"coarse salt" news and stories

Earlier this afternoon, I found myself running out of ideas for today's theme. It was driving me nuts. So I decided to take a stroll over to a local Arabic market. I'm glad I did. After a good 10 minutes of browsing the shelves and nut bins, I discovered what have to be the best pistachios I've ever had in my life. I was in such disbelief after sampling one that I asked the gent at the counter whether what I just ate was a lemon-flavored pistachio. When I asked him what they were he told me Iranian pistachios.

As you can see, these suckers are somewhat larger than most pistachios and they're generously sprinkled with coarse salt. They're also really hard to stop eating. The shells are coated with a salty, lemon mixture, hence my calling these pistachios suckers. Has anyone else ever had enjoyed these wonderful pistachios?

Yesterday there was an Ask Metafilter thread about the differences between regular, kosher and sea salt. Although the thread did, at times, degrade into discussion of surface area and human origins in the sea, it did produce a few useful resources.

Slate ran an extensive review of several types of salt, from Morton to Maldon, last spring. Gourmet Sleuth also has a great rundown of different types of salt, as well as a salt FAQ. In print, there are some good salt discussions in Jeffrey Steingarten's It Must Have Been Something I Ate and Robert Wolke's What Einstein Told His Cook. And, of course, here's a transcript of the Good Eats episode about salt.

Perhaps the most definitive and useful thing to come out of the discussion: coarse salt is better for margaritas.