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Unhappy taking the back seat to gin and vodka for all these years, bitters and vermouth take the spotlight tonight at The Meadow, Portland's source for artisan salt, chocolate, mixers and more.Read article

Mark Bitterman owns and operates The Meadow, a shop in North Portland that specializes in exotic table salts, chocolates, wines and flowers. To him, salt is an ancient ingredient that surpasses even fire in its ability to enhance the flavor of food. Mark is the salt expert -- a selmelier -- and here he shares some of his knowledge as well as a sampler of artisan salt and food combinations to try at home.Read article

Even if you're watching your sodium intake, you can enjoy sea salts. While gram for gram sea salt contain as much sodium as table salt, their larger crystals and unique flavors, derived from various sources, may result in your using less salt overall....Another way to minimize sodium: don't salt whle you're cooking and instead simply sprinkle a pinch of coarse sea salt on your finished dish before serving. Find interesting sea salts at gourmet shops or online atThe Meadow.

A sprinkle of quality salt brings out the complexity of a finished dish. This set of six includes smoky Iburi Jio Cherry, savory Amabito No Moshio, and four others.

Fair trade coffee. Biodynamic wine bars. A community garden on every other corner. Selmeliers (trans: salt connoiseurs). The locavore dining scene in Portland, Ore., can feel a little exhausting and earnest to the out-of-towner, even one from Williamsburg, Brooklyn - the land of house-made pickles and grass-fed butchers. The thing is, the food is that good, and the prices cheap. Here, a few highlights from the city's ever-expanding culinary utopia.View Article

Switch out your Morton's for a jar of this French-harvested "flower of salt," recommended by Mark Bitterman, owner of The Meadow, a gourmet salt shop in Portland, Oregon. Its delicate crunch and classic salt flavor wake up taste buds without sending them into cheek-puckering shock. Be sure to buy brands from the Guérande, Île de Ré, or Île de Noirmoutier regions south of Brittany—anything else is overpriced table salt.View Article

Humble salt is enjoying something of a renaissance, with gourmets singing the praises of artisanal salt. Mark Bitterman has become an expert on the seasoning; he owns a store called The Meadow, in Portland, OR, where they offer 85 varieties of sea salt, which include those with mild to intense salinity, with a touch of sweetness and with hints of unexpected flavors (like truffles). For your wedding meal, Bitterman suggests featuring a trio of salts - a delicate fleur de sel, a snappy flake sea salt and a smoked sea salt - at each table. Use a tented card to introduce guests to the flavors and ideal uses of each, and encourage experimentation. At the end of the night, offer guests the chance to practice their new salt knowledge at home by giving small jars of crystals as favors.

Today, salt's fortunes have shifted yet again. Connoisseurs claim additives give table salt a bitter, chemical flavor. So they are seeking out regional, hand-harvested specialty salts that come in a kaleidoscope of shapes and colors. The retail and restaurant worlds have taken notice....Salt-centric boutique the Meadow in Portland, Oregon, has 85 to 90 different salts at any given time, according to co-owner and self-described "selmelier" Mark Bitterman.

Mark Bitterman sells ninety varieties of salt at The Meadow, their shop in Portland, Oregon. They carry salt from the Andes to Australia, and he speaks of "some spectacular salts from Japan."View Article