Ayad Akhtar, age 9, of Brookfield, Wis.,for his question:

WHAT IS CAVIAR?

Caviar is the salted eggs of the sturgeon and other large fish. Before the caviar is prepared as a food, it is called roe.7 Caviar has been a popular food item in Russia for hundreds of years. The cost was very high since not too much was obtainable from the sturgeons found in the area. For this reason it was a rare delicacy. Since the 1800s, caviar has been made in quantity from the roeoflake sturgeon in the United States.

To prepare caviar, the roe is rubbed through a screen to free eggs frog an enclosing tissue. Then they are dashed, rubbed with salt and adrained, dried and packed.