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Caviar was a free bar snack

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Re: Caviar was a free bar snack

#81

Post by buildzr »

mkl wrote: post #42
buildzr wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even the farmed ones? Do you eat meat at all?

Unfortunately, fish farming is currently not generally sustainable either, for other reasons, e.g. https://modernfarmer.com/2015/03/dear-modern-farmer-is-fish-... Yes, I eat some meat, but fish is a special case as it's the only major source of meat that's from wild sources, and those sources are being exploited beyond sustainable limits much of the time: https://www.worldwildlife.org/threats/overfishing Farmed meat…

That fish farming sustainability article seems highly suspect to say the least, they're complaining about GMOs and such being "unsustainable" which is ridiculous. If anything GMOs are more sustainable in many ways, higher yield for less land, better targeted pesticides, etc.

I'll have to look into it more, there's a few different agencies certifying "sustainably farmed" fish at the moment which seem to be readily available around here at least.

Re: Caviar was a free bar snack

#82

Post by Retric »

teekert wrote: post #48
mamon wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Makes sense: lobsters are essentially insects, and eating insects, such as cockroaches is disgusting for most people. I still refuse to eat lobsters and shrimps for this exact reason: I'm not eating any insects, ever.

Some human puts some species under some label. You: I'm not eating anything under this label as it must be alike! But in this case insects a lobsters are not even close in the tree of life. Maybe they indeed look alike a bit. Do you eat feces because it does look a bit like chocolate?

It’s not that far apart Lobsters and insects both belong to the invertebrate phylum Arthropoda.

If you want to include both spiders which are Chelicerata and grasshoppers which are Hexapoda that’s Arthropoda.

Re: Caviar was a free bar snack

#83

Post by konart »

crazygringo wrote: post #74
moate wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> Also why it's eaten in small amounts, since it's so strong. Fact check- It's eaten in small amounts because it's extremely expensive at this point due to people realizing the difficulty in producing it. If you look back to the heyday of caviar consumption (turn of last century and earlier), there were recipes that would call for as much a cup of caviar per serving. Tastes will always be personal, but the "strong f…

Wow, a cup per serving? That must have been a very different type of caviar? With modern caviar commonly sold today, I feel like the salt content alone would make that impossible, beyond just the taste. Tody it would be like eating a cup of canned and salted anchovies instead of just a couple in your caesar salad... it just doesn't make sense no matter what your personal preferences are. Or like eating an entire jar…

Russian here.

We often use pollock or pile roe in our everyday cuisine. You won't be using a whole cup of salty beluga's caviar for a pie or sandwiches of course.

Re: Caviar was a free bar snack

#84

Post by tk75x »

huhtenberg wrote: post #23
mkl wrote: post #2

"It takes twenty years for a female beluga to mature, and at that point she can weigh as much as 1,800 pounds [...]. Such a fish could yield twenty pounds of eggs [when killed]." That's got to be one of the least sustainable things I've ever heard of. I tried caviar once. It didn't taste like much, and I didn't see the point.

They no longer kill the fish to extract the caviar. They can now drain the caviar through a form of cesarean, basically, and release the fish back.

sturgeonaquafarms.com

Article about them here https://www.forbes.com/sites/jennysplitter/2019/01/31/beluga...

Re: Caviar was a free bar snack

#85

Post by cvs268 »

tempguy9999 wrote: post #8
nkrisc wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven't tried the super expensive stuff, but it tasted like seawater to me. Didn't really see the point of it. At least with other expensive foods like saffron or truffles they are very potent and have pretty unique flavors. Instead of caviar I'll just add salt next time.

Got bumped from cattle class to royal class (sic) on a flight when I was a kid. Got to taste real caviar. Black, salty, fishy and rather fatty. Bit gross really. Also got asked for a drink (alcoholic, I guess I was old enough). Cattle class you got the drink. Royal class you got a saucer with a coaster with a doily with a smaller coaster on that finally with the drink parked atop, and a tiny fork next to it to pull o…

Haha... nice sponsored content!

Re: Caviar was a free bar snack

#86

Post by kgwgk »

peterwwillis wrote: post #76
kgwgk wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where is lobster population increasing due to warming?

