What is it?

Yesterday I posted  a photo on Facebook, where I am with a big tub/jar of red caviar. I got a lot of "likes" from my Russian friends, but I also got a question from my Khmer friend  from Cambodia. He asked, "What is that?". I didn't know, how to explain, what it means for Russian people. I just answered "It's red caviar. A symbol of luxury in Soviet times."
But first I commented  on my photo as "And the artists happen  to have " a good life". All  the Russian people understood, what I meant, but how to explain it to foreigners?

I will try to narrate a story. My grandfather was  a railwayman and his family moved with him  all around Russia, Kazakstan and Uzbekistan. One day he was given a big 3 litre can of black caviar  by his friends (it was  and  still  is,  a more expensive and luxurious caviar than  red caviar ). They stole it from a goods  freight train .  It was normal to take  a small bit from a  goods train.) Then he and his family went to  an expensive restaurand and as a  joke, ordered  an open sandwich with black caviar. When waiter brought it, my grandfather saw that   there were just a few grains of roe on the bread . He smiled and opened his can, took  a big spoon and put  a big heap of caviar onto the bread. The waiter was shocked, but said nothing to them.
History shows how  caviar was expensive and unavailable for ordinary people. Nowadays we can buy 200-300 gramms of caviar  just for our  New Year table, or during  the Maslenitsa holidays we eat caviar with pancakes.
I hope that I was able to explain what is red caviar means  for Russians :)

Yes, you wrote quite well.  My father also worked on the railways here in Australia and often brought home things which he said had 'fallen off' the goods train:)))) Caviar is very expensive in Australia as well. Generally speaking, Cambodia is a very poor country. It is understandable that your Cambodian friend didn't know what caviar was.