Help Me Find the Finishing Salt from Barcelona Tapas Bars! Good Questions

Q: I was in Barcelona, Spain a few months ago and ate at a number of tapas bars. It seemed common to have a sprinkling of finishing salt on the dishes. The salt was white, coarse, light, and crunchy. It tasted of the ocean without being overly salty. It was AMAZING.

I have been on a search ever since, and haven't been able to find a similar salt stateside. Any help in locating something would make my year.

Sent by Jen

Editor: Finishing salts like Maldon (pictured above) are an inexpensive pleasure in the kitchen! A little sprinkle of flaky, delicate sea salt can really change the taste of your food; all those crystals are different in size and shape than the usual fine-grained table salt, and so they create tiny explosions of saltiness inside your mouth that add up to an enhanced experience of your food.

We aren't sure exactly what salt was used in these tapas bars, Jen, but here are a couple leads. If these don't pan out, we suggest shopping through Market Hall Foods and other gourmet shops, trying out a couple different sorts of white flaky sea salts.

• Sal Marina de Barcelona Finishing Salt - at The Meadow
• Salt: White Gold - An article all about salt in Spain, at Spain Gourmet Tour

Readers, any leads for Jen?

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(Image: Market Hall Foods)

Comments (11)

I've been looking for the same sea salt since I've been back from Spain, too. I haven't been able to find it - all the ones that I've seen around here are not as light and flaky. :(

Maldon is very light and flaky... Unlikely to be the same one used in Barcelona, but close enough... I remember that the Barcelona markets sold loose salt that resembled this.

@twosavoie: That might be it. Thanks!

I'm from Barcelona and restaurants use Maldon salt to finish the dishes or simple coarse salt that we can find in supermarkets very cheap and it's molt traditional,but now it's in fashion to use Maldon salt although we have great sats like the one from Ibiza.

When I was in Spain at cooking school just south of Barcelona, we used Maldon salt. If you really want to recreate those dishes, consider a cooking school vacation someplace like where I went: http://www.catacurian.net/. It was well worth the cash! I learned a ton about Spanish food, as well as a lot of the kind of passed-down-for-generations food wisdom that we often miss out on here in the states!

Four years ago I brought back four bags of salt from Barcelona - they were 2 Euro each. I've been a little loathe to open the last bag because I will be so sad when it's gone. :(

I can't recommend this Portland, OR store enough:

http://www.atthemeadow.com/shop/index.php

It's utterly stunning: the selection, the smells, the employees.. a wonderful experience every time I shop there.

Jen: I was amazed at the finishing salt I had in Barcelona as well and bought two jars of it. It's called Sal en Escama (de Espana) and a very similiar version is sold on Amazon at a great price http://www.amazon.com/Big-Tree-Farms-Pyramid-8-5-Ounce/dp/B000RRA9BG/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1300796806&sr=8-3

This is the larger version. It's a bit more solid and crunchier than the thin flat version I had in Barcelona, but it still has the great shape. You can also buy a smaller version of the salt at Amazon as well, but I have not tried that. Enjoy