Selsi Salt Bar
92 Front Street East
St. Lawrence Market, Lower Level
416-854-9088

Food and Wine magazine hails St. Lawrence Market as one of the top 25 food markets of the world, and we Torontonians honour it as such. A jewel of our fair city, bursting to the weekday seams with students and construction workers indulging in the generously piled $5 veal sandwich, it is one floor meats, cheeses and fish mongers alike, over another floor of gourmet snacks, treasures and uncommon goods. The market is more than a food institution; it is our icon.

On the east side of the lower level, beside a walkout to the street, is a kiosk well stocked in both gourmet calibre and the exceptional find. Selsi Salt Bar isn’t unique in that it carries salt, but unmatched in that salt, with all its different colours, flavours and boundless varieties, is the main product.

“I’m called the Salt Queen,” laughs Andrea Brockie, founder and proprietor of the Selsi Salt Bar, a name cleverly twisted from the words salt and sea. At this location for about a year now, her corner of the market is home to a myriad of edible, therapeutic and holistic salt and salt-related products, from red and black Hawaiian salts, to salt soaks, to Himalayan salt crystal lamps, renowned as much for their mineral properties, as for their beauty. Says Brockie, most fittingly, “The vision was salt.”

In the past, salt has suffered a bad rap. None of us are strangers to this, and all too often we’re stopped from shaking that extra bit onto our plates to avoid high blood pressure, among other things. And it’s no wonder, seeing as refined sodium chloride, or, commercial table salt, is loaded with toxins, bleach, anti-caking chemicals and even in some cases, sugar. It isn’t necessarily the salt that’s bad, but the process; the more processed the salt, the worse it is for us.

The Selsi Salt Bar stocks salts in their purest, most natural forms. When unrefined and used in moderation, salt is actually quite healthy, and beneficial for our day-to-day. “When you’re eating raw, unrefined sea salt, you’re getting all the trace elements that your body needs to function. You will die faster of dehydration from not having enough salt in the body, than not having enough water.”

Unbeknownst to many, there are over 80 minerals that naturally occur in raw salt, among them magnesium, calcium, zinc, iron and potassium. In fact, a big reason why the neurons of our brains keep firing is due to salt, and the minerals coming from salt.

Of course it isn’t neurons or calcium that keep Brockie’s customer base loyal and growing, so much as it is the function, look, texture and taste of her wares, all tied together with the marvellous service. There is Australian Murray River salt, where red earth has leeched into the river being fed into the ocean, giving the salt its name. There is Himalayan pink salt, mined underground in Pakistan, and Cyprus Flake Lava salt, which is black from being mixed with activated charcoal. There is the super stinky, very tasty brown west coast Salish salt, which is smoked with alder wood in the same process used to smoke salmon, and the gray, briny salt from the French island of Ile de Re.

Brockie sources locally for bulk products in addition to carrying established brands, like Welsh Halen Mon, and the ever popular Fleur de Sel. There are interesting concoctions too, like the porcini salt, and Italian truffle salt, a snappy blend of sea salt speckled with truffle shavings. She tells me it’s fabulous sprinkled over homemade popcorn with parmesan cheese.

She’s got her own salt line in the works, too.

Really, who knew salt was its own subculture? Subtle changes often make great changes, and one salt from another can turn a recipe into something else altogether, even a simple dish like eggs. Each salt has its own taste and story; should customers care to know the facts or even the difference, Andrea Brockie will teach them about it. And, let them taste it, of course.

When looking at it that way, it’s not hard to see why she specializes in salt. “Urban living has disconnected us from food,” she tells me, and I believe her. The Selsi Salt Bar reconnects people to an everyday product, and the many uses of it. “I think salt is one of the most healing, most overlooked elements in our households. Not just for gourmet but for allergies, skin conditions, detoxification, arthritis, asthma; there are so many benefits that come from this one ingredient. And, it’s beautiful. That’s what I love.”

Salt, beautiful? Indeed, yes. One only has to look at red Alaea salt, let alone sample its earthy, volcanic offerings, to agree.

Andrea Brockie and her Selsi products are also available for salt parties, salt lectures, or any salt experience that comes to mind.