The self-taught Romeo who has conquered Alicante
No restaurant sector consultant or business strategist would wager a dime on such audacity. An intrepid young Italian émigré, with no prior experience and no Japanese roots, investing in setting up sushi restaurants in the heart of Alican...
Kabutokaji: celebrity, empowered tuna
A logbook by Sensei Hiroshi Umi. When Real Madrid legend Raúl González Blanco signed for the German ‘miners’ Schalke 04, bringing to an end his era at the club in 2010, I felt a huge sense of disappointment. I, like many of my...
Cuba, Asturias and museum tunas
A logbook by Sensei Hiroshi Umi. I love emigrant stories. Not the contemporary anecdotes in which an executive on a multi-million salary and bonus is transferred to Singapore, where his children grow up in a gilded cage, mollycoddled by a b...
An odyssey that ends 65 below zero
On the grey, somewhat pitted wall, alongside a tangle of discarded nets and fishing gear, the eye is drawn to a tuna with a Mona Lisa smile, drawn in chalk. There is a somewhat childlike air to the pictured fish, the outline clearly defined...
Masa Naomi: the marathon man belly whisperer
A logbook by Sensei Hiroshi Umi. Masa Naomi. Make a note of the name for your gastro stopovers… if you have not yet sampled its history and talent. It is no newcomer. In two years’ time they will be blowing out fifty candles on ...
The finest japanese knives for bluefin tuna
Ever since I arrived in this succulent enclave called Spain, I have been aware of its magnificent, historic, literary and sublime knife-making industry. The craftsmen of Arcos, born and bred in Albacete, still have their popularity and succ...