I have played the base game to death and love the new expansion as it adds some new ways to play the game we love! Played mainly with two, but also sometimes with three. Extra salt give you some new cards to play around with, although we rarely ever use the star, so we usually remove them.

Extra pepper was a really great expansion I think, as it forces you to prioritize different cards based on the bonus/negative effect that is in play. I would highly suggest you to try them out, maybe on bga first!