On Salt

My air shipment of "essential" items that I packed on May 26 in PNG arrived last week.  It's at the port, where even without an administrative mistake regarding who it belongs to (me!), it could stay for a good long time.  Everything under the sun, from emergency housing to exotic nailpolish, is pushing and shoving it's way into the destroyed port.

So I wait.  Funny that the two items I am longing the most for are my lovely red can opener and my spice bottle of crushed red pepper.  Need sushi rice or avocado oil?  No problem!  But I have yet to find my favorite spice anywhere.  These days my kitchen buddy is salt.  

I've had a lot of respect for salt since reading Mark Kurlansky's book, Salt: A World History, several years ago but I've always had too many other spices at my disposal to really only concentrate on the magic of salt.  Tonight, I bought a Chateaubriand at the supermarket in n honor of my glorious French summer.  I made a salad of tomatoes and avocado sprinkled with salt.  I rubbed my Chateaubriand with salt, olive oil, and garlic, seared it, and then finished it in the oven on a bed of salted thyme.  I made wild rice with rehydrated shitake mushrooms and salt.  The result was a meal so lovely, that I had my first helping without even noticing my forlorn glass of wine.

Salt!