Prawns are common; Taste Hong Kong marinates them in salt and white pepper before use, but with so many other salty elements in the dish, I'd prefer to let them remain au naturel.
Fresh herbs are abundant, but salty elements mar even some of the best dishes: the golden crust on that otherwise lovely tilefish and the chanterelle mushrooms surrounding the cheesy ricotta cavatelli appetizer, which in every other way is perfect.
A similar approach can be applied to imaginative effect in a potato tatin, where new potatoes replace the apples, and are layered with a salty element or two such as feta, olives or anchovies.
This means using a base of mostly raw vegetables with high water content – tomatoes, radishes, cucumbers, corn, zucchini – balanced with some kind of sustaining protein, a briny, salty element for tang, and a rich vinaigrette made with plenty of olive oil and garlic to bring it all together.
But there is a kind of poet for whom involvement in the tackier, saltier elements of everyday life and popular culture seems not only unlikely, but almost inappropriate.
The recipe needed a salty, pungent element, too, and I considered capers and olives before settling on anchovies.
But the sea receded and got saltier, the toxic elements in the runoff from the farm fields grew more concentrated, and most of the fish died, he said.
To criticise Versace for trashiness is to entirely miss the point, for it is this very element – this salty aftertaste to the caramel-sweet femininity of gowns and sequins – which has made Versace one of the defining brands of the past three decades.
Within, each element – from the salty ham to the delightful pork – was well-executed, coming together to create a balanced and rich snack.
I concluded my Croatian frog tour here with grilled frogs wrapped in house-made prosciutto, the dish's porcine element adding a salty luxuriousness to the amphibians.
Salts are essential elements for health and salty taste is a signal of minerals.
