What is Underground Tuna?
There is an article today about a man in Japan (Kiyoshi Kumura) that paid $37,500 for the first bluefin tuna at auction this weekend. This may seem like a lot, but last year he paid $1.76 million for a 489 pound tuna. Granted it was a nice fish, but pride drove up the price of the fish in a fierce bidding war with another restauranteur for the bragging rights of having nabbed the first tuna of the year.
But enough about crazy people! While reading this article it got me to thinking about one of our most popular and unique dishes at Mr. P's, our Underground Tuna. Although not on the menu (officially), it is a noted and much sought after special night after night.
But many ask, why is it called Underground Tuna? As the story goes, a long time patron of Mr. P's wanted something different one night - he told Chef Steve to make up something unique. A few minutes later, a beautiful sesame encrusted yellowfin tuna, pan-seared rare and thinly sliced and fanned on the plate and topped with a decadent sauce known as Hawaiian BBQ showed up in front of him. He loved the dish so much, he ordered it over and over again and people started coming into the restaurant and asking if they could have this secret tuna dish they'd heard about. It came to be called Underground Tuna because at first, only those "in the know" around these parts knew to ask for it...but before long...everyone knew!
It's no secret these days and we are thrilled that it is still gaining in popularity year after year. It can be ordered as an appetizer or an entree portion and as noted in last week's blog, it is served with the hottest wasabi on the planet.
