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The shrimp, admittedly, felt a tad deflated and listless, but every single other piece of fish was a prime cut with the kind of marbling that makes one perform a double take.
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At $18 apiece, the bowls were worth every penny thanks to the crab meat, salmon, tuna, yellowtail and shrimp served atop freshly made rice with pickled carrots on the side (a brilliant and delicious addition to the already brilliant contrasting flavor profiles and textures of the fish). Jesushi’s menu is more complete than you’d expect from a truck (of which, Mendoza says, he’s proud), and being unable to settle on specific nigiri ($2-$6) or roll -($6-$12) selections, we opted for the chef’s choice chirashi bowls as well as the California roll and shrimp tempura roll (sushi standbys that are, at the very least, decent pretty much anyplace). That’s the right word, too, because on the day my companion and I arrived to sample Mendoza’s food, everything looked clean and gorgeous. (much of his fish comes from California and Japan and arrives in Santa Fe twice weekly) and now spends every day preparing, as he says, art. He worked on the truck, developed a menu and a relationship with seafood importer Arizona Mutual Trading Co. “But I had this truck in my yard, and I was asking myself what I should do-and my mind said ‘sushi on wheels.’”
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“We were closed for two months, but my bills didn’t stop,” he tells SFR. It’s more like an art.”Īfter Osaka, he worked at Española’s Jo-Ji’s for a few years, but took back up with Osaka and, eventually, moved over to Midtown’s Kai Sushi for a three-year run. He’d work Osaka’s teppan grill as well, though, Mendoza says, “I liked making sushi more. Mendoza started there at 15, when, he says, he believes he became the youngest chef in Santa Fe-sushi or otherwise. Regardless, he’s got the sushi pedigree, including a stint at the sadly-defunct Osaka restaurant on the Southside that now houses, sigh, Buffalo Wild Wings. Even so, Mendoza says he’s still considering a possible patio build-out when the winter passes next year one that might include beer and wine. This isn’t 10 or more years ago, when self-proclaimed foodies would have simply pooh-poohed the idea of sushi from a truck, either, and the ever-evolving food truck movement has proven fine dining need not be attached to a brick-and-mortar kitchen. In those three months, Jesushi has proven a word-of-mouth powerhouse with even the most discerning (read, jerkish) of my friends singing its praises. The food truck world is, to say the least, demanding, and though Mendoza still has an hour to go before he opens up for service, he’s still prepping and finalizing when we speak by phone. “I’ve been doing it for three months now,” Mendoza says on a late Monday morning. Mendoza’s new truck satisfies my criteria with only the smallest of downsides (more on that later) and some of the best and freshest-tasting fish I’ve ever had in New Mexico. I’ve had staunch requirements because of that, and a schooling in the ancient art of raw fish that I can only truly describe as intensive. Yes, we’re all sushi geniuses around here, and we all know what we like, but my dad’s family lived in Japan for years, and the whole raw fish thing has been a mainstay of my life since I can remember first grappling with the concept of flavor. Let this soothe any fish-in-the-desert concerns you might have and set adrift in the knowledge that new sushi truck Jesushi (2217 Cerrillos Road, (505)204-5330 Monday-Wednesday Noon-5 pm Thursday-Saturday Noon-6 pm) from local chef Jesus Mendoza is excellent.Īnd I know from whence I speak. With more than 85% of the fish consumed by Americans being imported, most seafood you’ll ever eat was frozen at some point-often right on the boat.