Where they catch them? https://qz.com/506376/lobsters-2/

Thanks, it makes sense... I remembered some recent alarmists headlines about how lobsters will decline in the area due to warming but forgot that it was warming in the first place that made it the sweet spot it's currently.

Edit: anyway, production in the US has doubled in the last 20 years but the increase in global production is less than 50%. So it has not "exploded" in all the places where they catch them.

Re: Caviar was a free bar snack

#87

Post by ryguytilidie »

mkl wrote: post #2

"It takes twenty years for a female beluga to mature, and at that point she can weigh as much as 1,800 pounds [...]. Such a fish could yield twenty pounds of eggs [when killed]." That's got to be one of the least sustainable things I've ever heard of. I tried caviar once. It didn't taste like much, and I didn't see the point.

By the same token "This thing is stupid and pointless, partly because I didn't find it to fit my tastes. I guess I'll just assume everyone feels the same way I do and I'll marvel at why other people have different taste than me" is something I don't see the point of.

Re: Caviar was a free bar snack

#88

Post by diablerouge »

buildzr wrote: post #81
mkl wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately, fish farming is currently not generally sustainable either, for other reasons, e.g. https://modernfarmer.com/2015/03/dear-modern-farmer-is-fish-... Yes, I eat some meat, but fish is a special case as it's the only major source of meat that's from wild sources, and those sources are being exploited beyond sustainable limits much of the time: https://www.worldwildlife.org/threats/overfishing Farmed meat…

That fish farming sustainability article seems highly suspect to say the least, they're complaining about GMOs and such being "unsustainable" which is ridiculous. If anything GMOs are more sustainable in many ways, higher yield for less land, better targeted pesticides, etc. I'll have to look into it more, there's a few different agencies certifying "sustainably farmed" fish at the moment which seem to be readily ava…

I think you may be incorrect about GMOs actually being more sustainable, as they have a pretty major effect on biodiversity by encouraging higher use of pesticides and insecticides[0]. A great example is the effect they have had on the population of monarch butterflies, mentioned in the linked source.

[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_co...

Re: Caviar was a free bar snack

#89

Post by steve_adams_86 »

opportune wrote: post #70
mkl wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, that's why I don't buy fish.

Maybe I'm just falling victim to corporate propaganda, but I'm pretty sure wild (Alaskan) salmon is truly sustainably fished, as are sardines and anchovies

The Alaskan fishery is much like the fishery south of it in BC, where 'sustainable' is a bit of a joke - I think that term is based on taking a 'sustainable' number of the estimated population returning to spawn in rivers. Alaskan rivers are doing better than BC's, but returns are dwindling and both governments are consistently shifting baselines on a yearly basis. Every year quotas are smaller, but so are the populations.

This is something I follow constantly and the numbers are actually terrifying. Some rivers have okay returns of some species of salmon, but some like sockeye are at incredibly low numbers. They are by some measures on the brink of extinction, and many spawning runs are extinct already.

In BC, sockeye returns are currently being tracked daily and the result so far is that less are returning than ever before, and the amount returning is far less than the department of fisheries and oceans' lowest estimates. It's an emergency in my opinion. People shouldn't be eating sockeye.

I'm not sure about sardines and anchovies. I know herring have been seriously overfished, so I have doubts that anything we fish is sustainable at the moment. I hope it is.

Re: Caviar was a free bar snack

#90

Post by pvaldes »

huhtenberg wrote: post #22
L_226 wrote: post #10

I enjoy beluga caviar - very expensive for what it is though. A much cheaper alternatve is (homemade) black olive tapenade - almost as good for similar usages, and far more sustainable. But I suspect the consumption of caviar is more about signalling than actual taste anyway.

That's like saying that Trabant is a much cheaper alternative to Bentley. Technically it is... but not quite. Edit: I don't know how to be any more clearer here, but "Olive tapenade as a beluga caviar alternative" is straight from the /shit-the-hn-says department, it's beyond ridiculous. "Ketchup as a San Marzano tomato alternative."

Is an interesting comparison. Salty taste and color could relate in some ways, but tapenade don't has the "exploding in your mouth" part, neither the strong fish oil taste. Is perfectly good in its own terms even if is not caviar.
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