Giyani (South Africa) (AFP)

"You will see, it has nothing to do with what you have already tasted". With a sweeping gesture, Germaine Esau sprinkles with a pinch of salt the tuna he has just cut. A unique salt, sacred even according to its proud producers of South Africa.

When he talks about his favorite seasoning, the chef at Myoga, a trendy restaurant in Cape Town (South West), is inexhaustible. "He reveals all the flavors, better than that, he enhances them", he ignites before sending his dish in the dining room.

The Baleni salt is its name, harvested during the only austral winter months 2,000 km further north, in a river in the province of Limpopo (north-east), the Klein Letaba.

"It gives a mineral taste to everything you do and it is strong, no need to add," says Germaine Esau.

With the exception of soya or miso sauces, which are unparalleled, the Myoga chef explains that he has recently given up all foreign products to favor dishes from South African terroirs. "We looked for the best salt available in this country, it was Baleni's."

Today, he is "spicing" his unique flavor with the menus of several posh restaurants in Cape Town or Johannesburg, who have chosen to put the price: 125 rand (7.5 euros) per kilo wholesale, 20 rand (1 , 2 euro) spoon for individuals.

The bill is ... salty but it is well worth it.

- Ancestral Rituals -

It reflects the silversmith work of the women of the village of Giyani who spend hours curving their backs along the banks of the Klein Lebata to scrape the precious layer of a blinding white that covers them.

"It's a sacred place, given to us by our ancestors," says one of the producers, Emelin Mathebula, 73, gently scratching the floor with a metal board.

Sacred because a long list of rituals is necessary to be able to hope to harvest a pinch of salt of Baleni.

This is to deposit at the foot of a dead tree of the region a little tobacco, some coins and "mqombothi", a local craft beer.

"If you do not start asking for it, you will never get salt," says Ndaheni Mashele, a 66-year-old producer.

According to Eleanor Muller, the owner of Transfrontier Parks Destinations NPO, which markets this salt, archaeologists have confirmed that salt has been produced on the banks of the Klein Lebata for two millennia.

"This sacred salt has been very popular with South African healers for centuries - and even today," she says.

High in magnesium and in particular chloride, it is, among others, used to treat hypertension and muscle pain.

- "The place of the biggest" -

It owes its properties to a source that pours into the river. The local population calls it "the place of the greatest" and grants him spiritual virtues.

"There is a form of collaboration between the source and the salt layers," says guide Thinashaka Tshivhase. "Salt is formed when the water rich in sulphates from the hot spring flows on the salt layers and the sun dries them".

"We follow literally the process that our grandparents taught us," she explains.

With a metal rod, pickers like Emelin Mathebula, proud grandmother of eight grandchildren, fill their 5-liter buckets of this earth. They add sand from the river, water and then mud through a filter of branches, clay and long grass.

The operation is repeated four times, until the water flowing from the filter is almost clear. Its contents are then simmered over low heat for four hours.

The foam produced cooled and crystallized then becomes the famous Baleni salt. In three days, the women of Giyani can produce up to 80 kilos. Each year, up to 2 tons can be extracted from the banks of the river.

When serving the guests of Myoga, the chef Germaine Esau does not hesitate to "tell" this particular salt. "Everyone loves stories," he says, "and that salt has a beautiful story."

© 2019 AFP