I had the train back at 17:40 in Atocha and I had never missed an AVE in all my life. Never. But there is always a first time (or so they say, I'm not so sure) for almost everything, even for a punctuality obsessive neurotic and to get on Laura's nerves because of that tradition of mine of being an hour earlier at the corresponding station. Dress me slowly, I'm in a hurry, that is.
At what point did the afternoon turn? we were Javier Canada and I practically opening Salmon Guru after a memorable lunch in ikigai —the discreet Japo of Flor Baja, “the covered one” for more than one and more than two—, giant teddy bears occupying tables, well loaded with good manzanilla and Madrid knocking on the doors of the mambo. Nobody knocks on the doors of the mambo like Madrid.
Diego Cabrera has been doing magic at Salmón Gurú for five years.
We entered Salmón like the Seals who gave Bin Laden a fire in Islamabad: pim, pam, that table in the back, Quickly ask for two drinks, which gives me time, I set an alarm, pim, pam.
I was a little worried (the truth) when Cañada raised his hand to order the second, a model gin fizz, and another potato. He reminded me a bit of that anecdote —I think it was told by David Gistau— of Don Manuel Alcántara entering El Pimpi de Málaga: “A Dry Martini, please. It is to clarify the voice”.
I don't know what I did first, whether to order another Old Fashioned to join the party or turn off the alarm because not even the most diligent Seal arrived on the train. And what happens with so many failed plans and so many nonsense in life happened: that when it seems that things have gone wrong, it turns out that precisely for that reason they have gone well.
That there is no need to think about it too much, just buy a change of clothes for Thursday and ask for another round, well The train has already left and will not return.
Ikigai.
ikigai He is probably the Japanese in Madrid who has grown the most (and the best) and I really believe that he has already fully entered that traditional mental podium to the truth of Kappo by Mario Payan umiko by Juan Alcaide & Pablo Marcos and Kabuki Wellington by Ricardo Sanchez.
In the room he walks Sara Achabar with Judith Ayago to the wines (it comes from Nakeima, another temple) and whenever we return we ask that Yong Wu Nagahira do what he really wants, but don't let him fall short of nigiris because that is where a sushiman plays it: I have this very clear.
They were taking them out in sequence, to the rhythm of the afternoon and the sherries —it seemed like a musical— and I know we won't forget the pickled horse mackerel, that sea bass beurre blanc with cecina or the sequence, tremendous, of the bull. Bull with fat ham and caviar, blessed be God.
Fig and squid nigiri.
Precisely that night (and since I was staying in Madrid) I went back to the Kabuki of the Wellington that is that restaurant for first dates, sharp ticket (it's worth it, every euro) and clean shoes. For many love for him began in this hotel sushi and precisely for this reason here we return to pilgrimage as the lost souls that we are.
I think you could have your breakfast, lunch and snack nasu no miso –aubergine with miso, shallot and sesame, to die for– but to what we are going: to continue scoring in the game of nigiris, gunkans and usuzukuris. You may not know it, but your butter fish with truffle It is by far one of the most copied dishes from Spain. Normal.
Madrid salad nigiri with tuna marinade from Umiko.
Anyway, I don't know if it's the two hundred nigiris of the owner but almost almost, because it didn't take me long to return to the Villa and Court back to the Japo, perhaps more in the form of the city, than also close to Atocha: Umiko, in the Literary neighborhood.
Twenty perfect rice balls, one hundred grains for each bite (the canonical nigiri has no more than eleven grams of rice, ten less than the soul), a dessert to remember called the Pink Panther and this certainty with which I want to close this letter, this first cluster of nonsense of many to come: I hope you never forget that life is about plans that go well but also, and almost more importantly, lighting the fire in those that go wrong.