Based in Manila, Philippines, Dessert Comes First is a chronicle of the food-obsessed food writer, Lori Baltazar. This website is all about desserts, restaurants, coffee, and the pleasures of homebaking. Read more about me Seduction by Salt
Mon, January30th of 2006
11:40 am
I am being seduced by salt. My friend gave me a bottle of coarse crystal sea salt from France earlier this month, and since then I keep it beside me at all times. If I could insert a few precious grains into a locket and wear it close to my heart, I’d probably do that too.
No one understands my fascination with salt, and frankly, neither can I. When I asked my mom to grab some tomatoes for me from the Baguio market, she couldn’t believe that I was planning to just eat them straight up sprinkled with some salt. My sister, who’s in Chicago right now, practically squawked through the phone line when I asked her if she’d bring me back some sea salt. Their unanimous response: “It’s just salt, for God’s sake!”
What’s the big deal anyway? How is sea salt different, thus more ‘esteemed,’ than the usual rock salt and iodized table salt? All salt comes from the sea, therefore all salt is sea salt. Er, maybe. What I do know is that salt is the chicest thing to hit shores. Foodies used to gift their foodie friends with exotic olive oils – now it’s specialty salts from France, Korea, Japan, and Hawaii. Some chefs even prepare tasting menus pairing each course with a particular salt.
All salt contains close to 80% sodium chloride with the rest being a wide variety of minerals. However, it’s the refining method used that produces the different shapes of salt: crystals, snowflakes, dense cubes. I was at Rustan’s Taste yesterday at Ayala Center, and they had an assortment of sea salt as well as salt specifically for margaritas! I was there like a deranged musician vigorously shaking each salt package to determine the coarseness of each salt.
Different salts will melt at different rates on the tongue, delivering a faster or slower charge of saltiness. I’d prefer a crunchy, coarse salt on a nice slab of steak, pretzels, or even an oatmeal cookie while a fluffier, lighter salt will do well on a salmon tartare, for instance.
But I’m far from being a salt snob. You won’t find me turning up my nose at McCormick’s Iodized Table Salt or the P20/kilo rock salt from the palengke (market). Sometimes, salt is just salt. But it sure doesn’t hurt when it looks like large glimmering crystals.
Here are the tomatoes that my mom brought back for me from Baguio. I sliced them in half and sprinkled them with pink peppercorns and my French table salt. Together, the trio glistened in the morning sun. In my mouth, the burst of tomato juice melded with the crunch of salt ending with an explosion of heat from the peppercorn. Now that’s what I call seduction.
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Don’t you have anything better to do than to post AWESOME pictures!
Our father told us to read the Bible first thing in the morning. He’ll be mad at you.
jesse
[Reply]
Comment by Anonymous — January 30, 2006 @ 12:36 pm
Your salt positively looks decadent on that tomato. It’s so hard to find UNiodized salt in Metro Manila. My dad tells that in Bohol they used to have (literally) rock salt as big as a Big Mac they just chipped off of for cooking.
Bet you have the elusive fleur de sel in your cupboards too.
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Comment by riagirlski — January 30, 2006 @ 12:48 pm
pink peppercorns? where can i get some? – gus hansen
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Comment by Anonymous — January 30, 2006 @ 5:10 pm
So I’m not the only salt obsessed girl on these shores! I’ve been gifted pink Hawaiian salt, fleur de sel, bought the latter too when in gourmet shops. If we believe the OC Jeffrey Steingarten, all salt is more or less the same except for iodized salt (it leaves a metallic aftertaste). So go for rock salt or kosher salt. But the pink salt is sure purty. But all gone now. Have to go back to Hawaii for more.
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Comment by Mila Tan — January 30, 2006 @ 6:40 pm
I brought back local sea salt on my last visit home in 2004. It was from the Greenbelt organic market on Legaspi Street and I even gave some to some American friends, even the picky vegan appreciated it. What a weirdo they must’ve thought I was hauling salt from one part of the world to another… but they did say they liked it. Truthfully, local sea salts have a taste of their own – it’s not just salt. I’m sooo glad to find out I’m not the only person particular about salt!!!
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Comment by MitaMS — January 31, 2006 @ 2:37 am
Thanks for the post — there’s a store nearby where I live that has a fancy salt bar(!), and during the holidays, I splurged on a selection of fancy salts like Hawaiian Adobe salt, oak and chardonnay smoked, Balinese cinnamon salt, and dark black smoked salt–but I’ve been unsure how to use them. The crystals looked so big, and I wasn’t sure if I should grind them up… Now I’m excited to experiment
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Comment by Nina — January 31, 2006 @ 6:50 am
Over the weekend, I was introduced to natural sea salt to alleviate symptoms of headache, dizziness, fever, fatigue. I just take a pinch if I feel any of these. So far, it’s working. And there’s a website on Himalayan Crystal Salt which has health benefits – http://www.mercola.com
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Comment by Anonymous — January 31, 2006 @ 10:05 am
wow..its amazing how you could make salt look so appetizing. haha..
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Comment by shukri — January 31, 2006 @ 1:27 pm
Beautiful photographs!
Tomatoes with a drizzle of olive oil and some good salt… bliss!
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Comment by Ivonne — January 31, 2006 @ 1:57 pm
Once you discover sea salt you never look back. Tastes better and seems better for you (and doesn’t leave that metallic aftertaste).
The majority of restaurants and specialty food outlets in Australia seem to use Maldon Sea Salt.
http://www.maldonsalt.co.uk/
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Comment by Smoothie — January 31, 2006 @ 10:09 pm
Ohmahgoolash! That ravioli reminded me of very good memories I’ve had with Vietnamese food! Hehe!
A side question brought about by this entry about hotel buffets…do you know if the Manila Penn is still having chocolate buffets?
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Comment by Abster — February 1, 2006 @ 12:37 am
iyung rock salt sa bohol , i think its “toltol,” which is still available, up to now, in guimaras. its made using seawater, and sifted through charcoal from sea grasses.
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Comment by lightman — February 2, 2006 @ 1:21 am
Those crystals look no less than precious jewels. Amazing images. Thanks for sharing your passion through such striking photos. Enjoyed reading the post
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Comment by Sury — February 7, 2006 @ 5:01 pm
four words: rock salt and santol. mmmmmmm… when is santol season anyway. i love your food porn, you rock. you melt my stress away. but damn those brownies.
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Comment by Nix — February 7, 2006 @ 5:12 pm
wow, other people who bow down to the mineral goddess… i thought i was the only one inflicted with a salt obsession!
my favourite salt on tomatoes is black olive flora de sal. deeee-lish! (i even have a candleholder made of kasmir oink salt… how long would a house made of salt last???)
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Comment by alli — February 12, 2006 @ 9:48 am
don’t blame you for your salt obsession — me too! however, the pink peppercorns are another matter…. have you read “The Wilder Shores of Gastronomy”?
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Comment by stef — March 10, 2006 @ 1:37 pm
I’m a “salt person” too! I love salt, I put it in almost everything that I eat =) even on some sweets and fruits.
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Comment by Salt Shaker — February 2, 2007 @ 9:08 pm
Where exactly I can purchase uniodized sea salt here in Manila? Thanks in advance.
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Comment by Giro — November 29, 2009 @ 9:01 pm