebian in the eyes of the invited.

There are, of course different strata of bling. The obscenely wealthy may plate their shark’s fin, its tender bronzed strands coated in a viscous drip of superior soup (well, more like sauce), while the merchant class might go a bit conservative, filling out the brew with some crab meat as if to say “Hey! Crab is nothing to sneeze at!” Sure, it can taste pretty great, but like that Rolls Royce in your airplane hangar of a garage high atop Victoria Peak, it can come off well, a bit tasteless. 

Keep that in mind and Chibakiya’s eighteen-dollar bowl of shark’s fin ramen, a “festival exclusive,” is actually not a bad deal. There was hardly a customer in sight on Saturday when I strolled up to the counter, plopped down a twenty, and got a few coins back in change. What followed was a rather large bowl of ramen with a surprisingly generous amount of authentic fukahide, shark blubber and all. Chef Kenji Chiba did in fact, get the details right; from the authentically “Chinesey” bok choy to the nuggets of snow crab meat that lent the chicken and salt-based soup a mellow, pleasing sweetness. The fin itself wasn’t exactly top flight; it was still a bit too crunchy and gristly, and lacked the proper hair-like succulence of really high-end endangered fish. But at least it was the real deal, and a good sized chunk of it to boot.

As with decent shark fin soup, the broth was characteristically glutinous, and the concept of shark’s fin ramen actually makes sense when you consider that proper tonkotsu often has a similar viscosity and texture. Unfortunately, this particular hybrid fell short of revolutionary. It was, simply, ramen noodles in shark’s fin soup, definitely a concoction aimed more at Japanese expats than seasoned Angeleno palates. Some may disagree, but I felt I got my eighteen bucks worth, if simply because shark’s fin soup is such a ludicrous proposition anyway. If you’re going to bling, go ahead and splurge, just to say you did it.