Thursday, December 17, 2015

Keeping The Salt Away

We live in an oversalted world. One of my late mother's cooking mantras was "no salt," because she came from a family that had/has a genetic tendency towards all sorts of heart problems. So I grew up without a saltshaker on the table and never developed a taste and liking for salty foods and fine able salt. I cook with coarse salt only. Our fine table salt package (a kilo 2.2 lbs) lasts for decades. Many times I just can't eat something because it's over-salted to my taste. And thank Gd, even at my advanced age, I show no signs of the medical problems over-salting can cause, bli eyin haraa.

Sometimes once a week, I need a good (and inexpensive) dinner when at work, so I go to the Rami Levy "burger kiosk" and order chicken breast and salad served on a plate, not in a pita. The pita is on the side to take home...  It costs me only ns15- which is maybe $4 or a drop less. They add some ready-mixed spices (like in all the grill places) plus salt. The first few times I ordered it even after saying "no salt" a number of times I had to make them start all over. Then the guy at the grill got clever and moved the salt to the other side so he wouldn't automatically add it.



It's funny that since then, he greets me by saying "no salt," and he hasn't forgotten, even when he doesn't move the saltshaker.

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