HORACE LANGFORD JR. / PVT Sous chef Curt Simpson prepares a "reverse roll" in the kitchen at Tommasino's. All the sushi is made on the premises. HORACE LANGFORD JR. / PVT Tommasino's server Tom Gonzolez serves a tray of preselected sushi to patrons. Tommasino's offers a sushi plate accompanied by miso soup on Tuesday evenings beginning at 6:30 p.m. HORACE LANGFORD JR. / PVT Tommasino's server Tom Gonzolez serves a tray of preselected sushi to patrons. Tommasino's offers a sushi plate accompanied by miso soup on Tuesday evenings beginning at 6:30 p.m. Advertisement

Some Pahrump residents have been getting an education into sushi lately. The Japanese raw fish that's been popular for some years now in trendy American cuisine has been served up for the last few weeks at Tommasino's Italian Restaurant on Tuesday nights.

Unlike most sushi bars, where customers order dishes a la carte, Tommasino's offers an entire plate of various sushi for $19.99.

"We change up the dish every week. Every week I change the menu, I add little slices of sashimi, ahi tuna, salmon and eel," said Curt Simpson, sous chef for Tommasino's. "I'm trying to add other varieties of fish also in it."

Besides small slices of sashimi, which are simply slices of raw fish, the fare this week included a "heavenly roll," which consisted of salmon, scallion and cream cheese with sesame oil, topped with black, sesame seeds. The cheese was easily tasted in the roll. A roll is a feature in sushi dishes which typically includes sishi rice and raw fish rolled up together and bound in some way with nori, a common seaweed formed into sheets.

Simpson said the sushi arrives from a supplier who travels to Las Vegas. The sushi is a higher grade of fish, he explained. Simpson said he wraps up the rolls himself in the kitchen.

A temaki roll included strips of salmon rolled with rice, avocado, lettuce, ginger and bean sprouts in what looked like an ice cream cone of seaweed.

Other entries included the standard tuna strip on a bed of rice, shrimp or ebi in Japanese, two vegetarian rolls with cucumber, avocado and carrots and anago, or sea eel.

The meal was preceded by a bowl of miso soup, which, among other things, contains a paste made of fermented soybeans, with some Japanese scallions and nori.

While many diners like to show their expertise in using chop sticks, Simpson said it's not really necessary.

"Actually sushi started out in Japan as finger food. Chopsticks are an Americanized type of thing," Simpson said.

Sushi typically comes with soy sauce, which can be spiced up with wasabe, a green Japanese horseradish. Simpson said the Japanese usually get enough flavor out of their sushi to eat it without soy sauce.

Then there are strips of ginger.

"You know what the purpose of ginger is? You have so many different rolls and so many different things on your plate, between each bite of sushi you take a little ginger and it clears your palate. It's kind of like cheese with wine," Simpson said.

The meal can be washed down with a small bottle of sake, which can be ordered hot or cold.

"I do study Japanese culture," Simpson said, who revealed he was in Japan in the U.S. Army. "The joy is in the presentation."

So how did sushi ever wind up at owner Tom Saitta's restaurant in the middle of the desert anyway?

"We got the great idea to do sushi after we had a party for the employees one night and Tom thought it was a good idea to do it on Tuesday nights," Simpson said.

The sushi nights are another indication of some of the increasing sophistication of Pahrump, which in addition to Tommasino's, already has a winery to taste wine, a school for learning how to drive expensive automobiles, a top-notch recreational vehicle park and an immaculate golf course that attracts numerous golfers from Las Vegas.