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Ear to the Ground

Let Them Eat Caviar

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Posted on Dec 20, 2008
Beluga caviar
tomkirkman.com

Fish eggs, fish eggs, roly poly fish eggs: Beluga caviar.

Some needy denizens of Milan will be served a rare delicacy this holiday season, after Italian customs officials seized about 88 pounds of beluga caviar from smugglers trying to sneak it in from Poland. The loot—worth over half a million dollars—was donated to feed the Milanese poor.


BBC:

Beluga caviar is the most expensive variety of the delicacy.

Countries have tried to crack down on illegal trading of caviar after more than 600 tonnes of it were traded in the EU between 1998 and 2004.

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By KDelphi, December 29, 2008 at 11:06 am Link to this comment

“Really sad thou, I don’t mean to sound like an elitist; I don’t think the very poor would appreciate it like we would.”

Well, you sure sounded like one, anyway…

Bourgeous idiot..

I think blog dog was kidding.

Caviar (three kinds). Shark.Whale and dolphin meat.

Why not purchase some tiger penis or shark fin soup for new Year’s? An “edible gold” sundae?

This reminds me of The Nation Mags coverage of the Dem Convention—“No on is discussing the middle classes, or class much at all! But, I am tired. I am off to the HuffPo tent for a strawberry drink and a facial—-btw-the chicken on a stick (gets around lobbying laws if its on a stick) is delicious!”

I dumped the mag, and you NY, need to end up on a park bench,,,,

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By NYCCTO, December 29, 2008 at 12:12 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

To blog dog, Beluga fish is not the same as beluga whale. If it was the later, people will truly go nuts on this. You seen a beluga whale at say some sort of sea-world place? They are like the cute fluffy white puppy in water! Which civilized person could soundly eat that and talk about it?

Big dig for those that pointed out why don’t they just sell it and feed the poor for like 50 years! Thou, since they banned fishing of beluga plus 1 or 2 species back at I believe mid 07’ these poor eggs are probably from illegal fishing ... selling these would be a crime. Really sad thou, I don’t mean to sound like an elitist; I don’t think the very poor would appreciate it like we would.

Got to this site because I was looking to buy some online for New Year’s party for a good friend, and try to save a good 20% (or more) off the street price on NYC ... now, I am starting to think maybe it might be a bad idea from the start…

Happy new years to us all to the coming 09’!

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By espaz, December 21, 2008 at 9:33 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

you’d think the anti abortion nuts would be up in arms over this story !

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By espaz, December 21, 2008 at 9:24 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

say there KDelphi -  what part of california is scandanavia in ?  perhaps we can go collecting fish eggs along the sea shore sometime.

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By nrobi, December 21, 2008 at 6:40 am Link to this comment

This should be some people’s best Christmas for a long time.  I would give my eye teeth for some of the Beluga
Caviar.
Yes it is the finest in the world and the cost as accounted is correct. We must preserve our resources and make sure that the whole of mankind and the animal kingdom survives the coming years.
To get the caviar, one must kill the sturgeon, and then
retrieve the eggs through a rigorous process that does not lend itself to the species furthering itself.
As stated, I would love just a small bit, of the best caviar in the world. I live in a most culturally
deprived area, Western Central Pennsylvania and fresh
fish consists of not much except the occasional trout
or bluegill.

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By KDelphi, December 21, 2008 at 1:28 am Link to this comment

espaz—I know you are kidding…

maani—I hate the stuff, but, I think that it is a better quality. But, I am not an expert on caviar. I know that it is extremely cheap—compared to here—in Scandanavia.

If they had confiscated it here, Dubya probably would have handed it out as Xmas presents to his staff and Wall St…

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By blog dog, December 21, 2008 at 1:22 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

the eggs are cut from the bellies of beluga whales on their way to spawn - the value was probably miscalculated at the price for sturgeon caviar - top shelf - beluga being the acceptable substitute for that of the near-extinct paleolithic fish

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By Jerry, December 20, 2008 at 10:04 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

They could feed a 100 homeless with this caviar for a day. Or sell it and feed 500 for a year.  I hope they choose the later.

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By Maani, December 20, 2008 at 9:59 pm Link to this comment

Let’s see…88 pounds at half a million dollars is…

...$355 per ounce.

But Zabars sells beluga caviar for $50 to $75 per ounce, which would make the Italians’ 88-pound score worth only $75,000 to $100,000.

Either they are DRASTICALLY overstating the value of the caviar, or they would have done better BUYING it from Zabars!  LOL.  (Yes, I know they got it “free”).

Peace.

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By espaz, December 20, 2008 at 7:28 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

it must be tedious and painstaking collecting all those individual fish eggs from the sea…

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