Question about caviar/fish eggs

[Claire]

I'm not a big caviar fan as a general rule, but love the very fine, small one you find on the exterior of a California roll. Today, for Valentine's Day, my husband took me to my local sushi bar. Our guy made us some ahi tartar. The presentation was to die for. After he made the tuna, he formed it into a pretty cake shape. Then he very, very thinly sliced an avocado and put it around the sides, then topped it with wedges of different colors of the fine caviar. It was placed on an Asian vinagrette. The entire dish made you not want to break into it and eat it (it sort of looked like a very small, one-layer cake).

Question: He had several different colors of the fish eggs. The orange is the most common I'd seen, but the black I had seen before as well. But there were golden ones, red, and a sort of pale aqua (almost transparent). Are all of these colors natural?

Question two. I would like to be able to buy this type of caviar, but don't know what to look for. I'm not fond of the larger fish eggs; too fishy and salty. The ones I'm talking about are very small, not strong flavored, and have such a lovely little "pop" when you bite down on them (not unlike poppy seeds). My local Asian grocery seems to always be closed when I go to Dubuque, but as soon as winter passes I want to go to Madison and I know I should be able to find them there. But I really don't know what to look for. What are they called? Do they come in cans or jars? I think they'd be a great touch in a salad dressing made with some ginger and/or sesame and/or wasabi.

 

[Andy M.]

That dish sounds fantastic! I'll bet you really loved it. I know I would have.

There are lots of different types of caviar and they naturally come in different colors. Here is a link with a few of the possibilities. Cook's Thesaurus: Caviar and Roe

You could always ask the sushi chef what kind of caviars he used. They always seem eager to share information.

If you can't get it locally, you should be able to find it online.