They spent the next ten years in the region, Mats Engstrom crossing the border on special military permits into the Soviet Union to establish procedures to control over-fishing of the sturgeon from the Russian bank of the river. "The Russians felt that Russian food was only for the Russians", making trading relations difficult. Besides, the Chinese thought 100 percent of nothing was better than sharing trade 50/50 with the Russians, Engstrom says. In the chaotic period that followed perestroika, Engstrom's burgeoning Russian business was taken over. "The biggest thief", he says, "was the governor of the territory." So back to China he went, advising on a government launch of caviar farming in northern Manchuria and the Three Gorges.

By the mid-1980s it was clear to anyone interested in caviar that the Caspian Sea was being irrevocably depleted of its sturgeon population. Following perestroika, caviar poured into the West from sturgeon fished at an unsustainable rate. The Engstroms returned once more to California to try caviar farming on U.S. turf. They now have one million pounds of live sturgeon at different stages of growth. Harvesting occurs when the fish, which weigh seventy to one hundred pounds, are six to nine years of age. Americans eat as much caviar as the Engstroms can produce, currently around 5,000-6,000 pounds, which they expect, as does Stolt, to increase to as much as 20,000-30,000 pounds.

At around $130 for two ounces, Tsar Nicoulai Northern California Osetra is far more affordable than the slightly larger-grained Russian and Iranian Beluga. Forbes magazine deemed Stolt's Sterling-label caviar "subtle, very caviary-tasting" and said it was "easily of the firmness and quality level of most Caspian roe. These briny, buttery eggs will open your mouth to the new era in U.S. caviar." In the editor's taste test, Wine Spectator wrote of it, "The balance of rich, nutty elements with its clean ocean character is nearly perfect."

American caviar is not to be sniffed at. In the December 2002 and 2003 catalogs of the respected caviar purveyors Petrossian Paris, Transmontanus caviar from white sturgeon farmed in the United States was pronounced comparable to "the finest Osetra, sure to excite the most discerning palate." In a New York Times editorial in July 2001, chef and television personality Jacques Pépin wrote, "The international trade in beluga caviar ought to be halted until the fish that produce it are no longer threatened with extinction. During this time, caviar lovers might try the roe of United States farm-grown sturgeon, which has improved tremendously in the last few years." He told Newsday on Christmas Eve two years later, "American caviar has made great strides."

Caspian Sea caviar production peaked in 1936, at 2,300 tons. By the early 1970s, the figure had plummeted to under 600 tons. Take the high-quality caviar of the Mississippi-Missouri river system's spoonbill or paddlefish, or the caviar from others of the eight types of American sturgeon, add the sum of it to the thousands of pounds of caviar from aquaculture-raised sturgeon that Tsar Nicolai and Stolt's Sterling label have projected for future yield--and we may see the day when American caviar is exported from the United States, into Russia and Iran.