The Meadow's Mark Bitterman So Not 2006

Mark Bitterman, not to be google-corrected to cookbook author and omnivorous eater Mark Bittman and co-owner, along with wife Jennifer, both right, of four-year-old N. Mississippi salt (and chocolate and wine) shop The Meadow, gets a little Food & Wine love this month, adding to the flat-out Portland Monthly Food Lovers' Guide embrace, and his saltily servicey appearance in the Washington Post. Turns out, F&W says, his obsession and "single-mindedness has led him over the years to become something of a global salt hunter, sourcing the mineral from the African desert, the Himalayas and the deep-sea trenches of Japan." Picturing Bitterman in a harness, climbing the Himalayas; in scuba gear, diving Japan; like J. Lo in that opening scene of The Cell, wandering the desert in search of perfect flakes. Close? Close enough for Naomi Pomeroy and Gabriel Rucker, both of whom regularly rock his salts (sorry). What's explaining the sudden uptick in attention? Either people are finally discovering this here Portland food scene, or the Ten Speed Press publicity department--the publisher's coming out with Salted in October--is rocking face rather than flaking (sorry, again).
·A Salt Hunter and His Exploratorium [Food & Wine]
·The Meadow [Portland Monthly]
·I Spice: Salt [Washington Post]
·The Meadow [Official Site]
·Salted [Random House]