Justin Fox Burks
Like most memorable cuisines, Jimmy Sinh’s fusion cooking grew out of necessity, time, and place. His mother Mui Thong cooked for a family of eight, and Sinh worked alongside. As a youngster in Los Angeles, he also absorbed cooking cultures from his own Chinese and Vietnamese heritage and from the city’s sprawling ethnic communities. “We grew up really poor, so we used whatever we had, and everything we ate was fusion,” Sinh recalls. “If I asked my mom, what dish is this, she would say, I don’t know. It’s free-style.”
In the mid-1990s, Sinh’s family moved to Memphis for better paying warehouse jobs. Sinh worked, too, at Benihana, Nagasaki, and Kublai Khan in Southaven. By the time he was 19, he was making sushi at Wasabi, where he built a loyal following with fusion-style sushi like the Jimmy Sinh roll, a warm and wonderful combination of spicy crawfish, baked scallops, and avocado topped with crabstick, green onion, and tobiko, the bright red roe from flying fish.
Justin Fox Burks
Justin Fox Burks
Two years ago, Sinh struck out on his own. He launched Sushi Jimmi from a trailer at the Mid-South Food Truck Fest with help from his brother, David Sinh, who now manages the new restaurant, located on Poplar just west of the main library. Sinh remembers the prep and fervor well (38 hours with no sleep) and how they showed up with packed coolers, but no set menu. “I made up the menu in like five minutes,” he says.
Newcomers to Jimmi’s sushi party should come hungry and start with kimchi fries, a signature dish topped with a sunny-side-up egg. Break the yolk and let the flavor mingle with its international friends: seasoned fries and crumbled ground beef (American), spicy mayo (Japanese), Sriracha sauce (Thai), and kimchi (Korean). Similar global riffs inspire the menu’s sushi burritos — oversized and imminently satisfying — and the recently introduced Seoul Dog, a jumbo hot dog topped with kimchi, spicy mayo, and pico de gallo.
“Chicago has the Chicago Dog. Now Memphis has its own dog, too,” Sinh says. “And when you pronounce the name, it refers to both Seoul, Korea, and to Memphis soul food.”
2895 Poplar Ave. (901-729-6985) $-$$. Follow @SushiJimmi for food truck locations and look for David Sinh’s new truck, D’s Banh Mi, featuring fusion Vietnamese subs.
