gifts from Hawaii

Sitting on a plate beside my computer is a bag of Hawaiian sea salt, a canister of coarse sea salt, and a bottle of organic white honey. They’ve been keeping me company for the past few months every time I sit down to write — treasured gourmet reminders of the people who’ve sent me these things. I received these two gifts the day after my birthday, and I’m ashamed that I’m only able to post this now. My backlog of articles is immense.

On the left, sea salt from France. On the right, Hawaiian alaea sea salt.

The orange sea salt shown here is from Winnie, a regular reader from Hawaii. She generously sent me two packs of Alaea sea salt – alaea is baked Hawaiian red clay. The salt is processed in this clay which gives it that characteristically salmon-colored hue. She thought I might like some, after reading about my obsession with salt.

one is not like the other

A big “thank you!” in the form of more sea salt comes from Gaio, a Filipino in Washington. I had given him a few suggestions on where to eat during his recent visit back to Manila. The sea salt he gave me is harvested from Noirmoutier, off the Atlantic coast of France. Unlike the Alaea salt, it’s grayish white. You can see the difference between the two salts. Both coarse in texture and shape, they salts taste very similar.

rare organic white honey

Honey is for all things sweet and I love to use it in my tea or for baking chewy oatmeal cookies or a honey-almond crunch cake.

photographed in the last rays of the afternoon sun

Winnie gave me a jar of pure Kiawe honey, unheated and unfiltered honey. It’s pearl-white and smells like no other honey I’ve come across before – pristine. It has a slight vanilla flavor and aroma, but perhaps that’s just a nuance of the honey that I detect. In the jar, it’s solid, but heated for a while it’s like liquid diamonds. One afternoon, I used this honey to make some popcorn balls, and then I sprinkled them with both sea salts. It was a most mouth-watering, sticky snack.

catch me, I’m falling

It’s obvious that I make my preferences very clear on the blog, since Winnie was able to tell that I’d like toffee. Nothing says Hawaii like macadamias, so she threw in some milk chocolate toffee macadamias for fun. They were delicious with the added crunch of toffee.

aloha

I’m very blessed to have received these gifts. They were certainly unexpected but so appreciated. Thank you, Winnie. Thank you, Gaio.