Caviar: The Strange History and Uncertain Future of the World's Most Coveted Delicacy (Repost)

As the Moscow correspondent for the Philadelphia Inquirer from 1994-1998 (she's now the paper's architecture critic), Saffron traveled throughout the former Soviet Union, reporting on those heady, hectic days. She also acquired a taste for caviar: "Those glistening black globules," she writes, "are a culinary Rorschach that unleashes our deeply held notions about wealth, luxury, and life." From the ghost town of Caviar, New Jersey to the illegal markets of Moscow, Saffron takes her readers on an absorbing journey as she details the bizarre and fascinating history of one of the world's most coveted delicacies. Caviar, long associated with wealthy Russian aristocracy (though originally considered a peasant food) and thought to possess both medicinal and aphrodisiacal properties, has been a source of great international controversy. Once considered the "black gold" of Russia, in the 1990's caviar became the symbol of American middle-class affluence: "When caviar prices were tumbling...Americans were making record salaries," Saffron writes, and their new wealth made them "crave the exotic." The continued demand for caviar and the sturgeon's placement on the list of endangered species has led to increasingly intricate smuggling rings. Saffron has taken an off-beat but intriguing topic, and, through her elegant and detailed prose, created a book worthy of gourmands and amateur historians alike.