My favorite seasoning is Maldon sea salt flakes. An English family has made the salt for over 140 years and it’s used in the royal kitchens; it says so on the box. The salt seems more like magic dust than salt because it has a “feel” in addition to taste. This is difficult to describe and the closest I can say is that the salt adds “completeness”. Somehow the salt magnifies and unifies all the flavors and whoosh —the food goes into full bloom without tasting overly salty. However, the salt comes in crunchy flakes and lately I’ve thought that I need a salt grinder.
Thrift stores can provide enormous entertainment and I call them “Cosmic Gift Shops” because often the “just right” thing surfaces at a fraction of the retail price. Oh the surprise of scoring a treasure! Last Friday I was at Goodwill in Redmond in the cooking stuff aisle when a woman’s voice rumbled behind me. I wasn’t sure if she was talking to me so to be polite, I turned around and acknowledged her. Turns out she was talking to her little spotted dog that peeked through a hole in her purse. The dog looked like a fancy sort, so I asked “Was it a champion or did it have a pedigree”? We conversed and exchanged a fleeting but warm connection.
She ambled down the aisle, went around the corner, then disappeared. But then she suddenly came back, bowed slightly and with both hands presented me with a pepper grinder in the shape of a wine bottle. She said “I have one of these and I think that you would like it”. Her kind gesture jolted me, but I managed to thank her anyway and said “I have wanted something to grind salt; I am in awe that you knew this”. When I got home I loaded it with my chunky sea salt and the mill ground it into perfection.
I could have just bought a grinder in a store or clicked on a blue button on the internet, so very boring. But the way the grinder came about thrilled me deep into my bones and the mysteriousness left me in awe. From now on when I use that grinder, I will reminisce about the lady who somehow knew that I wanted a salt grinder. Decades later, I will probably still wonder who this stranger was that materialized my request. Was she some kind of an angel who poof, just appeared? Yes, indeed the salt must be magic! Two Boys in Condon sells just in case you would like to try it too.
Happy New Year to all! May good great fortune come your way in 2025.
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