Gothamist: Bye-Bye Beluga

Mig

Sun, 30 Oct 2005 03:40:19 -0500

My brother-in-law is a fish scientist in California working with those sturgeon. There's definitely a difference between the various caviars, but calling one superior is like calling a good red wine superior to a good white. There are fundamental differences that preclude direct comparison. Though I probably wouldn't buy it myself even if I could afford it, I've eaten a lot of caviar with a lot of Russians (for whom it's not a snob food), including the beluga. I'd be able to tell the difference in a blind test, but wouldn't say the expensive stuff is more enjoyable. (If you have black bread, cream cheese, and a frozen bottle of vodka or five to go with it, any caviar is great, even the red.) Like most luxury goods it's the name and the price more than the intrinsic qualities. Ultra-high-end stereo equipment and mined diamonds are also in this category. Even if cheap California caviar were identical to beluga it would be snubbed by people for whom caviar is a class and culture item, which in the US is probably a majority of consumers.

caviar

Sun, 30 Oct 2005 03:17:30 -0500

If a post about a ban on Beluga caviar doesn't prove Gothamist is for yuppies, I don't know what will.

garth

Sat, 29 Oct 2005 17:12:23 -0500

Eating one or two cooked chicken eggs strikes me as somehow different then eating hundreds of raw fish eggs, but that's just me (and anywho the issue here is much more my budget and food comfort zone more than an ick factor). As for drinking water fishes have done the deed in, you are so right Monkeytown. I ONLY drink water that fishes have fucked in. Their copulation makes the water taste so much sweeter.

monkeytown

Sat, 29 Oct 2005 16:52:07 -0500

"not really wanting to either... fish eggs and all" But you eat chicken eggs, I bet. And you probably drink water, even though fish fuck in it.