CAVIAR
“The czars believed that in the deep Caspian sea there was a blind primitive fish that dictates, like a watch, the only correct time of the universe”, the history of caviar is surrounded by mysteries, it is the precious roes of certain species of sturgeon, a huge pre-historic fish that nowadays reaches almost 400kg, which charmed and conquered the likes of interesting people for thousands of years.
Caviar, word coming from the Persian language term chav-jar, or “delicatesse of power”, referred to the rituals of tasting a cake of smashed sturgeon roe. Such method was not only chosen for its taste, though also because it was more difficult to keep the fish roe fresh using the limited technology available back then. The only people who had access to the roes themselves were royalty, who received it straight from the fishing facilities. In the end it was a matter of taste, even the old times tycoon Aristotle Onassis used to say he liked the so said caviar cake better than the raw roe.
There are many kinds of caviar, even from the American white sturgeon, also the Siberian one, though there are 3 main kinds of noble caviar: the sevruga, a smaller roe from the starlet sturgeon, the osetra, medium caviar from the most easily adapting sturgeon, originally from Russia, and the famous beluga, from the sturgeon of same name, largest of the three, that according to history has reached over 2 tons of weight in mid 18th century, such fish provided the market with over 400kg of pure caviar, quantity which nowadays may be worth nearly one million American dollars, quite a lot for a single fish.
Knowing that such exotic flavor may be tried together with hard boiled eggs, sour cream, blinis (small pancakes, a Russian recipe) or raw and cold, it is always good to know where you can have serious caviar. There is the Caviar Bar of the seven stars Emirates Palace, in Abu Dhabi (UAE), offering Iranian caviar directly from the Caspian sea, where the most noble sturgeons come from; as well as there is a remarkable hotel named Chevre D’or down the South of France, famous for its spectacular vista, nestled in the mountain of Eze’s old town, mentioned in a previous article in this website, that offers caviar tasting menus together with Dom Perignon champagne, quite a match considering the amazing views and great service of their terrace bar.
For those who prefer to have it at home there are some large retail companies that offer such delicatessen, like Petrossian, French giant now expanding to South America’s Sao Paulo, city that tends to become the pride of Brazil, or Zwyer Caviar, Swiss company that was able to produce decent osetra from farming sturgeons in Uruguay, like said by the specialized blog “Caviarist” (http://www.caviarist.com/).