Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: All right, what's going on, y'all? Corpus Christi Originals back at it again. Coming to you live from the produce Streamlab Studios downtown. Corpus Christi, Texas, at produce Sound Studios here on People street. Thanks a lot, you guys, for joining today. We got Susheria in the house. What's up, man?
[00:00:13] Speaker B: What's up? How you doing? Thanks for having me.
[00:00:16] Speaker A: Otherwise known as Derek. Right.
[00:00:18] Speaker B: Or, you know, actually, I've been getting a lot lately, Mister Susheria. Actually, that's been a thing lately, which is kind of. Kind of funny, actually. I do randomly get recognized that when I'm out and about, which is interesting. So.
[00:00:32] Speaker A: Yeah, like the Mister Corpus Christi Originals.
Yeah, so, man, so we know each other from Del Mar back in the day, bro.
[00:00:41] Speaker B: Yeah, almost 20 years.
[00:00:42] Speaker A: 20 years or so.
[00:00:43] Speaker B: Because I started. I started at Del Mar 2005.
[00:00:45] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:00:46] Speaker B: So, yeah, close to 20 years wild.
[00:00:48] Speaker A: Yeah. Did you ever. Did you finish? Did you get your degree?
[00:00:50] Speaker B: No, I didn't. I didn't. Life. Life happened, and I kind of realized that pursuing a music degree was nothing something that I wanted to do. Yeah, mister. Mister Lippmann kind of called me out because I was. I was actually a theory and got major music theory in composition. And he asked me. He asked me one day, he says, you like living off of bootstamps as a music theory and company major. That's. That's what you're gonna be doing. And I'm like, man, maybe I don't want to do that.
[00:01:11] Speaker A: Whoa. Wow.
[00:01:14] Speaker B: Yeah.
Yeah, he was wild, man.
[00:01:16] Speaker A: Wow, man. That dude was awesome, too.
[00:01:19] Speaker B: He was.
[00:01:19] Speaker A: Yeah, he was. He was awesome in his own way. You know what I mean? Awesome clarinet player. I seen him play before.
Have you seen him play?
[00:01:26] Speaker B: Yeah, he's good, man. He's great.
[00:01:28] Speaker A: Yeah. And then, like, he brought, like, a jewish psalm one at one time. He was, like, singing it.
[00:01:33] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:01:33] Speaker A: Reading it. Because he's, like, jew. He's, like, a Jewish.
[00:01:36] Speaker B: I think so.
[00:01:36] Speaker A: Jewish, right?
[00:01:37] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:01:37] Speaker A: Talking about, like, you. He went to Israel one time or whatever. Oh, man. His class, dude. Sorry. Mister living.
[00:01:42] Speaker B: But it was tough. Too hard to get through.
[00:01:50] Speaker A: I think he was reading through the book the whole time, bro.
[00:01:52] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:01:53] Speaker A: Yeah, right?
[00:01:53] Speaker B: Pretty sure, yeah.
From where I remember when I was here, I didn't go to the class very often, honestly. That was part of my thing. I would skip a lot. That's part probably why I didn't do so well.
[00:02:03] Speaker A: Yeah.
Yeah. Do I just want to mention, dude, every time I saw you, you were always like, hey, what's up, dude? You know, just real. Just real cool. Real cool with me, you know what I mean? Even though we didn't really know each other. Know each other. But you were just like.
And, cuz, I mean, there was some people in the in. I mean, just me in general as a person. Some people were just. They kind of like, he's weird or whatever, but. But you're. You're you. The way you were towards me, I always remember that, bro. Like, even though we didn't know each other like that well, I was just like, that's how I remember. You know what I mean?
[00:02:33] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:02:33] Speaker A: Just talking about stuff you're talking about just before air. Like, I'm like, I don't know you like that. I know you guys a. What's up? What's up? Asus, you know, and just passed by. And you're an awesome bass player, dude.
[00:02:42] Speaker B: Thanks, man.
[00:02:44] Speaker A: So you're in three bands now?
[00:02:45] Speaker B: I'm in three bands now, yeah. So I still play with the independent thieves and playing with them for, I think, officially about ten years now, because I remember when I first started playing with them, one of the guys, David, his wife was pregnant with their little one, Violet, and she just turned, I think, maybe ten, or she's about to be ten, so, yeah, so she wasn't even born. We started playing. Now she's, you know, running around, but, yeah, so play with them. I play with national nobodies, and I just started a new project with Celeste from the chain links called Indiglo. So indie, indie music, which is pretty fun. I'm pretty excited about it.
[00:03:18] Speaker A: On air grammar. Graham says my man.
[00:03:21] Speaker B: Oh, that's right. Yeah, he wanted me throw him a shout out, I guess. I guess you could be well over.
