Salted_ A Manifesto on the World's Most Essential Mineral, With Recipes - Mark Bitterman [64]
Mui bin (rung mui salt field)
ALTERNATE NAME(S): Mui th (raw salt); Vietnamese sel gris; Vietnamese traditional MAKER(S): n/a TYPE: traditional CRYSTAL: medium clusters of cubes and baby pyramids COLOR: old lace FLAVOR: potato chip roundness slaked with flower nectar MOISTURE: high ORIGIN: Vietnam SUBSTITUTE(S): coarse traditional salt BEST WITH: omelets; stir-fried anything; spicy beef soup; a defining force for slices of beef pan-seared with chile peppers, aromatic greens, and lemon
Huge jagged crystals yield between the teeth with a dreamy, softly crackling crunch. Then the flavor expands and evolves, like a whisper in reverse, and the soft sounds of sweetness find balance, growing in volume until you hear the murmured encouragement of the boldest flavors overtaking your mouth. Coarse, variegated, moist, tasty, and balanced, with the natural visible impurities of an authentic unrefined traditional gros sel: empires could be built on this salt. They were.
Vietnam has a long artisanal tradition of making salt from the sea, and the salt is generally wonderful. The country’s traditional salts are solar evaporated and hand harvested, then drained and transported by hand in woven baskets to be consolidated into large mounds that are covered with thatch to protect them from rain. Mui bin (pronounced moo-ee bee-en), translated literally as “sea salt,” is used to distinguish the natural, unrefined salt still very popular in Vietnam from Mui bin, the more generic term for edible salt reserved for refined salt. Unfortunately, very little Vietnamese salt is exported, despite the enormous potential for salt production along the country’s 2,025 miles of coastline. It’s the world’s loss.
Papohaku White
ALTERNATE NAME(S): Papohaku opal RELATED SALTS: Haleakala red; Kilauea black MAKER(S): n/a TYPE: traditional CRYSTAL: crumbled toffee COLOR: moon white FLAVOR: buttery fruit MOISTURE: moderate ORIGIN: Hawaii SUBSTITUTE(S): Kona deep sea salt BEST WITH: sautéed shrimp with chiles and ginger; sashimi; ground up fine on popcorn
Meditation is an important practice. It allows us to explore the contours of our mind, and then learn how these contours influence our perceptions of the world. It is especially important to meditate regularly, which is why I do it at least once every few years. Popohaku white offers a tasty alternative, or, better yet, at least a supplement, to any meditative regimen. Rich and buttery with a rounded, balanced body, the salt unexpectedly opens up within itself to reveal a labyrinthine mineral sweetness you could spend a lifetime exploring. The main difference between food finished with Papohaku white and a lifetime of profound mountaintop meditation is that it approaches the discipline as a full-contact sport.
Sprinkled on grilled fish and pineapple, it crashes over you with the force of a tidal wave. Part of the salt’s impact is due to the crystal shape—a mishmash of ground-up shards and chunks with more class than a rock salt but none of the elegance of a fleur de sel or sel gris. This lack of crystalline sophistication would be a serious disadvantage in a lesser salt, but Papohaku white’s truly magnificent mineral richness turns it into a virtue, like a bronzed warrior who recites poetry as he dispatches his opponents.
Papohaku white is made in the town of Kaunakakai, on the Hawaiian island of Molokai. Seawater is filtered, then condensed to six times its original salinity in a high-tech condenser; this concentrated brine is then pumped into small, freestanding solar evaporators resembling solar water heaters where, after weeks of further evaporation, the salt crystallizes. The resulting clusters of coin-sized crystals are harvested and ground to a desired consistency.
Papohaku white is the base for two