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At the lofty-rustic Meadow, one wall is lined with hundreds of hard to find chocolate bars, while another has floor-to-ceiling shelves stocked with every kind of salt you can imagine- chunky white flakes, rosy pink blocks, dark charcoal grains. Vases of lush flowers and a thoughtful collection of wines and bitters round out the mix.View Here>>

Salt actually outranks gold and diamonds as our planet's most precious substance — thank goodness it is not as rare or expensive. Possibly only water and sunlight are more important when it comes to feeding the people of the world. Salt is, in small quantities, a compound necessary for our body to function. It has for thousands of years been used to preserve food by desiccation (think beef jerky) or by pickling (think sauerkraut). And, of course, it makes things taste good. Yet these days, salt is being used for so much more than simply enhancing the flavors of a dish. Trendy cooks are using unusual salts with interesting color, crystal structure or special flavors to add an upscale touch to special dishes — a sprinkle of deep brick-red Hawaiian clay salt on a scoop of lemon sorbet, for example ... or a fiery chipotle-strawberry margarita with the glass rimmed in black lava salt. Exquisite.   View Here>>

If you’re gonna talk about salt with anyone, Mark Bitterman, owner of The Meadow and author of Salted: A Manifesto on the World's Most Essential Mineral (Ten Speed Press), should be at the very top of your list. He is knowledgeable, to be sure, but also brings a passion and excitement to an item that everyone uses and few wholly understand.View Here>

SALT Mover & Shaker Mineral maniac Mark Bitterman swears every food has a perfect salt. He would know: He has more than 300 varieties. Mark Bitterman was a 20-year-old kid touring Europe on a motorcycle when he ate the meal that would change his life. At a humble truck-stop diner in France, he ordered a steak. "There was this amazing crunch and texture, and the flavors were exploding on my tongue and evolving with every bite," he recollects.View Here>

Q.The Meadow opened in 2006, a little shop nestled into the vibrant fabric of N. Mississippi Ave. Tucked away between an array of other businesses, you may notice it only for the bright colors of the flowers for sale in front. But besides the flora, The Meadow carries one of the largest selections of bean-to-bar chocolate makers in the country – they have in the neighborhood of 300 different bars. They also carry an amazing 140 plus types of bitters, up from a dozen when the store first opened.   View Here>>

Exploring The Wonders of Salt If you're superstitious, tossing some salt over your left shoulder is supposed to bring you luck.But if you're serious about cooking and want to elevate your performance in the kitchen, you'll want to do some much more serious chucking and hurling. Reach into your pantry. Fetch the Morton's iodized salt you use to fill your salt shakers. Corral the kosher salt, too, the stuff that signaled you were something of a foodie. Now give them the big heave-ho – right into the trash.View Here>

Q.In your two stores in Portland and New York, you sell a range of products from salt to flowers to chocolate to cocktail bitters to wine. How did you end up with that eclectic combination under one roof?A. It absolutely just built itself around us. Flowers are something that my wife and I have always been really passionate about. Wherever you live that’s civilized, flowers are an integral part of your daily life. They are what beautify and connect you to nature. We’ve always loved flowers, so we knew we needed to have a flower shop.Salt was the inevitable -- over the last twenty years, I had collected a lot of salt. It was very personal and we found that we had stories and ideas through the salt that we were able to share with people and it just took off.View Here>>

Over the past three weeks, we've seen the science behind how salt works, the value of specialty salt, and the incredible variety of flavored salts. If your appetite's whetted and you've purchased some specialty salt of your own, this week's Salt Mining is devoted to making your salty investment work best for you..For guidance, I turned to Mark Bitterman, owner of The Meadow. Bitterman won the James Beard award for his book Salted, an exhaustive guide to salt, with recipes. His descriptions of his products are poetic, his knowledge encyclopedic. He preaches the thoughtful application of salt and a deeper understanding of its relation to cooking. The man knows his salt. View Here>

Portland is home to some lovely little shops and The Meadow is one of them. The Meadow carries fresh flowers, local and imported chocolate, salts and bitters. I'm not a big chocolate person but on this particular visit the boys were with me and I let them pick out some chocolate. J chose a Xocolatl de David salted caramel bar [which is handmade here in Portland] and j picked Xocolatl de David fleur de sel caramels. And for someone who doesn't usually care for dark chocolate I thought both were quite tasty. The staff is quite friendly and knowledgeable and there is even a basket of toys for kids to play with while you shop.   View Here>>