He's one to play. He actually played at one of my sushi classes one time, and it was really nice, good ambient, you know, vibe in the background. So, dude, I've been wanting to check.
[00:03:35] Speaker A: Out one of them classes. So what is. What is one of those classes entail? Like, if somebody goes to it?
[00:03:41] Speaker B: So the. The biggest thing with me doing them is kind of getting my food in front of people, right? So they can expect to have my food, my version of sushi. But they get two different rolls with two different styles of rolls, I guess. One with rice on the inside, one rice on the outside takes about an hour. Everybody leaves with their own sushi, rolling mat, their own reusable chopsticks. And since I've been doing them at the asian museum, they could say, hang out at the asian museum and walk around and check it out.
[00:04:10] Speaker A: So, yeah, getting your food in front of people, it's definitely something that nobody else is doing. I don't think you're in town, right?
[00:04:15] Speaker B: I don't think so, no. I had a friend, one of my good buddies, long time friends from middle school. He's done sushi pretty much right out of high school. And he did sushi in Austin. He did sushi in LA and in New York. And when I showed him what we were doing, he says he's never seen anything like it, you know, so, I mean, from East coast to West coast to south Texas, like, I think. I think it's safe to say I'm really probably the only one doing what I'm doing. Exactly.
[00:04:41] Speaker A: That's cool.
[00:04:41] Speaker B: I've seen variations of it. Like a certain restaurants, right. You know, where they have beef inside of it or chicken inside of it, but it's regular white rice with, you know, the traditional sushi toppings, but not exactly how I'm doing it with the spanish rice.
[00:04:53] Speaker A: Okay. Say, I was gonna say, so can you describe, like, a little bit of what it. Or describe what it is? How do you describe what it is?
[00:04:58] Speaker B: So that's something that, with marketing. Right. Like, I've struggled with trying to figure out how to market it. Right. Do I. Do I say it's, you know, like elevated Tex Mex food or mexican food with the twist? Sushi with the twist. And I did struggle with calling it sushi for a very long time. Right. Because I'm like. Like, what I do is it sushi?
But when you look at the definition of sushi, and I got with my buddy at the asian museum, she helped me kind of navigate that area, you know, like, is it sushi? But sushi is really all about the rice. It. Transliteral translation is sour rice.
[00:05:31] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:05:32] Speaker B: So when I. When I take that definition kind of with what I was doing, I made sure to treat it like, I would treat it like. Like regular traditional japanese sushi rice.
But I do also season it a little bit like spanish rice, so you get a little bit of both worlds.
[00:05:47] Speaker A: Wow. So spanish rice in place of the white rice on the wrap. Now, the stuff that's inside traditionally for sushi is what, like seafood or something?
[00:05:58] Speaker B: Yeah. So with traditional sushi, again, it's going to be seafood. Raw fish, shellfish, tuna, salmon, you.
And then. So I took those ideas, and I'm like, well, you know, if I. If I want to do a food truck, I don't think I want to do any of that raw stuff on truck in south Texas. You know? Yeah, yeah. So the.
The idea of taco meats, you know, was kind of a thing. And I'm just throw taco meats in there and call it a day.
[00:06:27] Speaker A: Yeah, that's cool. So you put the. I guess the taco meats like asada basically, right? Do you put pork or pork?
[00:06:34] Speaker B: I do. Carne asada, cilantro, lime, chicken, pork al pastor.
[00:06:38] Speaker A: No, sounds good.
[00:06:39] Speaker B: So, yeah, yeah. So some of my favorite, when people come up and ask what my favorite one is, I do the asada with miso infused beans, some red cabbage, chipotle sauce.
[00:06:49] Speaker A: Wow. Damn. I want to try it already. How's it going, Francesco? Thanks for joining in, Mama. Appreciate you. Yeah. So was I going to say. So the names that you have on your, on your menu. So, like, one of them is the kukui, right?
[00:07:02] Speaker B: Yeah, the kukui. Yeah, that's my pork roll. Yeah. I don't know. I'm like, man, what is. What is corpus love? Corpus loves, you know, the silly. The kind of over the top. And some of those, those names appeal to South Texas and hispanic community and the community down here, you know? So those are kind of. I tried to be very specific with how I did it. Like, the cuckoo is going to be my pork roll, the chupacabra is going to be my beef roll, and the lechussa is going to be my chicken roll.
[00:07:28] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. So you and your truck is posted up on Everhart, right?
What? Is it on everheart?
[00:07:34] Speaker B: No, not anymore. I used to be. I was. I was next to Adelphos for a little bit. Adelpho or I, Keenan from Adolfo's gave me. Gave me a lead on spot. They were looking for another food truck to hang out out there with him. So I was there. I tried it out. I didn't work out as well as I had hoped. And then with the construction, I moving down there probably just a few weeks ago, that realized it was a good time for me to move again.
