As a little girl, I shook salt with abandon on my food because I loved how the granules felt on my tongue. But over the years, my appreciation of sea salt developed into something akin to passionate fascination.
Having passed through a fixation on sel gris, a coarse, mineral-packed yet soft-flavored gray salt from Guerande in France, I began to favor sale marino di Trapani — sea salt from Sicily. I loved the sparkling white brightness of the salt and that the crystals were a mix of semi-fine to coarse, perfect for the cook and eater in me. But it niggled at the back of my mind that I was using Italian salt when I lived in Japan, an island nation.
I began using Japanese salts more and more but never found "the one" until I was given a taste of Wajima no Kaien. Shaking out some crystals on the palm of my hand, I was immediately excited by the look and feel of them. I licked up a smidge and then a bit more. It was explosive, yet gentle and not hit-you-over-the-head salty. Lovely.