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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