[00:07:56] Speaker A: Yeah. So how have the people responded to your cuisine?
[00:08:02] Speaker B: There's a lot of excitement about it. A lot of excitement and confusion. Right. Because, again, I. People hear sushi and they associate it with traditional sushi. Right. The raw fish, the raw elements of things. You know, early on, I did, a lot of people asking me, wait, you serve. You serve raw chicken? I'm like, no, I can't surf raw chicken, man. I don't think there's anywhere in the world that you're gonna get to eat raw chicken. You know, like, nobody's gonna serve you raw chicken. So. And that. That's where the struggle is. Right. So I would say probably more often than not, I have people who are willing to try it, but there is a very small percentage of people that are like, oh, no, I don't like sushi. You know, so then I gotta. I gotta put on my best salesman, you know, face and give. Try and try and give him the sales pitch and cool. Eventually, I wear them down to try it out, and, you know, I've turned them into. Into a fan, you know, but it takes a little bit sometimes.
[00:08:50] Speaker A: Wow. You kind of. Kind of, like, you got to talk to him first about. Okay.
[00:08:55] Speaker B: Yeah. Traditional? No, not at all. Right. There's not. I mean, again, you're looking at it. You see that it looks like sushi the way I played it sometimes, but then it kind of. It's got that, like, street food appeal to, you know, where it's just, like, loaded with sauces and a bunch of stuff on it. Right.
But then, you know, the rice is kind of. They're like, wait, is that spanish rice? But it's sushi rice. And.
But, yeah, I mean, a lot of times, you know, if there. If there's those hardcore people who are either allergic or just don't do sushi at all, they're like, no, I'm not gonna do it.
[00:09:21] Speaker A: Yeah, right on. Yeah. So you've been at the art. The art walk. You do, like, I guess, festivals or. I mean, is that where you do step most times?
[00:09:30] Speaker B: Right now I'm doing. I went back to doing apartment complexes. I'm trying to get back into doing art walk. I set up at QBR. I'm actually doing QBR again next. Next month, uh, for smoke walk again. Um, I was doing farmers market. I just did a market in Rockport, so anywhere I can get in front of people. I'm not too picky these days.
[00:09:48] Speaker A: Yeah, right on. You get it. Seems like you got to do that as a food truck. Just post up different places. Don't. What? I mean, would you say that you kind of learned that recently because you just been station. You were just stationed at this one place, right. For a while. Like, is it. Is it more difficult doing it that way as opposed to, like, going different places all the time?
[00:10:06] Speaker B: I think for a well established, like, food truck, someone who's doing more familiar foods, you know, that that's a good idea with me. I need to be in front of people where there's foot traffic, because that's just the best way that people are gonna see what I'm doing?
[00:10:20] Speaker A: Right, right. And yours is. So it's actually a trailer. Right. So you. You pull your tray is. It's a trailer, right?
[00:10:27] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:10:27] Speaker A: Like an actual truck.
[00:10:28] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:10:28] Speaker A: So I guess you call it a food truck anyway. Right. Okay. Okay. That's pretty cool, Mandy. Yeah, I got to try it out. I got to try that out.
Yeah. That's cool, man. So. And how long have you been doing the sushiriya, or. Well, you started years back, right?
[00:10:42] Speaker B: Yeah. So this is third year in business. First year with the. The original branding started off with the business partner. We were set up inside of a gas station, and we jokingly call it gas station sushi, you know, which was. Which was a whole nother thing. Yeah, yeah. You know, like. Like, people just didn't want to try gas station sushi, you know? But really. No, it's not your regular sushi, but, yeah, we were inside. Snacks, happies.
It was. It was interesting. It was nice having a kitchen. The idea for a food truck kind of didn't come later on until some rebranding happened with the business, but, yeah. So going. Going on three years total. Two years with the food truck.
[00:11:19] Speaker A: Yeah. So to have a food truck. Yeah. I mean, what type of. I know you got to have, like, a food handlers permit, obviously. Right. Do you have to have, like, insurance for the food truck? I mean, what are some of the things that you have to have to go post up at a. At somewhere? You know what I mean?
[00:11:34] Speaker B: Insurance is definitely necessary. The trailer needs to be functioning like a commercial brick and mortar kitchen. Right. You know, so, like, you know, kitchen at a food establishment, you know, the.
[00:11:46] Speaker A: Kitchen cops type thing.
[00:11:47] Speaker B: Yeah, pretty much, yeah, yeah. I need to have a proper working vent hood. I need to have a proper working, like, the propane lines need to be in place. I need a hand wash, hand wash sink, three compartment sink for my dishes. So, again, you know, everything that they're going to hold a regular kitchen to, the food truck needs to have that, as well.
