Jimmy “Sushi Jimmi” Sinh is hitting the road with his new bright red “Poke Paradise” food trailer tonight, January 26th.
And that’s heavenly news for Sushi Jimmi fans.
“I’ll be at High Cotton brewery,” Sinh says. “I’ll be serving from 5 to 8:30 p.m. But if we have a huge crowd, I’ll be serving a little bit later if I need to.”
He’ll be selling poke as well as sushi on his trailer. “Poke is diced raw fish served with either a soy base or mayo base. I serve mine the more traditional style. I focus on the fish. Not a lot of sides.”
The only sides Sinh includes are edamame, seaweed salad or avocado.
He also will be operating out of his Poke Paradise shop at 5310 Crestview Road. “Whenever I’m not doing any private dinners or catering, we’ll be out on the food truck. When we’re not on the food truck, we’ll be at the shop doing to-go orders. You can always order from the shop. You can call it in or pick it up. We have DoorDash.”
As for where you can find Sinh’s food trailer, he says, “I’ll be all over the city. Right now I’ve got a lot of people calling me with certain locations.”
That includes neighborhoods, he says. “If the neighborhood gives me permission to do it, I’m open to it. We’re looking to give everyone a try.”
Sinh has no set time for when he will be setting up his food trailer. “It fluctuates. If we have any private parties throughout the week, we’ll be out three or five times a week. If we don’t have any parties, then we’ll be out five, six days a week.”
He ordered the 16-by-8-foot trailer in 2021 and got it the next year. He pulls it with his pick-up truck.
Sinh doesn’t have any stoves on the trailer. “It’s just a bunch of refrigeration. I’m not doing any propane stove or any type of flat top griddle. The reason I did it like that is because I want to focus on the strongest part of my career, which is, right now, the sushi side.”
He also doesn’t have to worry about employing a lot of staff. “The way I created this food truck is either I can operate it by myself or have an extra person on there. I shouldn’t need more than two people to operate the truck.”
For now, Sinh has a limited menu, which includes his two “hottest” selling poke bowls: Spicy Ninja and Fire Salmon. “I’m trying to get a feel of the crowd just to see what they want.”
What sells stays on the menu, he says. “It’ll be two or three months before I make an official menu.”
Spicy Ninja is spicy tuna, crab mix, avocado, sushi rice, and Arcadian greens.
Fire Salmon is fresh salmon mixed with spicy mayo and Kewpie mayo, a Japanese mayonnaise, which, he says, has “a little more flavor to it.”
He sears the salmon to add more flavor. “I sear it with my torch and it brings more flavor from the fish and mayo. And then I top it with eel sauce, masago, green onions, fried onions, and then furikake.”
Sinh will include “just a few” of his sushi rolls on his food trailer menu. “The ones that sell the best are going to be on it.”
The “Los Angeles,” one of the sushi rolls, is made with shrimp tempura, cucumber, spicy crawfish, crab stick, spicy mayo, eel sauce, sriracha, fried onions, masago, green onions, and furikake.
He also will include his sushi burritos. “People love them. It’s a large sushi roll cut in half. And it looks just like a burrito. We have a dipping sauce you can dip with it on the side.”
Sinh is bringing back his Diablo sauce. “Just a very spicy hot chili sauce. Very thick. Made with a lot of different spices. It’s one of the sauces I had when I had my restaurant.”
He will include his “901” sushi burrito. “That’s a Memphis favorite. That is really a Memphis gem right there. I sell more 901s than any sushi burrito. That one has salmon, spicy tuna, crab mix, cucumber, avocado, and Arcadian greens.”
Sinh also will serve his Spicy Tuna Nacho Supreme, which is made with spicy Ahi tuna, crab mix, pico de gallo, avocado, tobiko and Doritos nacho chips.
Sinh will keep people notified of his food trailer’s whereabouts at pokeparadise901 on his Facebook and Instagram pages. “Every day I’ll post all the information that’s needed. And they can call me.” He can be reached at (901) 604-0058.
Sinh’s future plans include getting a full-scale food truck. “I prefer a regular food truck. That’s going to be on my list. I want to be back on an actual food truck just because it’s more comfortable. I want to bring a full kitchen back later on.”
He used to have a food truck, but he wants the next one to be a “larger” truck.
“This time I want a 24-foot long one.”
High Cotton Brewing Co. is at 598 Monroe Avenue; (901) 543-4444
