When it comes to luxury food, red caviar, is a common one, especially in Japanese cuisine. Also, relatively inexpensive caviar paste (which may or may not contain any roe at all) is a common substitute.
Caviar may be used as a substitute in most recipes that call for cream cheese, eggs, or cold cream soups.
True Caviar
There are four varieties of true caviar, which according to Russian tradition must be harvested from the wild sturgeon. Due to overraised Siberian sturgeon (which many connoisseurs claim actually approaches the quality of many excellent true caviars) as well as other fish.
I'd talk for a minute about the harvesting process, but I don't want to ruin your appetite. Suffice it to say that humane techniques are available today which allow the fish to live and continue producing roe. Anyway, the four main types of true (wild sturgeon) caviar are listed below along with searches that almost certainly will lead you to knock-offs and mislabeled items. Note the astronomical prices!
* White Sturgeon Caviar
* American Hackleback Sturgeon Caviar
* Black Paddlefish Caviar
A note: Many caviars advertise 'malossol' which is simply Russian for 'little salt.' Traditionally caviar has a bit of salt added.