[00:12:03] Speaker A: Right. You got to keep that up to par. So, have you tried gas, or have you always done propane for stuff that you make?
[00:12:08] Speaker B: So, initially, the first trailer that I got, very, very tiny trailer, and there was, you know, barely enough room for the. For the sinks in there, but made it work. Had a small table in there with an electric stove. A very small electric stove. And it didn't really work the way that I was hoping it needed to work with the amounts of food that I was needing that to cook, but, yeah, so propane works pretty good. I like working with propane, and I.
[00:12:33] Speaker A: Bet you that sucker gets hot.
[00:12:34] Speaker B: It gets really, really special when, you know, the trailer is not insulated. The AC works okay.
Yeah, but once. But once it's once, you know, it's been sitting out in the heat, especially in the summertime, and that stove comes on, man. It's. It's an oven in there.
[00:12:50] Speaker A: Wow. So, well, you obviously got to use the heat to cook the meat also. Obviously. So do you. So how much time do you use, like, prepping. We got to prep the rice or.
[00:13:00] Speaker B: Most the rice takes. The most prep the rice takes a while because it's a whole process of washing rice with sushi rice. Even with traditional sushi, you got to wash the rice very, very thoroughly. So that's where the stickiness actually, on the sushi rice comes from, because you got to wash that starch off the rice, and then it gets nice and sticky once it's cooked. But, yeah, that takes the most time. I mean, if I'm cooking a couple of batches of rice, it'll take me three or 4 hours to do a few batches of rice once they're washed and everything, so.
[00:13:28] Speaker A: Wow. And do you use, like, a distributor, like, here in town, or. I mean, heb. Like, is. Is that what you do for your food truck?
[00:13:36] Speaker B: No. Well, I. Yeah, I just. I use heb local meat markets. I use bori craft for my chicken meat market. Yeah. And I love boring, man. It's just. Just the vibe in there is really cool. The guys that work there, really. Nathan. Nathan's a great guy.
[00:13:50] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:13:50] Speaker B: Super friendly, super clean. Doesn't. Doesn't smell like a meat market in there. I mean, I know it's. It's a normal, I guess, for me, markets to have that specific odor, you know, because you're dealing with meats and raw meats and stuff. But it's super clean, and I like it there a lot.
[00:14:04] Speaker A: Whenever you go to, like, a store, like, and you like, the people there, the owners or whatever, do you. Would you do. Are you that person that will stay there even though their prices would go up or something like that?
[00:14:14] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, no, I mean, I'm. I support that. The people, you know, that run the business more so than, I say, the product itself most of the time. That's why, like, on a boy, you know, like, it's just. I mean, he's just great people.
[00:14:27] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:14:27] Speaker B: Over there.
[00:14:28] Speaker A: So that's cool. It's like. Like, the brand. The brand or the person that owns it is the person. You're kind of doing business, right? It's good, man. Well, so you do you shop at Bor. You get there, boy. Like, are you do for people? I don't know. Maybe this is a general question for food trucks, but, like. And I talked to Alex, though. Alex from ovarian was on here, and I. And somebody was asking him how he cooks his brisket, and he was. He's not giving any secrets away or whatever. Is that the table? Is that how you are?
[00:14:55] Speaker B: Or with the rice? Yes and no. Like, so, like, when I do my sushi classes, I do tell them how to cook the rice, but with, like, my specific ingredients and flavorings. Like, I'm like. I'm like. I have to get you to sign a non disclosure before I go over this.
Yeah, so. But, yeah, no, I mean, I'm not too.
Too worried about sharing. Sharing recipes if I have something, you know, that I don't think is gonna be that big deal sharing, so.
[00:15:23] Speaker A: Yeah, right on. Right on. You got the timer on there? So 15 minutes. Right about. So. All right, there's a 15 minutes mark, you guys. So looking for somebody, a sponsor or somebody, if you will, like to sponsor the show. This is the. This is a 15 minutes mark where we can, like, sponsor your business or something like that, just to help keep this podcast going. Appreciate you guys. If you want to donate, you can find us on cash app corpus originals. Send a donation to help keep it. Help to keep us in this lovely studio that we've got going on here. Shout out to Maya back there and produce sound studios for letting us do this podcast in here, man. So you still play bass? So what do you got? The five stringer? Six.
[00:16:00] Speaker B: Yeah, five stringer. Yeah. I just bought another one. Not just bought, but a few years ago. My recent purchase was. Was a schecter.
Pretty solid. I love Schecter, man. I don't know what it is about Schecter. I just like. It just. It feels comfortable.
[00:16:11] Speaker A: Wow. You think, like, Warwick or one of those big.
[00:16:15] Speaker B: I've never been a fan of war. I've never been a fan of Warwick or traditional, like, fenders. I don't know why I'm not weird. Aren't they really are? Yeah.
