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By Root 797 0

of crystalline mystery to ply your senses. The flavor it brings is elegant and multifaceted, yet provocatively incomplete. Tasting it on a rice ball or sprinkled directly on your tongue, you sense fervent, reaching desire, and half expect something more to come. It may bother you, but there is nothing to be done about it: something is flirting with you, just out of reach. The opulent pleasure that might be yours touches your wrist and beckons you onward—but to where? There is a residue of loneliness.

JAPANESE DEPTH PERCEPTION

The Japanese, surrounded by oceans on all sides, study the seas much as farmers observe the plains. They are seekers of its most elusive mysteries and connoisseurs of its most refined pleasures. What might pass as a nuanced idea in the West is a self-evident fact in Japan. The ocean’s currents are a case in point. The Japanese (and their island neighbors the Taiwanese as well) have observed that water drawn from different ocean locations and depths imparts different flavors and nutritional values to the salts produced from it. Deep sea currents are driven by different sources than the better known, shallower currents above 650 feet. Shallow currents are often propelled by atmospheric conditions, causing them to move quickly. Deep sea currents are driven by differences in density in different regions of the ocean (these are caused by differences in temperature and-surprise, surprise-salinity), and move much more slowly than surface currents. It is estimated that it takes two thousand years for deep sea currents to complete a cycle, meaning that much of the water at significant depths is believed to be free of industrial contaminants (some of the water in these deep sea currents has likely been below a depth of 650 feet since before the advent of human industry). It is also believed by some that these currents’ slow travel along extremely cold landmasses aids in the accumulation of an ideal mineral solution.

Shinkai Deep Sea

ALTERNATE NAME(S): none MAKER(S): n/a TYPE: shio CRYSTAL: fibroradiated fronds of glauconitic minerals … impenetrable COLOR: bottomless polar white, like partially melted paraffin FLAVOR: luminescent scoop of Arctic snow brought into a warm kitchen; clear with ineffable sweetness MOISTURE: moderate ORIGIN: Japan SUBSTITUTE(S): none, but Aguni Koshin Odo in a pinch BEST WITH: raw or rare Kobe beef; oysters on the half-shell

A white flash, a trembling afterglow, a whisper dissipating, then … nothing. A small pinch of Shinkai deep sea salt strikes the tongue with all the subtlety of a lightning bolt, tripping across the taste buds like some giant circuit breaker that sends the brain’s voltage into the ether. A tumultuous ocean brininess looms threateningly, then slides into a cleansing breeze that slowly ebbs and finally, just before it dies away altogether, asserts itself with a faint brambly-fruity note, like berries ripening in a thicket somewhere on the other side of a sand dune. It is impossible to describe Shinkai without drawing references from just beyond the horizon. Shinkai tastes like salt distilled from our deepest human essence: pure, powerful, innocent, and existentially happy.

As with many finishing salts, it is Shinkai’s delicate crystals combined with abundant residual moisture that lend the salt its wild-yet-measured behavior. The fine flakes seek to dissolve in a rush of passion, succumbing to the moisture of the mouth, but the moisture trapped in the flakes slows things down ever so slightly. The effect is flawless shapes revealed in extraordinarily clean lines, secrets in contour.

Shinkai produces such a lush palette of flavors that condiments and fancy cooking techniques—indeed any elaboration—become unnecessary. Serve it on sashimi or carpaccio, and additional seasonings are a distraction, or even counterproductive. Generally speaking, the salt’s mineral combination is best on fatty foods such as dark-fleshed fish, well-marbled meats, and fried vegetables. It also lends depth to chocolate and dairy dishes. While the beauty and delicacy of Shinkai