Shelf stable caviar review

Cafe Society
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Every so often I get the idea to try some more caviar. I had some at a party decades ago and liked it. Since then I have tried it a few times but have not found any “real” caviar that is inexpensive enough to buy so I have tried the cheaper versions. Lumpfish, salmon, trout, etc. Every one of them has been too fishy for me. But still I try. This time my Google search landed on a 3 pack of different fish eggs from the World Market. They were in stock at my local store so I whipped over there and bought one. At first I was puzzled because they do not have a refrigerated section. The clerk explained the caviar “flight” was shelf stable. Hmmm.

For $20 I had a nicely packaged group of three exquisite small glass jars and a mother of pearl spoon. By “nicely packaged” I mean it was completely sealed in two layers of the toughest plastic known. This stuff might be bullet proof. It was certainly beyond the capacity of my desk scissors but metal snips did the trick. I was worried I was going to break the spoon since it was really molded tight.

Now I spotted that this was an “infused” flight of fish eggs rather than just plain ova. I will note here that all the jars are marked “caviar” as well as the package, but according to my caviar reading only sturgeon roe can be called caviar. No toast points but I already had crackers. I hated to buy an entire pint of sour cream for just this taste test so I grabbed some Dollar General French onion dip. After all, chopped onions is a proper addition to caviar.

Here we go, worst to best:

Truffle whitefish caviar. I don’t know what truffles should taste like. But I doubt they taste fishy. And this blend did. Rather fishy, just like the ones in the past I did not care for. Off to a bad start.

Smoked trout caviar. Smokey. Very smokey. It was honestly all I could taste and I even tried them plain. OK if you want smoke but not a trace of caviarness.

Black tobiko caviar. Wikipedia say that tobiko is flying fish roe often found on sushi. If so, great. I have had sushi with those tiny orange or black eggs and liked it. Mild delicious taste with pop in your mouth fun.

All in all a nice bit of tasting fun for only $20. And I have three cool jars I can fill with gold from my sluicing. Plus an awesome mother of pearl spoon. I guess I am going to have to pony up $60 for the least expensive sturgeon caviar some day at Whole Foods.

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Did you buy this with food stamps?

:rofl:

Ducking and running! (This was a recent hot topic).

I really don’t have anything to contribute. I’ve eaten plenty of roe on sushi and while in Japan in many forms, but I’ve only had caviar a couple times at high falutin events. Not sure I can contribute much more.

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My exotic first-time caviar story: in college in the early 1990s, my suitemate from Tashkent, Uzbekistan had a sizable can of Russian caviar. We shared it along with a guy from Kazakhstan and a non-traditional 30-something student who lived locally but was a French ex-patriot. My most Mad-Libs meal.

The real Russian caviar didn’t really taste different than the cheap supermarket lumpfish caviar I would occasionally buy later.

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Tobiko in/with sushi is frequently orange. I’ve never seen it black and we eat sushi fairly frequently*. I like tobiko for its texture — it really pops in the mouth.

This thread reminded me that when I’d go to Sweden on business trips, decent caviar at low prices was easily found in the supermarkets and convenience stores. Very easy to find. I would often get some caviar, smoked salmon, a raw veggie like celery, and this very dense and nutty hard bread and bring it back to my hotel room for my dinner. Reading the labels (in Svenska) on the caviar was a challenge so I rarely bothered with what it said. I’d just get a few types and try them all.

* — when the 3 now-adult kids were younger a running joke in our family was that the only meal choices we’d all generally agree on were pizza and sushi.

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The black version is colored with cuttlefish ink. The mouth pops are half the fun.

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A fan of canned seafoods myself, I don’t think I’ve tried shelf stable fish eggs. They’re sometimes reported in sardines but I don’t usually look that close.
All I can picture is dyed salmon eggs for fishing bait, lol.

I also like the tobiko in sushi and have bought it by itself. Not surprisingly, it’s better a ‘few’ at a time as a garnish than by spoonfuls. In other words, their use in sushi is perfect.

There are some stores around here that have little refrigerated caviar display cases at the service desk AND under padlock & key. I’m not familiar with the really high end stuff and wouldn’t mind the splurge (few hundred /few ounces) but could really use an experienced guide.