[00:16:22] Speaker A: I'm not more of an ibanez dude. Like, yeah, yeah. It just feels better.
[00:16:26] Speaker B: Feels comfortable. So my problem with, like, on. On a found fenders, for me, on base is the fret spacing. It just feels too. Too wide. Yeah, yeah. So, with Schecter, it's a little smaller, a little closer. Together and I'm able to move around, I think, more freely.
[00:16:39] Speaker A: You prefer the five or the four?
[00:16:42] Speaker B: I do. Five. I like five a lot. Four, four. I played on a five stream for so long that when it was switched back to a four, it felt a little foreign and weird to kind of, kind of get it, make the adjustment, but wow. Yeah.
[00:16:53] Speaker A: Yeah, that's what's up. So, reading music, man, that's a big thing. So what do you. What would you say, like, so I guess we're shifting gears to, like, music talk. Do you. What do you think about music theory? Like, should all musicians learn it? I mean, what are your thoughts on that?
[00:17:08] Speaker B: I think I was for it for a very long time. Right. I was really, like, a stickler for it. I think that thought it was very, very important to know music theory, but I think there's a little bit. It can go both ways. I mean, I don't think you need to know music theory to be a good musician, to be a great musician. I think it helps if you're trying to develop your skills and take your skills to the next level, then I think the other music theory part of it's going to help, you know, learn. Learning the progression and learning all your skills and your. Your chords and things like that. You know, my proper names and whatnot. But I don't think it's necessary to be a good musician, but I think it helps.
[00:17:43] Speaker A: And jazz, you're a jazz bassist also, man. Golly, how do you. Man, how do you get used to being. Playing jazz?
[00:17:50] Speaker B: It's so weird. I don't. That's one of the. That's one of the only, I think, genres of music that I still, like, I feel like I freeze up, you know? And as much as I did at that Del Mar with Mister Irving, like, I never got comfortable, comfortable doing it. Like, I can do it, but I feel comfortable doing it if I have some sheet music in front of me and a leash in front of me where I know my changes are, because it's just. It's overwhelming. It's almost like. It's almost like they're rules without having to follow any rules, but there's rules to it still, you know? Like, it's. It's weird.
[00:18:20] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:18:20] Speaker B: I took. I took a jazz improv class with Rick Cortez one year, and it was one of the most insane things I had ever done. Like, I'm like, I can't do this. I don't understand it. It's a whole nother. Like, music is a language in itself. Right. But you dive into. To jazz theory, and that's a whole nother.
[00:18:35] Speaker A: It's weird. And because you train classically, attract classical training there at Del Mar, Taimou, or whatever, and then you go into a jazz, and it's like, all that's out of the window. Right?
[00:18:46] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:18:47] Speaker A: And you're like, dude, you have to train your mind to think in jazz. It's so strange, man. And then, like, keys and scales come so quickly just by one chord placement, you know what I mean? Like, it's two five, right? Two five. One is the basis or whatever. So if you go into another key or I mode or whatever, how do you know you're in that one? You know what I mean? You got to do it so much.
[00:19:09] Speaker B: I think you got to trust your ear. That's the heart, that's the hard part. That's one of the things that I'm getting a little more comfortable doing recently is trusting my ear. Trusting, you know, where my hands want to move naturally. But with jazz, it's just easy to overthink. For me, at least, I overthink it way too much. Way too much.
[00:19:26] Speaker A: Are you to the point where, like, if you hear a note, you can play it somewhere sometimes?
[00:19:29] Speaker B: And I'm not like. Again, it comes to trusting my ear. I don't trust it as well as I should, but sometimes, yeah. You know, I don't know.
[00:19:37] Speaker A: What is your. What is your. Your stack or your.
The thing. You plug it. What do you call it? The amplifier.
What's your setup look like?
[00:19:46] Speaker B: I just. A few years ago, I was looking for a new amp. I'd been playing on a galleon Kruger, because that's what I had grown to love from. From David Irving. Ray and Jasmine. That's what I was using. I'm like, man, I love this. So good.
[00:19:58] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:19:58] Speaker B: So I bought a gallon Kruger when I was going to Del Mar, and I've been playing on it for years. And about four years ago, I went amp shopping and I went to pawn shops. I, you know, you find some great gear, some hidden. Hidden. Hidden gems at pawn shops. So I found a nice MPEG SBT three pro and got a solid deal on it with the four. Is it four hundred ten s, I think, on the. On the cabinet?
[00:20:21] Speaker A: So, yeah, yeah, MPEG.
[00:20:23] Speaker B: Solid, man. So good. So good. Yeah, it's awesome, man.
[00:20:26] Speaker A: And then we're talking about David earlier. David Irving earlier, man. Rest in peace.
