Take one look at famous fine dining chef David Chang's Instagram feed and you can tell the guy has a thing for high-and-low brow combinations. In one picture this May, Chang was eating some greasy potato chips accompanied by a luxurious tin of caviar.
Turns out, the chef is a big fan of an Idaho food captured in this photo – but no – we aren't talking about potatoes.
Idaho's long tradition of aquaculture has made caviar a much-beloved export from the Gem State. Chang is a big fan of Regalis caviar, which GQ Magazine reports gets their eggs from a fish farm in Idaho. The article explains how you're more likely to eat farmed sturgeon eggs from the American West due to over-fishing for Beluga caviar in the Caspian and Black seas.
The state's water supply helps out, too. According to a 2011 Boise Weekly article, sturgeon farms that raise the fish using Idaho spring water have a tasty advantage over California caviar raised in re-circulated groundwater.
For ideas about how to eat your Idaho caviar in unpretentious ways, Chang has you covered with this recipe– potato chips and all.
Find reporter Frankie Barnhill on Twitter @FABarnhill
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