Caviar

Some homeless people in Italy will be savoring beluga caviar this Christmas, thanks to officials who seized 88 pounds of the contraband delicacy from smugglers. The caviar has been given to charities to be served alongside the traditional foods they offer the poor on Christmas -- lentils, pasta and cake -- officials said Saturday.

Gourmets beware: That exotic smoky gray delicacy that you recently spread on a "blini" pancake--perhaps with a dab of sour cream--may have been contraband. Viktor Tsimbal, a Russian who was the president and owner of the Miami-based Beluga Caviar Inc., pleaded guilty Monday to orchestrating a ring that smuggled large quantities of caviar--more than Russia's entire annual worldwide export quota--to the United States.

The caviar poachers gathered on the beach before the fierce sun dawned over the Caspian Sea. They belted down a morning vodka, claiming it prevented seasickness. Then they launched their wooden boats into the pale waters, knowing full well that the precious, prehistoric sturgeon they would hunt this day is a threatened species.

In what would be a groundbreaking initiative to spur rapprochement with Iran, the Clinton administration is close to a decision to lift economic sanctions on Iranian carpets, caviar and pistachios, U.S. officials said Monday. The gesture, one of several now being considered, would follow the sweeping election victory last month by Iranian reformers, ending two decades of domination by conservatives in Iran's parliament.

Down a winding levee road on the outskirts of Sacramento, just behind a beat-up old trailer, sit the offices of one of the nation's more exclusive luxury food businesses. The collection of concrete tanks and aluminum sheds might not bespeak glamour, but a growing network of chefs and foodies say Stolt Sea Farm's white sturgeon caviar is the next best thing to fine Russian osetra.

Weekend mornings, I'm usually happy to stay at home reading, listening to music and generally lolling around. No rushing, all the time in the world for simple pleasures. Toast with homemade jam. Freshly brewed coffee. Or there's breakfast with a friend at Petrossian in West Hollywood, where luxury can be as simple as perfect scrambled eggs garnished with caviar. The cappuccino is well made and strong. You can ease into the morning with a Bellini or a lavender mimosa ? and also have the best bagel and smoked salmon in town.

State and federal game wardens culminated a two-year undercover investigation into sturgeon poaching with the arrest Friday of five immigrants from the former Soviet Union and three others suspected of black market sales of the giant fish, prized for the production of caviar.

It's enough to make a gourmet's stomach turn. The U.S. government may ban prized beluga caviar--the delicate, shimmery roe once reserved for Russian royalty, the rarest and most expensive fish eggs in the world. The fish that lays the eggs--the beluga sturgeon--is on the brink of extinction. Too many are being pulled from the Caspian and Black seas and sliced open by fishermen searching for a mother lode of gunmetal-gray eggs that can sell for $1,500 per pound. So the U.S.

The tip came from Poland. An unidentified Warsaw airport official with a keen eye--or, as federal investigators suspected, an inadequate share of the action--had blown the whistle on a group of fellow countrymen. Seven Polish passengers aboard Finnair Flight 003, bound for New York via Helsinki late last October, had checked 16 heavy bags on departure. Thanks to the whistle-blower, U.S. authorities knew their names, itineraries and seat assignments.

At $295, the new Le Burger Extravagant at New York's Serendipity 3 restaurant costs more than a pair of Tory Burch ballet flats, 10 Facebook shares, a trio of Disneyland tickets or 70 gallons of gas in California. The recently unveiled burger is the world's most expensive, according to Guinness World Records. The campagna roll exterior is spread with white truffle butter, dusted with gold and topped with a blini, crème fraîche and caviar. Nestled between the bread: Japanese Wagyu beef infused with white truffle butter, James Montgomery cheddar cheese, black truffles and a fried quail egg. Sounds good?