[00:20:30] Speaker B: Yeah, man. Huge influence. One of. One of my. One of my biggest concerns. And I think, you know, there's a big group of musicians here in town that. That will be the first to say that David Irving is. Was their mentor, you know, I mean, he was someone that you just go to talk about anything and everything, talk about life. I know a lot of. A lot of his former students that kept in touch with him, you know, that. That would take their kids to him, you know, every time they had a kid, you know, he was one of the first person they went to go visit, you know, he was just. He was just part of the family, you know.
Great guy. You know, it's. It's a. It was a huge, huge loss when. When he passed.
[00:21:05] Speaker A: Yeah, man, we got to play on the. On one of the fairies or whatever, as the. The guitar jazz ensemble on. Did you ever. Yeah, the black.
[00:21:14] Speaker B: Yeah, that was. Yeah, that was always fun. And going around. Going around the portrait.
[00:21:17] Speaker A: Yeah, man, that was fun. On the water playing jazz. I mean.
Yeah, exactly, man, that was fun.
[00:21:24] Speaker B: Dude. Wow.
[00:21:25] Speaker A: Recipes. David Irving, man, he played so many instruments, man.
[00:21:28] Speaker B: He's very multi talented. Yeah. My God, dude, solid, solid bases, solid guitarist, french horn.
I mean, just. Even just watching him conduct to, you know, conduct the jasmine was just great, actually. I think his last few years at Del Mar, he took charge of the. The mariachi group, too. Really awesome to see. Yeah.
[00:21:44] Speaker A: Yeah, that is awesome to see, man. Golly. David Irving, man. Rest in peace. That's awesome. Oh, man, I had something to mind. So the Fimu alpha, were you part of that one?
[00:21:54] Speaker B: Yeah. Find me Alpha Symphony. Yep.
[00:21:55] Speaker A: Yeah. Do you still get together or.
[00:21:57] Speaker B: I'm not active in any of the current, like, collegiate groups. There is an alumni group that. That tries to meet up at least once a month. They were actually trying to meet up at the food truck recently, but everybody's, you know, scheduled post. Post college, you know, this is pretty hectic, but that's been a big, big part of my life, too, and big part of, like, my growth as a. As a person was. Was the fraternity kind of coming out of my shell. I've always been a shy guy, you know, come coming out of high school into college, and the fraternity really kind of helped me develop my personality and grow and be a people person. So I get a lot of support from the. From the fraternity guys still, which is pretty awesome.
[00:22:36] Speaker A: Yeah. Right on. So you grew up here in corpus?
[00:22:38] Speaker B: Yeah, pretty much. My family's from sitting. My mom moved me over here when we were. When I was about nine, so, yeah, I say I grew up here in corpus.
[00:22:47] Speaker A: Right. Did you go to high school and.
[00:22:48] Speaker B: Sitting or no, no. So I went to elementary till about second grade. Then I went to Crockett and I went to minger and I went to Windsill. Windsill changed my life.
Windsill was great, man. Windsor, I think, was probably the best years of my life, you know, I mean, what year?
[00:23:03] Speaker A: In the nineties?
[00:23:04] Speaker B: 99. Mister doesn't want. Mister Potts was. Yeah, yeah. Wow. Mister Carana was here then. Yeah, yeah. Axel whether. Yeah, Axel was here.
[00:23:13] Speaker A: Raina.
Mister Raina. She was. I think she was a coach at the time. She wasn't, maybe not know. Wow, man. So we kind of went there in the same time, you know. So, you know Matthew. Matt, right. Matt, what's his name?
Music. Your music, dude. I played the sacks.
[00:23:28] Speaker B: Oh, Matthew. Yeah, man. He's a great guy, man. Oh, he's been doing really, really. Why I don't chat with as much as I used to follow him on his, on his Instagram page. And he posts a lot of what he's doing at the elementary where he's at in San Antonio, and he's doing some great things. He's actually, I like, I like bragging on it, you know, saying that I know someone who's nominated for a Grammy. He's a Grammy nominated teacher.
[00:23:50] Speaker A: Yeah, I was gonna mention that.
[00:23:52] Speaker B: That's pretty rad. It's pretty awesome.
[00:23:54] Speaker A: How do you be nominated for a Grammy as a teacher? Yeah, I never would have thought that.
[00:23:58] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:23:59] Speaker A: That's amazing. Yeah. And his post, they show up on my TikTok because I'm on tick tock, and every, like, every other time I turn it on, his post is on there.
[00:24:06] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:24:07] Speaker A: Well, do you know this person? You want to add this?
Yeah. That's amazing. I don't know, man. I wish. I don't know. It seemed like I kind of maybe wanted to try that when I was, like, now thinking back, like, damn, maybe I should have tried that.
