Dec 20, 2007
Designer salt, anyone? At $3 a package when bought in Europe, it has become the perfect gift purchase by indigent American travelers
Now that the dollar's weakness has put an end to normal shopping (by Americans) in Europe, you may want to know about an item that you can buy affordably and in quantity overseas, and that will positively enthrall your relatives and friends when presented to them back home. On last week's edition of The Travel Show presented by my daughter and myself (www.wor710.com, go to weekend programming), my daughter interviewed the single greatest commentator on travel shopping, Suzie Gershman, author of the several Born to Shop travel guides (admission of self-interest: they're published by Frommer's). And Pauline asked: what can we now buy in Europe, given the pitiful state of the dollar?
"Have you considered designer salt?" responded Suzie. Turns out that designer salts sells for $30 and up in the United States (or on Amazon.com), but for only $3 a package at numerous groceries and super-markets in Paris, Frankfurt, Rome, and the like.
And what is "designer salt"? Apparently, it's salt with a special flavor, like raspberry salt. There's semi-coarse Hawaiian red Alea salt, small-flake Fleur de Sel, Jurassic salt, Peruvian Pink and Sicilian White salt, Kosher salt, Lavender salts, Ginger salts, French sea salt, Australian sea salt, Maldon salt, Murray River salt, La Baleine, Danish Viking Smoked salt, and (most expensive of all) Japanese Jewel of the Ocean salt, among many others. They come in coarse, plain, or chunky grains, and are “saltier” than usual salt. True gourmet chefs, I'm assured, would never dream of using just-plain salt (sodium chloride).
Look at the lengths to which we've been driven by currency changes.
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"Have you considered designer salt?" responded Suzie. Turns out that designer salts sells for $30 and up in the United States (or on Amazon.com), but for only $3 a package at numerous groceries and super-markets in Paris, Frankfurt, Rome, and the like.
And what is "designer salt"? Apparently, it's salt with a special flavor, like raspberry salt. There's semi-coarse Hawaiian red Alea salt, small-flake Fleur de Sel, Jurassic salt, Peruvian Pink and Sicilian White salt, Kosher salt, Lavender salts, Ginger salts, French sea salt, Australian sea salt, Maldon salt, Murray River salt, La Baleine, Danish Viking Smoked salt, and (most expensive of all) Japanese Jewel of the Ocean salt, among many others. They come in coarse, plain, or chunky grains, and are “saltier” than usual salt. True gourmet chefs, I'm assured, would never dream of using just-plain salt (sodium chloride).
Look at the lengths to which we've been driven by currency changes.
Write and read comments about this post.
Fifty years ago, 
Arthur Frommer is generally acknowledged to be the nation's foremost travel authority. He is the founder of the
