First time in Russia bought tuna sized cans of great caviar for 7 bucks a can. Brought 10 cans - it was all the store had. That was 20 some years ago. At the price today only for special days. Red caviar is not high priced and tasty but hard to find in WY. Mail order adds a bit of cost. .
I had it a couple of times here in the USA and also in Russia several years ago. I can eat it, but I really don't care for it. Each bite is an explosion aquarium water in your mouth. Gross.
Know fat, know flavor. No fat, no flavor.
I tried going vegan, but then realized it was a big missed steak.
We’re not flush, but we eat it once or twice a month. We prefer the pink salmon caviar, while our friends like the fishier-tasting coho salmon caviar. Spread on a slice of crusty or light rye bread with butter, nothing better.
Price runs about $5 an ounce. I bought a frozen kilogram for Slavyanka as one of her Christmas gifts.
Every once in a while we buy a can of Beluga (sturgeon) caviar for special occasions. At $135/oz its spendy, but pretty good.
Sushi places use flying fish roe, and herring caviar is pretty good, too.
You can get cheap "caviar" that's labeled "lumpfish roe". I don't know what a lumpfish is, but its roe is okay. I've never had genuine Russian caviar, so I have no real basis of comparison. I'd love to, though. If you've never had any at all, caviar is salty, fishy, and has a "bubble wrap" quality as each egg pops. I rate it as a treat, often served on a cracker with a sprinkle of crumbled hard-boiled egg or on buttered toast points.
Edit to add: After posting that, a remembery popped up in my head of a diner breakfast on the Outer Banks featuring fish roe in scrambled eggs. I recall it fondly, and have an lasting impression of the mildly fishy, salty addition favored by locals but seldom by tourists, according to the waitress. Except for me, of course. I can NEVER pass up something I've never had before.
Brings back memories of growing up in Western WA. Natives would net chum by the truckload, strip the eggs and leave a massive pile of carcasses blocking the access trails down to the river. I know they are dog salmon but I always had heartburn about that.
I worked on a dock for a processor one season and it seemed like the chum roe was the prize of the salmon season. Fillets and whole fish seemed to just be a bonus (kings, reds, silvers, and pinks) and kept the staff paid. The "egg room" in the plant was off limits to all employees, unless authorized. Only women were allowed in that room. Or Japanese men. Everyone was warned that you would be fired on the spot for entering the egg room, if you didn't work there.
One day, the owner and another guy (buyer?) came out to the dock, and asked to stop the belt (conveyor). They took a hen and squirted eggs into their hands, and sucked them down. Never seen anyone do that before, or since.
Rumor back then was that many of the processing plants were funded by the Japanese, primarily for the roe. People said the flesh wasn't very popular across America then. Want to say that the flesh was used for dog food or something like that, until demand increased. Might have been a tall tale though.
Now you've done it. Since making that first post, I've had a hankerin' a-thrown on me. Now I have to find some caviar - no easy task in a landlocked state where shrimp are exotic seafood.
One thing I've never quite grasped is why "fishy" is bad. It's fish; it ought to taste fishy. Beef is supposed to taste beefy, lamb is supposed to taste lamby, and pork is supposed to taste porky, right? Why is fish supposed to NOT taste like fish?
I don’t like for fish to taste like fish smell. If a beef steak tasted like cow schiet and fly dope you probably wouldn’t be frequenting the steakhouse. Some fish is clean and mild tasting and sometimes you get a piece that tastes like you’re eating the whole fish scales, guts, and all. I think this is what is referred to when referencing a “fishy” taste. The inside shouldn’t taste like the outside, generally speaking about any kind of meat.
As to "fishy" taste, there's a difference between fresh fishy and semi-spoiled fishy. I fully concur that once fish has started to go "off" it does not taste good. Folks who drag their catch around in the hot surface water on a stringer and then complain about fishy fish have only themselves to blame. Bled out and put immediately on ice, then properly filleted it would be an entirely different taste experience.
I agree. Pre-Covid, I’d taught Slavyanka to never buy fish at the grocery store unless they let her sniff it first. If it was fishy, leave it.
I got caught once, and friggin’ bluebottle flies were following me out to the car. Wouldn’t ever buy fish after that without smelling it. Now, with Covid, you can’t do that, so we don’t buy much fresh fish any more.
I like adding caviar into salads. It makes any salad much more delicious. Sandwiches with caviar are also good, but I always fail to spread the eggs evenly. Another problem is to find a good product nowadays. Not really familiar with caviar but I will never buy anything on Amazon again. Sellers there don't provide the best products. Sometimes I think that a good caviar is in restaurants only but I'm likely wrong. I lurked a little bit on pearlsofcaviar.com and did my own research. It's possible to find this product of every kind for a good price in almost every US state. I wanna try the Sturgeon caviar someday...it looks great!
I like adding caviar into salads. It makes any salad much more delicious. Sandwiches with caviar are also good, but I always fail to spread the eggs evenly. Another problem is to find a good product nowadays. Not really familiar with caviar but I will never buy anything on Amazon again. Sellers there don't provide the best products. Sometimes I think that a good caviar is in restaurants only but I'm likely wrong. I lurked a little bit on pearlsofcaviar.com and did my own research. It's possible to find this product of every kind for a good price in almost every US state. I wanna try the Sturgeon caviar someday...it looks great!
Welcome to the campfire.
Odd first post. Appears you are hawking a product. I ain't clicking on the link.