[00:24:20] Speaker B: You know, it's funny that you. That you say that because you were talking about, like, being a guitarist at Delmar there. There was a, like, a lot of the guitarists, you know, kind of. Kind of, kind of kept to themselves, which was, you know, whatever, no big deal. But I feel like a lot of the guitars did not want to participate in find me off, which is kind of, kind of interesting. Like, there's very, very few of them, but, yeah, I mean, it's. It's a great thing.
[00:24:41] Speaker A: I mean, there's so strange. Yeah. And it seems like, like, guitar is kind of, like, not up there with, like, the other instruments, you know what I mean, like. Like horn or a wind or string or whatever, you know what I mean? It seems like. And then, like, even when we were. When I would go to Tamu, there was no really huge ensemble for the guitarists, so we had. We had to have some type of ensemble, so they put us in choir, so that you either go into choir or you go into other. Some type of big ensemble that you know how to play.
[00:25:10] Speaker B: Right.
[00:25:11] Speaker A: Drums, wind, whatever.
[00:25:12] Speaker B: Right.
[00:25:12] Speaker A: So we ended up in the choir and the, you know, university choir, like, messing up their. Their sound and everything, and they actually let us go there anyway. I don't know. And it seemed. And guitar was, like, one of the later ones that be added to university curriculum, you know?
[00:25:28] Speaker B: Yeah, I think it's just a small group. People actually go for guitars as a main instrument, so.
[00:25:33] Speaker A: Yeah, there's not. Yeah, I mean, it's. It's guitar. It's not loud, too. Some people are like, well, it's not loud enough. You have to be like, yeah, you know, but I love it, man. Yeah. I love classical guitar, and it's sad that I don't have one right now, dude, I wish I did. I. And like I was saying earlier, like, man, I wish I had my. I need to get my. Get a classical guitar.
[00:25:53] Speaker B: I was bummed out when you told me you're not playing.
I still say every time I see you, that's. That's what I associate, you know, you. You own guitar. You being probably one of the best guitars I've ever seen, man.
[00:26:03] Speaker A: My picture is actually on the wall at Del Mar. Yeah, bro. Oh, my God. I'm gonna be, like, one of the black and white pictures that we used to see. Right?
Wow, man, that's. Those are the days, bro. Wow. So your future. So your food truck, how would you say, your food trucks doing now? Like, I mean, what's the future for it? Or what do you see? What do you see it going or.
[00:26:27] Speaker B: I don't know. I.
It's going well, I could always be better. It's a tough question for me to answer sometimes. Again, because of what I do. It's. It's so different. You know, my menu strictly is just a sushi. With the space that I have on the food truck, I'm kind of limited to what I can do, so I just stick with the sushi.
But with, like, the success of Martin from Artie McPies and him going through brick and mortar and from Hefes.
Yeah, he's, you know, he's in brick and mortar now.
And even Rick, you know, Rick from the most, you know, operating out of Riley's, like, seeing them and making those moves as made me feel like, all right, maybe that's the next step. Priscus Ria. But I don't know. I'm always back and forth, you know, like, I do Comic Con. You know, I think. I think with what I do, it's almost gimmicky enough that, you know, I don't know that a brick and mortar is going to be the way to go unless I expand my menu a lot, a lot more than what it is. I think if I maybe do conventions and comic con circuit, you know, around Texas, that might be the way to go. I don't know.
I'm just trying to make it through my second year with the food truck. You know, if I can get past the second year, then. Then I might be able to game plan a little bit better. But, wow, as of right now, just. Just kind of taking it day by day, week by week.
[00:27:40] Speaker A: Do you ever. Do you ever think, like, me? Maybe it's just something that's not gonna catch on and, like, how do you feel yourself, like, continuing? You know what I mean?
[00:27:48] Speaker B: I think about that all the time. Right. That was one of the conversations early on with, with my old business partner was that, you know, is it gimmicky? You know, is it something that's gonna be, that can stand alone as, like, a big food item here in corpus or just in general? Anywhere?
But I think it has potential. I think. I think if I. If I can find a way to expand my menu and work my menu, develop a menu around what I'm doing, there's potential for it to continue to grow. But as of right now, I think I just need to get it in front of people much as I can.
[00:28:22] Speaker A: Right on, man, oh, man. This 30 minutes, Mark. I don't know. Trying to. Trying to get some sponsors here. So if you guys want to sponsor, you can. This is a spot right here. We'll be talking about your. Your business here. So trying to get the views up. So appreciate you guys for listening, for watching. Eric, thank you for being in the chat. If you're still there, Francesca, thank you guys for being on here. Wow. So your food truck, man, do you, do you find you find yourself, like, act, talking to mentors or people that, like, can maybe, like, help you or. You know what I mean? What type of advice are you given? You know what I'm saying?
