Original subtitles

You know, it was almost like something mythical,

like nectar of the gods.

It just conjured up a whole different world

that wasn't my little suburban corner of the universe.

I think a lot of people like me had

this romantic notion of eating it,

but never had that opportunity.

So I had actually tasted caviar on a date,

and that was really my first time,

and it was pretty incredible, at least as far as I remember.

It was just a very sensual, pleasurable experience.

And I don't think I had caviar again

until I became the correspondent for The Inquirer in Moscow.

In Russia, I was buying a kilo of caviar every two weeks.

I was eating it probably every single day.

And, of course, when I was doing my research for my book,

I was forced to eat a lot of caviar.

I will say, since I've written the book,

and since caviar has become more expensive and harder to find,

I only eat it on special occasions.

I think maybe I'm a recovering addict.

I've developed a taste for caviar over the years,

and I've been doing this 40 years now.

And even after 40 years, every time you eat it, is it's

like you're opening it for the first time, in a way.

Want some, Rosie?

Come on.

Just try it.

It won't kill you.

I mean, I like it but it won't kill ya.

People come in here wanting caviar.

They know that it's expensive and they

know if they can afford it they've

reached that level of affluence or status or whatever.

And then they'll open it up and they'll taste it,

and they'll hate it.

Let's see.

The first time I tried caviar, I probably had a spoonful

and said, yeah, so?

I mean, it was tasty and good.

But you can't just take one bite of it and go.

It tastes salty and fishy.

Part of the whole enjoyment of eating caviar is to savor it.

So this is a Siberian caviar.

Siberian sturgeon.

So this would be true caviar?

This is all true caviar.

Caviar has to be from sturgeon, the fish sturgeon,

otherwise it's fish eggs or roe.

I just find that people don't really know what caviar is.

And it's harder to get these days

than it used to be because of the diminishment

of the population.

Sturgeon are, of course, fished mainly for their caviar,

or roe, although the flesh is enjoyable, too.

Experts claim that the bigger ones may attain

an age of 200 to 300 years.

Known in Western Europe since the 16th century,

caviar today is still a luxury, and giving,

whether you like the stuff or not, that millionaire feeling.

[MUSIC - CHARLEY DREW, "CAVIAR COMES FROM VIRGIN STURGEON"]

Caviar comes from virgin sturgeon

Virgin sturgeon is a very fine fish

Virgin sturgeon needs no urging

That's why caviar is my dish

I would describe them as looking like swimming dinosaurs.

They look like a cross between a shark, an alligator,

and a fish.

The first time I had caviar, I didn't know what to think.

I was a little nervous about trying it.

So I ate it and it was interesting.

The consumption of caviar was built upon the ability to say,

I can afford caviar, therefore I'm special.

Sturgeon were harvested quite extensively for caviar

to the point where they are really threatened.

Their existence is threatened tremendously.

And that has now grown to the extent where you would not

find any wild harvested caviar.

It's nearly all from a sustainably farmed sturgeon.

I guess we make a joke that fish are not warm, furry, and fuzzy,

and they don't squeal.

A personal attachment, I would say,

is probably a bit of a stretch.

That part right there'll tear you up somethin'.

I just kind of hold it at this end,

take the other hand and... break em loose

Here you go.

You know, because caviar is seen as such a delicacy,

such a desirable commodity, we forget that it wasn't always

something that people liked.

Originally it was seen as a food of the poor.

It was really almost a sacred food for Orthodox Christians.

Sturgeon became the meat they ate on the meatless days.

And if you were poor, you would eat the eggs,

which was second best.

But over time, foods of the poor become very much

embedded in the local culture and something they celebrated.

Because it's for royalty, the czars,

it's got that mystique and eliteness to it

that almost nothing else has.

But because of all its popularity over time now,

sturgeon, in general, has become overfished.

Sturgeon, they range throughout the entire northern hemisphere,

but gradually the range of the fish contracted.

In the early '90s, there essentially was a stop, a ban,

put on the continued unregulated, unlimited harvest

of caviar.

At that time in the Caspian region,

everyone became a poacher.

This is a fish that takes a very long time to reproduce.

It's very fragile.

When you catch a spawning female sturgeon,

you not only kill that fish, but you

kill all future possibilities.

And that's why we're seeing the growth of sturgeon farming,

because that's the most sustainable way

to continue producing caviar.

I never thought I'd be doing this, that's for sure.

I've only been here eight months.

I'll be here three years this coming year in May.

You get differences with each fish.

People don't want to find any blood, any white eggs,

they want it pretty consistently,

just straight caviar.

It does have a unique taste.

The roll of the eggs on your tongue,

the way they detonate on your tongue.

It's all about the feel of it in your mouth.

Some caviar may have an earthy tone.

It tastes like fish.

How much do you think something like that would cost?

Um, $1?

$5 to $10.

I'm not that good at math, but yeah.

A lot of fish and wildlife and customs officials

would tell me that by weight, caviar

was more valuable than cocaine.

I don't know what you're talking about.

It's not actually the same conversion.

As it became more and more expensive,

it began to be packaged in smaller and smaller containers,

you know.

So it began to be treated more and more as this incredibly

rare and desirable commodity.

A lot of people will never eat caviar

because they just can't afford it, simple as that,

so they never have that experience.

It's something that I would eat if presented.

Would I go and spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars

on a small quantity?

Probably not.

Yes, this is $70,000 worth of fish eggs in Russia.

Outside the country, it could be worth up to three times that.

And it's going, going gone.

If you took all the caviar in the world

and put it in a big bucket, there's

not enough to go around for everybody at all.

Jesus Christ.

What

You're really going to town on that caviar.

It's the best caviar they could possibly get.

It's unbelievable.

What am I going to do, pass this up?

I think you're going over your allotment a little bit, no?

My allotment?

We think we can have this global culture.

We think we can eat anything at any time of the year

and that it'll have no consequences.

This was never meant to be a mass market food,

but it was meant to be the ultimate local food.

You're looking for more caviar, aren't you?

Of course I am.

You took all mine.

That was ours.

If there's a demand, then why not

satisfy that with a population of sturgeon

that you can sustain, rather than not produce them

and affect the wild population?

As much as we love to talk about the luxury of it

and what a delicacy it is and how to eat it,

all these rich feelings we have about it as a food,

it's also hard to disassociate those feelings

from the environmental impact of what we're doing.

This story does not surprise us.

We would only expect the best for Donald Trump's pampered son

Barron.

When it comes to skin care, he uses his mom's

caviar-enhanced skin care line.

She tells ABC News, I put it on him from head to toe.

He likes it.

On a different note, cops in Saint Pete's have

seized a large stash of caviar from a morgue.

175 kilos of the delicacy were being

stored in fridges and coffins together with dead bodies.

A local undertaker who rents out space at the morgue,

together with a surgeon, has been arrested.

The undertaker says the caviar was meant for a staff New Years

party.

Can you say I want more please?

I want more please.

I want more caviar.