I have to admit I felt more than a pang of regret on seeing Francis Lam, over at his new gig, write a good takedown of NYC’s well-intentioned but misguided assault on salt. I should have been jumping to the defense, given that I learned from my dad that salt is best ingested from a mound off your palm, and my blood pressure is low enough to unnerve technicians. Unlike trans fats, the last bugaboo for our Daddy Mayor, salt is an essential ingredient; humans would die without it. I’d be all for regulating sodium content in processed crap if the WSJournal had not just reported that Big Food is already cutting back on it (I think it sees the nicotine rulings on the wall). But get the government out of restaurant kitchens — salt used early and judiciously does so much more for food than a shakerful at the table. Telling chefs, even chain chefs, how much they can use makes about as much sense as having David Chang dictate how to run a business magazine. Or a city.