Quiche Lorraine

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker

I hope my research will satisfy your curiosity. Caviar is the processed, salted roe of certain species of fish, most notably the sturgeon. It is commercially marketed worldwide as a delicacy and is eaten as a garnish or a spread; for example, with hors d'uvres. Contemporary black caviar is roe from sturgeon fished from the Caspian Sea by Azerbaijan, Iran, Russia and Kazakhstan. The highest prices paid are for the Beluga, Ossetra, and Sevruga varieties. (The large-grained Beluga caviar is from the Beluga sturgeon, a fish which is unrelated to the Beluga whale, a mammal.) The golden Sterlet caviar was once a favorite of czars, shahs, and emperors. Currently, the dwindling fishing yields consequent to overfishing and pollution have resulted in the creation of less costly, though popular, caviar-quality roe alternatives from the whitefish and the North Atlantic salmon. Alternatives and imitation : In Scandinavia, a significantly cheaper version of caviar, made from smoked cod roe, is sold in tubes as a sandwich filling. Black and red colored lumpsucker caviars are sold in small glass jars to make a tasty and cheap replacement for sturgeon caviar. Caviars from the burbot, the vendace, and the common whitefish are available in Finland, in their natural form, as an alternative to sturgeon caviar. Some gourmets regard burbot caviar as a delicacy outranking Beluga caviar in taste and flavour, at a fraction of the price. The retail price of burbot caviar in Finland is about 30 /kg. In the vegetarian foodstuffs market, soy-based imitation caviar is produced and sold as a caviar alternative.

Given its high price in the West, caviar is synonymous with luxury and wealth. In Russia and other Eastern European cultures, though still expensive, caviar is commonly served at holiday feasts, weddings, and other festive occasions. Sturgeon-derived caviar is generally not eaten by Jews who keep kosher, because sturgeon lacks scales and thus is not considered kosher; however, this does not apply to every roe-yielding fish species. In Islam all sea or river animals such as fish are lawful and halal which applies to the sturgeon as well as its caviar. Arthur C Clarke once said: "In orbit, caviar is cheaper than bread." This statement considers the cost of lifting mass to orbit. By present means, the cost of lifting a kilogram to orbit exceed $10,000 US dollars; the cost of beluga caviar was on the order of $1000/kg when Clarke spoke, but it is now about $10,000. The price of bread is under $10/kg, but it is not as concentrated a source of protein or calories, so more bread than caviar would be needed to sustain life.

Caviar is a big business. Imported caviar can sell for anywhere from $100 to $1,000 per ounce in

America, and the United States imports an average of 130,000 pounds of caviar per year, worth approximately $6.6 million. And as might be expected in a business as potentially profitable as the caviar business, there is a high occurrence of fraud. Just as in the 19th century, when American caviar was passed off as imported Russian caviar and sold at a higher price, so too in the 21st century do fraud and deceit find their way into the caviar industry. In fact, it is believed that only a small percentage of the caviar that comes out of the Caspian, or that enters this country, does so legally. Because of its strong ties to former Cold War enemies, the caviar business often teeters on the fine line between diplomacy and espionage. Numerous spy stories have been told about clandestine midnight shipments of roe or secret meetings on third-party neutral territory. Unbelievable as they may seem, there are many documented cases of caviar smuggling during the last two decades that suggest that the spy stories of caviar gangsters are not so fanciful after all.