The Next Gourmet Item: Salt

By Joel Stein

In the never-ending search for foods to be snobby about, gourmets have finally got to salt. Like wine and chocolate, salt is fetishized by region, and the snootier salts sell for as much as $25 a pound. There's gray salt, red salt, French salt, Spanish salt, Italian salt, Portuguese salt, salt with algae, salt mixed with herbs, even smoked salt. Such a wide variety was the norm up until the 20th century, when Morton's used an evaporator to make salt white, fine and uniform, says Mark Kurlansky, author of Salt: A World History. "It's an irony of history," he says. "What saltmakers wanted to do was to have this consistent, pure, white salt, and once they succeeded, we got completely bored with it." Out of hundreds of salts, here are some regional delicacies. --By Joel Stein

FLEUR DE SEL, FRANCE Long considered the Dom Perignon of salt, it's gathered from the top of ponds on an island in Brittany. It's clean, dry and light, with a nice crunch, no aftertaste and great meltability.

ALAEA SEA SALT, HAWAII Once used only in religious rituals, this salt, the pink color of which Captain James Cook hated, has clay impurities. It's a bit harsh and lingers on the tongue.

MALDON, ENGLAND Our favorite, this sea salt is preferred by chefs and is cheaper than the others. It looks like tiny pieces of shaved ice. Mineral with a long finish, it has a slight crunch and dissolves slowly.

RAVIDA, ITALY From Sicily, these fine crystals, which dissolve immediately, are extremely powerful, almost stinging the tongue. Even a small sprinkling feels like swallowing a gallon of seawater.