Consumed more salt than we have of rice

Solution 1:

It's possibly grammatical but so unusual in the way it's written that it would invite confusion.

A couple of options for making it clearer:

• They are people who have "consumed more salt than we have consumed rice."
• They are people who have "consumed more of salt than we have of rice."

Apparently the Chinese saying is, 我吃盐多过你吃米, I have eaten more salt than you have eaten rice.

It looks like the author of the NY Times piece may have selected the unusual phrasing from this article.

https://www.aspirantsg.com/she-has-probably-eaten-more-salt-than-you-have-eaten-rice/

To say that someone has eaten more salt than you have of rice, it shows that they have been around and gone through a great deal more than you have and we should respect their wealth of life experience.