What’s wrong with sushi in Las Vegas? Not much, if you head to Japanese run establishments such as Sen of Japan, where chef/owner Hiro Nakano, a Nobu alum, treats his products with the proper respect. Plenty, if you eat at any of the Taiwanese or Korean owned joints, which comprise more than ninety percent of our sushi restaurants.

 And what is sushi? Put simply, sushi is short grain Japanese rice, cooked with a little vinegar, and then topped, stuffed or wrapped with fish, vegetables, or even fruits. It is emphatically not raw fish, which is called sashimi in Japanese. In Japan, where nigiri, the fish topped form of sushi we favor is a luxury item, most sushi has no fish, but rather toppings or stuffing with egg, tofu, seaweed or vegetables.

Now back to Sen of Japan, and rice. I recently wrote about rice, and promised to follow up with a piece on some interesting rice dishes in Las Vegas. But for a clinic on how to cook rice, one only has to head to this Westside restaurant, which is the best Japanese sushi restaurant in the city. The quality of the rice is the most critical aspect of sushi, and chef Nakano’s sushi rice is firm, fluffy and flavorful, the 3 F’s.

Not that we’re discounting the quality of the fish. A sushi master has knife skills that most of us couldn’t develop anymore than we could learn to play Beethoven’s Hammerklavier Sonata. A sushi master chooses the best fish, and keeps them fresh by storing them at the proper temperature and humidity. A sushi master loves the chance to do omakase, chef’s choice, where you leave yourself in his hands and let him orchestrate your entire meal from start to finish.

Dining at Sen of Japan with a friend, we committed the sacrilege of beginning the meal with tempura, lightly battered and deep fried pieces of fish and vegetable, an excellent preparation, but never a first course in Japan. We didn’t have to ask for a side dish of daikon oroshi, the grated radish that gives the dipping sauce texture. I can’t think of any other sushi bar in town that offers it without your asking.

Spicy Spider Roll

Next came a superb salmon skin salad, the crunchy shards of salmon contrasting perfectly with the vivid mixed greens and perfectly cut carrot, laced with sesame oil and yuzu-a Japanese citrus-based dressing. Two large cut hand rolls followed, a Spicy Spider Roll with seared salmon, mango and sweet chili sauce, and Spicy Tuna and Green Onion Inside, topped with more tuna and a spicy garlic ponzu on top. Later, we had tsukune, three golf ball sized round, soy glazed quail meatballs served on wooden skewers, and a tangled pile of shishito, Kermit green, mildly spicy Japanese peppers, to help us absorbed the choku (thimbles) of hot sake we had been drinking throughout the meal.

Almond Financiere with Yuzu Sorbet

Toward the end, Chef Hiro, who sort of knows me, came over, and said, “next time, we’re gonna do it my way.” He wasn’t pleased with our blatant disregard for sushi protocol, particularly since he knows I spent a few years in Japan, and know better how a sushi meal is supposed to progress.

When I was at the Los Angeles Times, I reviewed a Valley restaurant called Sushi Nozawa, where the proprietor was legendary for throwing people out. One time, I dined there with my brother, and meekly asked his wife, the server, for omakase. I was glad I did. A customer ordered an eel hand roll at the counter, and then asked for seconds. “You disgust me, get out”, barked Nozawa, grabbing his chopsticks.

The mild mannered Nakano won’t do that- but if you want the best he has to offer do it his way next time.

Sen of Japan
8480 W Desert Inn Rd # F1
Las Vegas, NV 89117-4436
(702) 871-7781
open for dinner; usually open late!
www.senofjapan.com

Tags: Japanese, Sushi

This entry was posted by Max Jacobson on Sunday, November 15th, 2009 at 6:42 pm and is filed under Dining Out Vegas. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.