Salt

I wish I knew more about it, so as to inflict a learned disquisition on you, but salt has been a very important trade good in Saharan history and is still mined in slabs near (by 'near' I mean 'several weeks on a camel away from') Timbuktu and transported around Mali by boat. The slabs are chipped up (which results in big crystals of salt) and then pounded or ground (which results in extremely fine sand-like salt) - both very different textures than what I'm used to in the table salt line. This is salt in a restaurant in Timbuktu (we had it on really good couscous with vegetable sauce) - I like to think you can discern the powdery nature of it, please don't disabuse me of my notion of my camera skills.