The ultimate delicacy...

Caviare, of all delicacies, comes closest to absolute pleasure. Fine caviare shine. Served alone, caviare embodies elegance and simplicity. With 47 vitamins and minerals, it is one of the most complete foods known to man. Only its rarity and its price - ten dollars a spoonful, or $35 an ounce - bring its lovers down to earth. For otherwise it would simply be, too good to be true.

Just the mention of caviare seems to divide people into two groups: those who love it and simply must have more of it, and those who think the first group is made up of fools whose IQs are inversely proportional to their bank balances. If these edible pearls are over-priced, the caviare industry hasn't yet heard.

Caviare is expensive because it is rare, and because most of the work involved, from fishing to the shining presentations in fine restaurants, is done by hand. True caviare is the lightly salted eggs, or roe, of the sturgeon. In some countries the eggs of other fish are legally sold as caviare; such as the red eggs of salmon and the black eggs of lumpfish and whitefish. While these fish eggs are tasty and are invaluable ingredients for recipes, they in no way compare to the real thing. Perhaps this misappropriate of the word caviare may account for some of the members of our group of cynics.

Sturgeon can be found in the rivers of the United States, Canada, Scandinavia, Rumania and China, but it is in the Caspian Sea, an elongated body of landlocked water which borders Russia and Iran, where nine-tenths of the world's fine caviare is produced. The water temperature, the degree of salinity, and a special kind of algae unique to the Caspian allow the sturgeon to grow the eggs for which they are famous.