I can’t remember a time when my mother, and I afterward, couldn’t find those small, inexpensive jars of fish roe in the supermarkets; firm tiny red or black roe, larger salmon roe. The roe was served for special occasions at those 50s/60s style cocktail parties, on toast or as a topping for deviled eggs. Real caviar (sturgeon) was much more than we could afford and I probably had my first taste of caviar overseas some place. In any case, we loved the fish roe, still do, and didn’t really know the difference.
Of course neither fish roe nor caviar is available here in Honesdale. The Wegman’s in Scranton has some very expensive roe? they have labeled caviar. Fish roe or caviar, in all our travels, we have never eaten anything like this. The beads are so hard they crunch like pebbles, loudly, and are tasteless. Bleah!
As in many cases lately, I resigned myself to a caviar-less diet until I could return to France. But it seems as if we Americans have voluntarily leapt back on to the EU “unsafe” list so we won’t be traveling anytime soon. Like the Co-vid transmission level in our area, our caviar craving went up to “extreme” and I decided to purchase some caviar online.
This Imperia Ossetra was not bad and reminded me of some I had purchased at the fish monger in Sens; firm, not crunchy beads with a nice little pop between the teeth. Although we could have greedily just eaten it from the container, I made deviled eggs and we drank a nice Bailly La Pierre Brut Rose Cremant in the prescribed civilized manner 🙂
How lovely! You can taste the difference side by side, but then there are lots of different roes and caviars – all of which should be sampled …in an ideal world! Apparently they are breeding Russian sturgeon in North Carolina: https://www.eater.com/2018/11/13/18080334/quality-caviar-us-north-carolina-video
I’m sorry your France trip has been postponed – I hope it gets reinstated soon!
“Thanks Mad. Think I should try the North Carolina caviar?”
This came to me by email, instead of as a reply.
Ha ha – yes definitely – it probably costs the same as a plane ticket though! I wish I could send you some of the lesser fish roe – it’s quite cheap here. Sadly I can’t imagine US customs letting it in though.
When were you last in France? I have just returned from 3 weeks in the US and was so excited to visit after 5 years away.
Hey @cookinginsens do you have instagram? I’d like to tag you in a recipe that we made! please let me know, thx.
No I don’t have instagram
Your devilled eggs look lovely! I’ll have to look out for some roes next time I go to the big supermarket, had come trout ‘caviar’ recently, which was very nice!