Sure I can live without salt. I can also live without love. But I won’t. *

Salt has gotten a lot of bad PR over the years.  It makes you bloat.  It increases your chances of getting hypertension.  It is harmful to your kidneys, your bladder, your heart, etc.  etc. etc.  Doctors warn us now to kick it like a bad habit, like smoking, or alcohol, or drugs. Imagine that?  someday salt will only be available in dark, dingy alleys peddled by smelly men who only have three teeth left.  Our children will rebel under the mantra of SEX, SALT AND ROCK AND ROLL! and we will tell them about the good old days when salt was abundant and life tasted good.

And yet, despite the rap, God bless our stubborn hearts, we continue to use it liberally on anything and everything.   A great testimony to the tenacity and gluttony of the human race. 

To say that salt makes food salty is obvious and, honestly, insulting both to salt and to the person who says it.  Because how could you, you who absent-mindedly toss a handful of it to season your simmering pot of kaldereta, you who profusely sweat over a pot full of nilaga consciously checking if it needs another pinch of it, how could you just use the most obvious word to describe salt.  I mean really, adding another consonant, that’s the best you can do!

As simple as salt is, it does so much more than make food salty.  It is responsible for bringing out the complexities of every flavor palette.  That’s why we use it for baking and for cocktails even.  It elevates the inherent flavor of food to a higher level.  It maximizes the potential of food.  It encourages them to be the best that they can be.  It’s like Oprah… but whiter and less preachy.

Now, because of culinary geniuses who have come before us, our choices have expanded immensely.  What used to be 

"rock or refined salt?” is now “Iodized? kosher? Sea salt?  Flavored sea salt? Or the God of all salts, Fleur de sel?” 

Save for Fleur de sel, I have tried cooking with all.  I like sea salt because it tastes a little more organic than your basic iodized salt.  I don’t know if its psychological but it does bring in the flavor of the ocean a little.  I’m not a big fan of flavored sea salt because sometimes I don’t need to add that hint of oregano and thyme that come with the salt to my dish.  I appreciate, however, that it comes in grinders like peppercorns but I really can live without it.  The little I have had of kosher has made me a fan.  Its not too salty, just right.   Unfortunately, I have not had enough of it to sing it praises just yet. 

Salt, of course, like other seasonings, is a matter of taste.  How much or how little you want it in a dish is absolutely a matter of preference.  The bottomline is though, you need salt.  Yes, just as much as you need love.   

*this was my first entry for SINGLE HUNGRY FEMALES, a blog I started with Deesj three years ago (and dapat gigi and jenni but they never wrote anything).  We gave up the URL and if you search for it now, you will be directed to a porn site which works as well.