Salty {The Nubia Salt Flats} Sicily
My favorite ingredient, my favorite element, my favorite addition to the top of bread, the crust of meat, the crunch of granola and the rim of a margarita glass - it's salt!
A precious commodity, difficult to come by, worth more than gold and silver, it was (and still is) a building block we rely on for health, well being, and, let's face it, taste. Of course it was used as a preservative, before preservatives were lab created, but more importantly it was a most valuable form of payment (I recall a tour in Venice that told of the Venetians being the first to pay with salt, and thus the origin of the word "salary" - I never validated this, but it stuck!). Wiki claims Salt created and destroyed empires. And I believe it. I'd kill someone if I didn't have salt for my food ; )
One of the more fascinating parts of Sicily was a trip to the Salt Flats, starting with a private tour of the Nubia Salt Museum, between Trapani and Marsala. Here stands a 300 year old re-purposed salt working house that also is a restaurant and is, like most of what remains of the salt flats here, owned by one family. The grandson of this line gave Aaron and I the tour and he was incredible. And incredibly handsome ; ) (think Brendan Fraser, only Italian! but shhh, don't tell Aaron). He gave us a fascinating background on salt in Trapani, the importance of it, and the value of it as it used to be versus how cheap it is now. He mentioned how marketing has played a part in the dissolution of salt as a major export in Sicily (ie Mediterranean Sea Salt from France is the same grade sea salt as from Trapani, and yet sells at a higher price. He even went so far as to say, loyally, that the Sicilian salt is better!). And he spoke of family values and his inheritance being the museum and his job being to run the museum and the restaurant.
Seeing the piles of salt near the water, hearing about the process, and seeing how ecologically the area and the people are affected by the reaping of the salt made me appreciate it all the more. Windmills do as they've always done, the salinity of the water creates the perfect starting point, the fish come and go in the water, and the fisherman fish the fish. The winds across Trapani blow endlessly and help the water evaporate and crystallize. It's the circle of life. It's the circle of salt. And it was pretty cool.
inside the salt museum!
that flamingos that feast on the algae in the water.
one of the hotels near the salt flats - truly Mediterranean!
A precious commodity, difficult to come by, worth more than gold and silver, it was (and still is) a building block we rely on for health, well being, and, let's face it, taste. Of course it was used as a preservative, before preservatives were lab created, but more importantly it was a most valuable form of payment (I recall a tour in Venice that told of the Venetians being the first to pay with salt, and thus the origin of the word "salary" - I never validated this, but it stuck!). Wiki claims Salt created and destroyed empires. And I believe it. I'd kill someone if I didn't have salt for my food ; )
One of the more fascinating parts of Sicily was a trip to the Salt Flats, starting with a private tour of the Nubia Salt Museum, between Trapani and Marsala. Here stands a 300 year old re-purposed salt working house that also is a restaurant and is, like most of what remains of the salt flats here, owned by one family. The grandson of this line gave Aaron and I the tour and he was incredible. And incredibly handsome ; ) (think Brendan Fraser, only Italian! but shhh, don't tell Aaron). He gave us a fascinating background on salt in Trapani, the importance of it, and the value of it as it used to be versus how cheap it is now. He mentioned how marketing has played a part in the dissolution of salt as a major export in Sicily (ie Mediterranean Sea Salt from France is the same grade sea salt as from Trapani, and yet sells at a higher price. He even went so far as to say, loyally, that the Sicilian salt is better!). And he spoke of family values and his inheritance being the museum and his job being to run the museum and the restaurant.
Seeing the piles of salt near the water, hearing about the process, and seeing how ecologically the area and the people are affected by the reaping of the salt made me appreciate it all the more. Windmills do as they've always done, the salinity of the water creates the perfect starting point, the fish come and go in the water, and the fisherman fish the fish. The winds across Trapani blow endlessly and help the water evaporate and crystallize. It's the circle of life. It's the circle of salt. And it was pretty cool.
inside the salt museum!
that flamingos that feast on the algae in the water.
one of the hotels near the salt flats - truly Mediterranean!
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