Fuentes bluefin tuna tapas: talent to scale
A logbook by Sensei Hiroshi Umi. Internationally speaking, they are the most recognisable trait of Spanish cuisine. As universal as sushi or pizza. Supposedly they had a twofold origin: a matter of hygiene, and what might be called whetting...
How to judge –and win– a bluefin tuna competition
A logbook by Sensei Hiroshi Umi.. A gaggle of TV cameras and photographers mills around the main stage in Hall 8 of Salón Gourmets (IFEMA, Madrid), trying not to fall over one another before the event begins. Just a few moments ago an outs...
El Doncel: bluefin tuna 1,000 m above sea level
A logbook by Sensei Hiroshi Umi. He gives off the aura of days gone by, out of the ordinary, like a man of the Golden Age, veteran of a thousand battles, arising from a literary world. A rakishly piratical beard, professorial glasses, sharp...
Koshihikari: why this rice for this bluefin tuna
The staple of half of humanity, the central core of nutrition and the bedrock of so many store cupboards. More than 500 million tonnes are harvested each year around the world, with our Chinese neighbours the global leaders in terms of prod...
Hermanos Vinagre, or why bluefin tuna is a sublime tapa
I first set foot in Spain as a gastronomic correspondent back in 1989. And what my bosses got me to explore to begin with was what I then defined as holy ground: the bars of Madrid. Notebook in hand, my bewildered face betraying my stupefac...
Nippon 2: a quixotic story and a cult sushiman
“My name is Yuho Matsushita. I was born in the south of Japan, in Kagoshima province, 57 years ago. It is 30 years since I moved to Spain. I came to the Barcelona Olympic Games in 1992, because I love athletics. I got my ticket and saw Fe...