K I I C H I chaos – Ramen Tatsu-Ya from Lobo Sucio Creative on Vimeo.

Here is a wonderful little present my dear friends at Lobo Sucio created for me. This was shot amidst the recording of Trivium’s “VI” in Austin, Texas. 

One fateful day – I was hungry (as always) – and my new foodie soul-mates at Lobo took me to Ramen Tatsu-ya, a little oasis in Austin not unlike a mini-Japan. The folks at Tatsu-ya do a perfect bowl of Ramen and I’m proud to say I downed at least 3 bowls in that shoot alone. From my initial introduction to Tatsu-ya, I found new friends in the staff and owners alike, and found a new spot in the USA that has some of the best food I’ve come across.

Basically – you need to get to Tatsu-ya. My current favorite is the Tsukemen or ”Dipping Ramen” – surprisingly – it was my first time ever trying that style at Tatsu-ya.

If you’re unfamiliar with Lobo Sucio, they are the multi-medium-extraordinaires who create some truly fantastic visual art spanning across photography, videography, and film. Lobo Sucio is doing the Trivium documentary that surrounds “VI”; both in photo and video.

Be sure to get on their site and check out some of the work they’ve done with Sorne – my new favorite Austin artist (check out the short film Lobo did for Sorne – breathtaking stuff). 

If you dig the tunes in the background of this piece – that’s ol’ Kiichi-kun on the jams.

Enjoy this little food episode my friends created for me. Thank you Lobo’s, thank you Tatsu-ya’s. 

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Thanks to Trivium, I have had the privilege of being in countless magazines around the globe. Recently, I was published in the latest edition of Effilee (a fantastic German Food and Wine magazine) and I think I was more excited for this than anything in years.

Thanks to a dear friend and colleague/a&r-dude Ulf Zick (Apogee, Spotify, ex-Gibson) introducing me to Dr. Martin Tesch (from Tesch Wines in Germany (insanely delicious wine)), who connected me with Ursula Heinzelmann (http://www.ursulaheinzelmann.de/) – this was all made possible. 

I am proud to call Ursula a friend and food-soul-mate of mine, and her featuring me in Effilee was a new sort of accomplishment that I never imagined possible. Please pick up the magazine and cherish this bad boy like I do. 

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Last Supper

(Tokyo. Day 4.)

The last day was a quick one – rested and revitalized, there was no press today. Just the impending cross-globe flight to NYC to hit the press trip over on that side of earth. Koji had some work to do, so after Corey and I packed our luggage – we decided to hit whatever we could find randomly. Continue reading

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Sake-Stomach-Soup 

(Tokyo. Day 3. Part 2.)

Shrimp-mayo again. Happy, little fried-nuggets of shrimpy-goodness; these were way smaller than the ones from the first night, but just as amazing nonetheless – the bed of greens and sprinkles of green onion were a good compliment. The duck (with the fat) skewered with wasabi was a good laugh. A good laugh in the sense that every person who took a bite (after about 3-5 seconds) was immediately invaded upward-nasal-style with a kick of some serious wasabi-ness. This is what I imagine Steve-o’ lines of wasabi felt like; every single person at the table had the same “Holy shit!- but I’m trying to maintain composure, red-as-a-beat face on.” Terrific. Continue reading

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Shibuya-san, genki-desuka? Watashi wa Kiich-desu

Day 2:

It’s rare that the first night i hit the sack after a 6-20 hour travel day that i wake up at a decent hour. The gods of Japanese ancient-lore must have been in my favor when i awoke to a sunrise (and not pitch black 2:57am). My partner in crime, Mr. Corey King Beaulieu-san and i had a plan to hit the hotels’ upstairs restaurant A’bientot early in the a.m. before the press madness began. Continue reading

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day 2. part 2.

Lots and lots more great press… yadda yadda… 

We actually had all the head retailers of all the CD-retailers from all over Japan come in to have us demo our new album, videos, artwork, and basically be the salesmen of the new record: it went amazingly… but it made me hungry. Continue reading


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(day 1 continued)

 

The next dish was (if in the USA it would be called this) Shrimp. 3 ways. It was shrimp covered in Japanese mayo (a completely different taste than our american mayo), deep fried shrimp heads (the best part of a shrimp to me; cooked the best way), and shrimp crackers. This dish was something special. The shrimp mayo was probably one of the best damn things we ate that night – Japanese mayo has a sweeter flavor than US-mayo, and it’s far lighter; fried shrimp heads… if you haven’t had them done right before – try it; it rules. Continue reading

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Since being home and off-tour – I’ve found it very difficult to be able to type up new food adventures… so – to keep this bad boy alive, I will be posting old issues off my original tumblr food blog. I’m sure not everyone has had the chance to enjoy these original blogs. The writing ain’t as good, I may be cruder, and the pictures are all iPhone… Guten Apetit. 

 

Day 1. Tokyo.

Having never done a blog based around my travels and gastro-adventuring, my friends and family have always encouraged me to start something like this up. All of these photos are iPhone photos in (obviously) some of the most un-photogenic lighting situations; so you’ll see the food pretty much as i did… in a semi-blurred haze (not unlike mine, which was induced by copious amounts of delicious japanese alcohol and jetlag). Continue reading

“Dawn Of A New Day”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNasRspzJZ8

“Harvest”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjkmuQ-JIpk

“Hurt”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_VVQNRHcNY

“Hallelujah”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIQlscCYf4E

“Dying In Your Arms”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JLHJto1kSk&feature=relmfu

 

Dawn Of A New Day (At In Flames’ Restaurant, 2112)

Gothenburg, Sweden

Life used to be sort of difficult in Trivium: always hearing of “other bands” that either say that we **** or that “Matt Heafy is a _____ (insert numerous insults in blank)”, or ludicrously cold commentary online about things surpassing the boundaries of necessity when you simply don’t like a band. It hurt a bit being in my late teens just making the kind of music I wanted, but always having to “hear” about how bands, press, or kids thought I or the band sucked. Nowadays? I never hear anything band really (or don’t mind), and I’ve managed to befriend some musicians that I always considered some of the greatest people on Earth.  Continue reading