Caviar is not an "Izakaya" item but we tend to get carried away sometimes. Since the last time we had real Beluga caviar was ions ago, we decided to get both American Sturgeon as well as Beluga for a taste comparison and to refresh our memories. As before we got these from Fine Caviar.
This is American sturgeon. According to the fine caviar web site;
"Hackleback Sturgeon - (Scaphiryhnchus platoryhnchus) is indigenous to the Missouri and Mississippi River systems"
So this one is from wild-caught sturgeon. As you can see the grain of the caviar is fine and the color is black. The flavor is very subtle but not fishy with a nice salinity. The crunch and pop are great.
This is imported Beluga caviar which appears to come from "farm raised" sturgeons in "Eastern Asia" (which ever country that may be). Again quoting form the website;
"The eggs of the Huso Dauricus Sturgeon are raised in advanced farms located in Eastern Asia."
As you can see the grain of the caviar is much larger and the color is gray. In terms of the flavor, the difference is very subtle. We are not sophisticated enough to say one is better than the other or Beluga is worth the extra expense.
In any case, here is Beluga caviar on blini, with homemade creme fraishe and chives, which was wonderful.
Next morning, we decided to go past just a scrambled egg breakfast. So we put the eggs on blini and added American Sturgeon caviar.
Fish eggs for breakfast may not be everybody's idea of a good breakfast but this combination was quite good and luxurious, at least, to us.
I think we had enough caviar to last us for a while.
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