The Simpleton: Part One: Belly Timber

Gourmet doesn’t mean complicated. It doesn’t mean expensive. It doesn’t even mean time consuming. Gourmet means respect. Appreciation. Understanding of food.

Understanding comes from curiosity. Making the conscientious decision to care about what you are about to ingest into your body. Your blood, bones, muscles, skin. Health is a direct effect of what goes into your mouth and down the hatchet.

Simple is better.

Simple ingredients, simple travels, simple preparation.

Unfortunately, we live in an age where simple seems to solely describe how food is prepared. More specifically, how long it takes to prepare. We can thank the 1950’s for this––TV dinners, Hamburger Helper, box cakes, pancake mixes, canned soups. The list could go on forever.

But take butter for example. Butter today comes in several forms. Salted. Unsalted. Sweet Cream... (That’s actually all I know off the top of my head). I find it slightly fascinating that butter has to be labeled as unsalted. We got so used to the companies adding their own salt to the butter that they had to specify that of which is the regular product. (Same concept goes for organic products, too.) Anyway, as most know, salted butter is generally used for immediate consumption, like on toast or sandwiches, etc. Unsalted butter is generally used in cooking and baking. This is so the salt level can be controlled.

Though some people would prefer just regular unsalted butter on their toast or sandwich or muffin, many people like the sensation of a little salt. But, what about this concept: add your own salt. Smear on your butter. Sprinkle a tiny bit of salt over the top. It tastes just as good. Maybe even better. It has a slightly cleaner taste.

Portland restaurant, Belly Timber, on SE Hawthorne, exposed me to this novel idea. They serve their bread with a side dish of “unsalted” butter and two little piles of salt seasonings. They mix their salt with various combinations of herbs and spices breathing new life into your typical ol’ bread and butter.

Sprinkling on your own salt to unsalted butter allows you to control your own salt levels, as well as affording you the opportunity to experience a mind-blowing array of different types of salts. I won’t lie, I’m not sure I’d be able to tell Kosher salt from grey salt, but I’d like to try.

The idea here is to slow down and simplify. Respect the time it may take to prepare a wonderful dish, even when the ingredients are few and basic. Appreciate the outcome, especially when ingredients are void of guise and you can taste their real flavor. And then, only then, will understand the pleasure and joy that comes from eating gourmet.