How to eat caviar – hint: you get to chug vodka
There is a technique to wolfing down premium fish eggs that cost €6,500 per kilogram, so we spoke to the experts about how to do it
“How do you eat caviar? You shovel it into your mouth and try to forget how expensive it is.”
This was the kind of helpful, supportive reaction I got when I was preparing for the caviar edition of our “How to Eat” series. I have nice friends.
Well, the joke’s on them, because I learned a lot when I was wolfing down premium fish eggs that cost €6,500 (US$7,401) per kilogram.
Essential takeaway points are: you get to drink a lot (including chugging a glass of vodka), eating with your hands is encouraged, all caviar are fish eggs but not all fish eggs are caviar, and that this is one of the most expensive things you can eat that will never fill you up.
Check out our helpful video on How to Eat Caviar so you don’t look like a pleb at your next glam gathering:
We speak to Joyce Chan, operations manager of Caviar House & Prunier, which stocks its premium wares at The Ritz-Carlton Hong Kong’s Almas Caviar Bar.
She recommends using mother-of-pearl spoons as metal ones would affect the taste of the roe (we knew that), and that caviar is best enjoyed when spooned onto the back of the hand so that it’s warmed to almost body temperature (we didn’t know that).
We also enlisted the help of Leo Lo, the hotel’s head sommelier, to recommend wines and spirits for pairing, because caviar tasting is a thirsty business, and because journalists have drinking problems.
We try three types of caviar:
Caviar House Finest Caviar Beluga (€6,500/kg)
Only fancy people allowed. Even caviar novices will have heard of the Beluga caviar that comes exclusively from the eponymous European sturgeon, which has the rather lovely scientific name of Huso huso.
