WE ARE MAR Xarda is the Galician name for the Scomber scombrus. But it is not the only name it has. Neither here nor in the rest of the country. It could almost be said that it has a nickname in each port. For the Galicians, it is both xarda, caballa, verdel, or rincha. For the Andalusians, it is tonino. In the Levante area, it is known as verat; in Cantabria even as pelicato; in the Basque Country as berdela, and in Murcia as estornino, according to the list of commercial names admitted in Spain. Of course, in Galicia, the estornino is something else. It is the Scomber japonicus, a cousin of the xarda that dresses similarly and is also called xarda pintada. There are even guides to learn how to distinguish them. Both have a blue-green back with black transverse stripes that, in the case of the caballa, are more marked and defined than those of the estornino. But it is in the belly where one is best distinguished from the other. The belly of the rincha is silver, while the xarda ...