Caviar

"There is more simplicity in the man who eats caviar on impulse

than in the man who eats Grape-Nuts on principle."

-- G.K. Chesterton

Tobiko (flying fish roe) 12-30-14

"Under cover of the clinking water goblets and silverware and bone china,

I paved my plate with chicken slices.

Then I covered the chicken slices with caviar thickly as if

I were spreading peanut butter on a piece of bread.

Then I picked up the chicken slices in my fingers one by one, 

rolled them so the caviar wouldn't ooze off and ate them."

-- Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar

My husband gave me bacon jerky and a few jars of caviar for Christmas.

I gave him a few bottles of whiskey and some boxes of shotgun shells.

Tobiko caviar on mother-of-pearl caviar spoon 12-30-14

It wasn't exactly The Gift of the Magi, but in our cockeyed way, it was a touching gift exchange nonetheless.

Anyway, yesterday I cracked open the little jar of red flying fish roe, called Tobiko, for my lunch.

I ate the itty-bitty, glistening, jewel-like eggs all alone by myself on crisp griddled toast spread with a tiny smear of wasabi.

I am neither a caviar expert nor a caviar snob.

I just happen to like it. Not all of it. I have my favorites. I prefer the milder stuff, and the tinier the eggs better. I like them to "pop" when I eat them.

The big fat soft ones? Nope.

Basically I take the same approach with caviar that I do with wine. It's a simple formula:  if it tastes good, I'll eat it. If it doesn't, I won't.

And this happened to taste very good.

Maybe today I'll try it with a tiny bit of jerky and see if it makes good bacon and eggs.