Astrakhan

Astrakhan, capital of caviar and fish

You cannot visit Astrakhan and not visit something to do with fish and caviar. I just had to visit the fish market where locally caught fish, plus of course lots of sturgeon and caviar was for sale. One of the many fish stalls with their wares artistically arranged for presentation to the customers.

 A view down one of the aisles.

 A close up of some of the smaller fish for sale, a type of sturgeon.

 It as also a popular hangout for six of the local dogs, sleeping in a park outside the fish market.

 And then it was off to a fish farm to find out how all the back room operations go into creating one of the most expensive but sought after gastronomic delights is created.

 Catching wild sturgeon and beluga is illegal so all caviar (and meat) production comes from fish farms. Visitors are taken through the whole process from how they milk both the male fish for sperm and the female fish for eggs and after eight days the farm has small fry. They are kept in tanks for about two months until they are large enough to be released into floating nets in the river.

Some of the many floating nets n site.

Another view of visitors inspecting the nets.

Some of the nets hold just half a dozen large specimens.

It is fascinating to watch them swim around.

Other nets such as this one hold a thousand six month old fish. Depending on the breed, it can take three to ten years or longer for them to reach majority. And then, they don't produce eggs every year with sometimes up to five years between egg producing seasons, hence the price of good beluga caviar.

After the tour of the fish farm and they thy produce fish and eggs, it was time to go to the restaurant on site, floating next to the fish nets.

I tasted fish soup and here, the main dish, sturgeon, but regrettably no taste of any caviar as it is far too expensive although quality fish roe is available and good quality caviar can be bought from the shop if you wallet is sufficiently large.