
The Caviar Con - kawera
https://longreads.com/2019/02/12/the-caviar-con/
======
throwaway5752
Caviar might be the most overrated food item (besides foie gras) that exists.
It is enjoyable, but nowhere in proportion to the cost. It's a status symbol.

It's a damn shame we are pushing species into extinction for irrational
reasons (overrated fish eggs, rhino horn ED "cures", etc)

~~~
ptero
To me, as well, caviar tastes good but almost never worth the costs and
certainly not worth pushing species into extinction for.

However, as far as most overrated and overpriced item the honor, in my book,
goes to truffles. Which, for me, are not even enjoyable. But this is certainly
just a personal preference.

~~~
grawprog
If we're talking about ridiculous overpriced foods I think saffron might beat
out truffles for me. I've had it a couple times and i'm still not sure what it
tastes like.

~~~
kulahan
Same. It's not unacceptable to substitute it with a tiny bit of cumin to get
the same color, since the taste of it is very subtle and easy to overpower.
Even when you can taste it, it's not some miraculously incredible flavor or
whatever, it just happens to compliment some other ingredients.

I grew some at home once just to see what the real stuff tastes like, and
while the flowers were pretty, I'd never bother with it again.

------
eganist
ctrl+f "persian"

ctrl+f "iran"

...would seem the solution here would be to open up the caviar market with
Iranian imports (caveat: I'm Persian), but the luxury goods sanctions snapped
back courtesy of the current administration, so the monopoly is back with the
Russians. [https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-08/what-s-
ne...](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-08/what-s-next-who-
gets-hit-when-the-u-s-resumes-iran-sanctions)

Shrug.

~~~
Avshalom
I feel like there's some ridiculous pistachio laundering scheme because of the
sanctions too.

~~~
mhuffman
> there's some ridiculous pistachio laundering scheme

Believe it or not, this is pushed by the same folks that own Fiji Water and
Pom Wonderful.

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meddlepal
> Entrepreneurs went looking for alternatives among Caspian sturgeon’s distant
> North American cousins: white sturgeon, the shovelnose sturgeon of the
> Mississippi River, the American paddlefish. It’s a mediocre substitute.

I like caviar... I have eaten quite a bit of caviar including Russian Sevruga
and Beluga and I think actually prefer American Hackleback to all of them. The
fact it is massively cheaper than Russian caviar is just an additional plus.

~~~
mc32
There is also Sturgeon farming in the Sacramento area[1]. NOt sure about the
quality, but looks like a Belgian multinational is now the owner.

[1][http://www.sactownmag.com/December-January-2010/The-
Incredib...](http://www.sactownmag.com/December-January-2010/The-Incredible-
Edible-Eggs/?cparticle=2&siarticle=1)

------
forkLding
Aside from Persian Caviar, you could consider Chinese Caviar, one Chinese
Caviar company, Kaluga Queen, already supplies 30% of the world, there are
documentaries of them on Youtube. They supply 21 of the 26 3 star Michellin
restaurants in Paris.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaluga_Queen](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaluga_Queen)

------
gumby
I've never understood the point of caviar (my ex loved it so I've eaten a lot
over the decades). It always seemed like a classic Vleben/"famine cuisine
turned posh", like lobster going from "inedible" to _haut cuisine_ due to
scarcity.

In fact this transition is right in the article: "...paddlefish caviar — a
byproduct that for years local fishermen tossed back with fish guts — ..."

~~~
lightbyte
>like lobster going from "inedible" to haut cuisine due to scarcity.

Lobster didn't go from inedible to highly desirable because of scarcity. It's
because we learned that when you kill the lobster and let it sit around for
days it very quickly decomposes and releases ammonia, which tends to taste
like cat piss. If you cook it immediately after killing it it actually tastes
good.

~~~
RcouF1uZ4gsC
> If you cook it immediately after killing it it actually tastes good.

I believe we actually cook it before killing it (boil alive).

~~~
mynameisvlad
[https://munchies.vice.com/en_us/article/vvq7k4/how-chefs-
pre...](https://munchies.vice.com/en_us/article/vvq7k4/how-chefs-prefer-to-
kill-lobster)

Frozen lobster is also not cooked. Sometimes it's death by freezing, if
they're not killed another way first (for instance, frozen lobster tails are
obviously killed before being cut). I'm quite certain boiling alive is one of
the least common ways it's done, especially with the popularity of frozen
lobster.

~~~
moate
Depends on locality. I was a chef in the American Northeast and I worked with
plenty of live lobsters, even at some mid-priced restaurants. I don't think
people in Kansas have quite the same luxury, but I do remember seeing tanks
when I lived out in the Midwest as well. Where I'm at though, there's plenty
of live sea-food available for purchase through the year.

~~~
deadmetheny
As a Midwesterner, I can verify that in the more populated areas it's possible
to get them. Live lobsters are a bit on the expensive side, but not
prohibitively so.

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sct202
It's sad that these fish take 7+ years to mature and are harvested just for
their eggs while their bodies are left to rot.

~~~
habeebtc
They are marvelous beasts. The bright side is that they are hard to catch
outside of spawning grounds, and not commonly targeted by fishermen, not
commonly caught accidentally, and not commonly eaten even if so.

The bad news is is that their chief competitor for food is Asian Carp. From my
reading this is a much larger issue than Russian poachers.

(If you were wondering, I was looking into Asian carp snagging and got to
reading up on Paddlefish since they inhabit the same waters near me)

------
zeveb
> The state and federal government had spent millions of dollars to protect a
> fish stocking operation that costs Missouri $100,000 a year.

Seems like they could have just increased the cost of fishing licenses (or
some similar fund-raiser) and increased the stocking effort.

Or heck, just farmed the caviar and sold it to aficionados …

~~~
gwern
They obviously did not do it just to save the cost of restocking a few
paddlefish. As the article says repeatedly, they thought they were
infiltrating an international mafia of endangered species poaching, money
laundering, smuggling, international crime and transnational mafia likely with
links to terrorism or intelligence agencies, which might be involved in
anything from drugs to ivory smuggling.

~~~
lightbyte
Yeah and it turned out that they were delusional and people just wanted caviar
to eat it

>Most of the men were buying female paddlefish, processing knockoff caviar and
just … eating it. Illegal, yes. But the plot of a Russian mafia thriller?
Hardly.

>If the government did not realize its miscalculation, at least some officers
must have on March 13, 2013, at 7 a.m. Central time, when 125 state and
federal agents descended on poachers across four time zones to make arrests.

>During an interrogation, one poacher was confused. The caviar was for his
family to give guests when they came over.

>“Why would I want to sell it?” he asked.

>“To make money,” an agent suggested.

>“Heck, no!”

>Of the 112 defendants tagged with state or federal violations, investigators
observed only Petr Babenko, the owner of a gourmet store in Vineland, New
Jersey, intending to sell the stuff. He was prosecuted, convicted, and given
probation. The government seized his Mercedes van.

>To Hitchings, it doesn’t matter. Other men were undoubtedly selling, he said

~~~
stefs
that's hindsight, though. enforcing the law is, i guess, rarely cost effective
in the short run.

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bsenftner
Looks like 'entrepreneur' is the term for 'opportunist' now.

~~~
vkou
None of these people self-described as entrepreneurs.

