The Chevrolet of Caviar

July 25, 2003 9:25 AM

The Chevrolet of Caviar Paddlefish roe - caviar for the rest of us? caviaremptor.org has some good information about the decline of beluga sturgeon. And what's caviar without Russian vodka? (Whatever your feelings on Kentucky paddlefish roe, you should probably not accompany your caviar with Kentucky spirits). Na zdorovia, y'all!
posted by stonerose (15 comments total)

Of course, no MeFi caviar meet-up would be complete without this sampler from Petrossian, which includes the finest pike roe.
posted by stonerose at 9:31 AM on July 25, 2003

As the article mentions, some farms in California are now producing true caviar, from sturgeon. According to an article in the San Francisco Examiner, it's served at the French Laundry and Chez Panisse; there are also several places to buy it online, including Farm2Market and Tsar Nicoulai. It is more expensive than paddlefish roe, but still a lot cheaper than the imported stuff.

Now I'm hungry.
posted by Acetylene at 9:51 AM on July 25, 2003

I am going to sit firmly in this thread until the bottle is empty and them fish eggs are finished.
posted by ginz at 10:14 AM on July 25, 2003

I don't see why folks are so snobby about where it comes from. Fish eggs are fish eggs regardless of species.
posted by cowboy at 10:15 AM on July 25, 2003

Oh, and we make vodka here in Kentucky too, btw.
posted by cowboy at 10:19 AM on July 25, 2003

OK, I'll admit that some people can distinguish between Russian sturgeon eggs and Kentucky paddlefish eggs, but to my palette, they're the same. Not my cup of tea, as they say, but a good point nonetheless, XQUZYPHYR.
posted by cowboy at 10:51 AM on July 25, 2003

I'm happy that Kentucky is producing paddlefish roe, because it helps democratize the idea of caviar. But what the world definitely doesn't need is another super-hyper-ultra-premium-nothing-like-it vodka! Of course, part of the market disagrees with me, so... more power to the Rain makers in Kentucky!
posted by stonerose at 11:08 AM on July 25, 2003

Miguel disappears and suddenly stonerose is making posts about beluga caviar?

Something's fishy here, and it ain't the pike.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 11:37 AM on July 25, 2003

My thoughts exactly, mr crash. I'm shocked Miguel is missing MeFi on his bday. How will he catch the shoutouts? Via *gasp* archives?
posted by widdershins at 11:49 AM on July 25, 2003

mwahahahaha... I am alternate-universe-left-wing-neophyte-poster-Miguel!

[you may welcome me as your overlord at your leisure.]
posted by stonerose at 1:36 PM on July 25, 2003

I used to really enjoy salmon roe, which can also be relatively inexpensive. But when I became a vegetarian, I read that the fish are killed when the eggs are harvested (chicken eggs, by comparison, are obviously problematic) and I've never seen anything to refute that. I don't miss meat at all, and couldn't really care less about chicken eggs, but I still get the odd craving for ikura.
posted by subgenius at 2:47 PM on July 25, 2003

Note that that was neither a troll nor an attempt to derail the thread -- just saying that I think fish eggs are yummier than other meaty things.
posted by subgenius at 2:57 PM on July 25, 2003

I could care less about caviar (if it lives in water, I don't want to eat it), but many thanks for the vodka link! Some of the words for different sizes of vodka bottles aren't in my dictionaries. Mind you, I'm not sure what use a shkalik (0.06 liter, less than a shot) would be to a Russian; I'd think it wouldn't so much wet the whistle as annoy, like giving a hungry man a crumb of bread.

Anyone interested in the subject of Russians and vodka (or just in a great drunken religio-poetic anti-love-story novel/rant) should read Venedikt Erofeev's Moskva-Petushki, translated as Moscow to the End of the Line. And if you already know the book, you'll be as pleased as I was just now to find this website that features photos of locations and subjects from the novel (the page I linked to has a picture of the station at Petushki, which is not at all how I imagined it; I can't see how to get other pictures with English text, but here's the main website, in Russian, and if you click on the links at left you'll get chunks of text from the novel with appropriate pictures).
posted by languagehat at 10:03 AM on July 26, 2003

I could care less about caviar

languagehat, I am shocked, shocked, to find you making such an error in discourse. Explain yourself, Sir.

Oh, and shall I send you immigration instructions, or would you prefer to claim refugee status? :)
posted by jokeefe at 4:33 PM on July 26, 2003

Actually, I deliberately and maliciously employ "incorrect" locutions of that ilk in order to annoy the Übergrammatiks. Sorry you found yourself caught in the net; let's just forget the whole sordid incident, shall we?

As a matter of fact, both my wife and I (thanks to her aunt in the Great White North) scored over the requisite 75 on the skilled-immigrant test some kindly soul recently posted, so we shouldn't encounter too many obstacles should the need arise, but I'm sure a good reference couldn't hurt!
posted by languagehat at 5:56 PM on July 26, 2003