Caviar is the most prestigious delicacy in Russia and an indispensable delicacy on the New Year's table for Russians.

But the appeal of the World Conservation Fund (F) may be unbearable for the Russians. The agency's Russian branch says that consumers' love of caviar has led to a sharp decline in sturgeon populations.

Caviar is known as the "black gold", with caviar from the white sturgeon selling for more than $830 per kilogram in the Moscow market and more than $5,000 per kilogram in London, England.

As a result, sturgeon stocks in Russia are subject to predatory fishing, of which pirated fish account for a large proportion. In the Caspian and Black Seas, where sturgeon are the main producers, F's spokesman for Russia, Weisman, said on the 31st of last month that abstaining from caviar during the New Year period would protect endangered sturgeon.

Among the surviving sturgeon species, the most well-known are the Beluga and Svruga – the largest and smallest of the sturgeon respectively, and the names you can look for when you feel like you're big enough.

The giant white sturgeon can be up to 15 feet long and weigh more than 1,000 pounds, and its eggs can make up more than 20% of its body weight. The eggs of the great white sturgeon are the largest and take a long time to make, taking up to 20 years for the mother to reach the size of a spawn. Weighing only about 50 pounds, the sturgeon grows in seven years and lays one of the smallest eggs.

If caviar were just to catch the sturgeon and take the eggs for spawning, the price would definitely be much lower, but the taste would definitely not be the same.

Fish eggs are actually tasteless things, even sturgeon roe. The transformation of fish eggs into delicious caviar is all about processing.

The first step is to knock the sturgeon unconscious – not to kill it, because then the eggs will rot faster – and then the eggs are removed, sifted, washed, and drained for a mythical figure who, like a master brewer, is able to turn natural ingredients into magic.

The grader, taste-taster, or caviar master would have been more correct, with only a few minutes to make judgments that would determine the taste and price of the pile of eggs in front of him.

He smelled, tasted, looked, and touched with his fingertips. The eggs are graded according to their size, color, firmness, density and smell, and finally the most important decision in the whole process is to make the most important decision in the whole process: how much salt to put in the eggs, and to marinate the eggs into caviar without overshadowing the subtle combination of taste and texture.

The best quality fish eggs should be made with the least amount of salt, no more than 5% of the eggs, and this caviar can be called "maroso" (low-salt) caviar. (Mallss means "a little salt" in Russian, but in the U.S. it means a lot more than a little; that's the case in the U.S., where food descriptions aren't as strict.) ）

After adding salt, the eggs are sifted through a strainer until they are dry, and the jars are very small—two kilograms, or a little more than four pounds—so that the upper eggs don't crush the lower ones.

The caviar then travels in a freezer from the Caspian Sea to one of the world's most prestigious businesses that are patronized by people who can afford to pay at least $5 for a small sip.

When you consider that sturgeon is so rare, that it takes so many years for the mother fish to mature and spawn, that it requires such a high degree of skill to be processed, and that it is so difficult to transport, it is easy to understand why caviar is among the three most expensive foods in the world (the other two are French foie gras and truffles (divided into French black truffles and Italian white truffles)).

Caviar should be considered a major investment in terms of price and ounces, and it must be carefully considered before making a move, but it will definitely taste better than your stake in IBM or the famous Monet painting hanging in your bedroom.

Caviar, like anything natural, delicate and perishable, be sure to find a supplier you can trust, and he must sell enough of it, so that he is willing to go to the trouble of storing it properly.

There are no specials in caviar, so you can't afford to buy from the best stores, such as Petrossian in New York or Fortnum in London. If you look like someone who wants to buy a good thing, rather than someone looking for a quick snack, they may ask you to try it before you buy it.

Ironically, though, if a supplier is confident in their caviar and dares to provide such a wonderful service, then their advice must be something you can trust and you don't have to try it for free!

But buy as much as you want, and once you buy caviar, don't go back to the office, don't go to the bar, don't hang out to the park to see the girl. You're going to go straight home and put the caviar in the fridge. The caviar is unopened and can stay fresh for about four weeks.

Once opened, it can theoretically stay fresh for a day or two, but in practice there will be no leftovers.

You have to make a series of decisions now. It may seem like a small thing, but the result of a mistake in the thought is either to make your caviar a well-deserved feast, or to make you feel hard and lose money. First and foremost in this series of decisions is who you should choose to share.

Some people can be eliminated immediately. If you're going to pour a lot of sauce on everything, you'd better let them enjoy their terrible love in front of the hot dog stand! Your boss, and your amiable tax inspector friend, are to be excluded, because they're sure they're going to think you're making too much.

People in business will think that you may want to put on a score in front of them, and you just have to eat a few more bites. Relatives, it's not worth it. So, the object of choice is narrowed down to a particularly close friend, or a person you love more than anyone else, and this person, of course, is your Excellency.

Enjoy a caviar feast for yourself, and this meal will definitely make you unforgettable.

And what do you pair it with? Traditionally, it's Russian or Polish vodka, and the whole bottle has to be frozen in a large piece of ice, and the vodka is so cold that it stings your throat. But don't risk experimenting with flavored vodka: flavored vodka will fight caviar and usually win.

Personally, I like champagne with a very low sweetness. In addition to eating the bubbles, you also drink the bubbles at the same time, which is quite symmetrical and ingenious.

The procedures for preparing and serving caviar are often ridiculously complicated. You often see people piling layers upon layers of condiments on their plates, either changing the taste of caviar or covering it off, and they spend so much money just for it?