[00:28:58] Speaker B: I'm giving, I mean, honest feedback, you know? So one of the, one of the guys that I. So between Martin from Marty McPies and then Rick from the most, like, those are two guys that I talked to a lot because, you know, they've been through with the food trucks and early on with trying to figure out, you know, getting out there, what they need to do to be successful. So I had an opportunity recently to move into a. To a bar. And I, this bar, you know, approached me about selling sushiri out of there, and I didn't know if that was the right move. You know, I had just got that spot at Everhart next to Adelphos, and I really contemplate on, like, right me. Is this the right move for me, you know, right now? Is this the way to go for sushi? Ria? So Rick was the first person that I called because Rick was one of the first people that I know that made that move into a bar, selling food from a bar. So he had. He had really, really good advice. You know, I think, you know, his advice was to do it, you know, just. Just go for it, do it, figure out how to make it work. But ultimately, I kind of went with my gut instinct and decided that it wasn't the right move. But just, I mean, any, any kind of feedback I can get from those two guys, you know, is always valued and appreciated. You know, when I first started, before I got there, actually, Mark Martin was the one who gave me the lead on the first food truck, you know, so he's always there offering solid advice, solid help. Any, any kind of suggestions. I'll be doing some pop ups next month. That is brick and mortar. So they just, they're just there anytime I need to just chat about something. If I need events, like, you know, I need to figure this out. I don't know what to do, you know?
[00:30:31] Speaker A: Yeah, man. Well, that's good for you, man. Yeah. I always wonder, like, about food. It's kind of interesting because, like, your stuff is new, like, it's something different. And I'm just wondering how. How it could get to. Or, like, it's in a brick and mortar or something like that, you know what I mean? And it makes me think of, like, which other type of foods that are unique. Like, how did they do it? You know what I mean? How did they get there?
[00:30:54] Speaker B: I think ultimately, really, it's, you know, a lot of the feedback I get from just people in general is developing my menu around what I'm doing. Right. So taking the idea. So sushiria, you know, is taking. Taking sushi and takeria and combining those two and you get sushiriya. Right. So if I. If I lean into the taqueria part of what I'm doing, then, you know, I might be able to push forward a little bit more with withdeze the concept that I have. But again, it's just. Just getting in front of people. Right? Getting in front of people. Getting front of people. Really getting the food out there in front of people.
[00:31:25] Speaker A: Yeah. That's cool, man. Wow. You mentioned an apartment complex too. That's. I've heard another food truth that I think. I think Rick or somebody was mentioning being like, at an apartment complex. So what do you. How do you get on there? Do you. I mean, is it hard or to know?
[00:31:41] Speaker B: A lot of times the apartment communities like to have food trucks out for the residents, so they'll reach out to whichever food truck they want. You know, early on when I started doing that, yeah, I got a lot of. Lot of apartments asking me, so.
[00:31:55] Speaker A: Wow, no kidding.
[00:31:55] Speaker B: Yeah. So that, that's usually something that they do though. They'll approach the food truck to go out there.
[00:32:01] Speaker A: That's a good thing. I mean, they know about you and stuff like that.
[00:32:03] Speaker B: But it's hard. I mean, I will say it's not. It's not always the most fruitful, but again, you know, there is some traffic out there. So again, anything that I can do to have my name in front of people, you know, moment and I'm taking right now.
[00:32:15] Speaker A: Yeah, I was talking to Rick from the most. He was saying stuff like that too. Like just. Just do places, do things and talk to people, network and stuff like that. Do you feel like networking is an important.
[00:32:24] Speaker B: Networking is the biggest, biggest part. Especially networking with other people who are doing what I'm doing. Right. The food truck, food business. Because they're gonna know people who know people who know someone, who knows someone who can help you, you know, and get your name somewhere, get set up somewhere, put you in contact with the right person for something.
[00:32:40] Speaker A: Yeah. Right on, man. That's good, dude. Wow. Is there anything you. Anything you want to share?
[00:32:48] Speaker B: I don't know. Think about that.
[00:32:51] Speaker A: You want to share? We were talking earlier, man, and your journey, like, is interesting to me. I don't know if you want to touch on that, but some people have, like, journeys, like, you don't know what they've been through and why. Why they are where they are.
[00:33:06] Speaker B: Right. Yeah.
[00:33:07] Speaker A: You know, I'm saying, like, I, you.
[00:33:09] Speaker B: Know, so we talked about being musicians, right. You know, early on in our life, and I thought that was the path that I wanted to go down. You know, I'm still doing it right, but I'm not doing it in the capacity that I was expecting to do it right.
You know, life kind of happened. Life took me down a different path and, um, started, uh. I don't know, I just. I just kind of, I guess, went down the wrong path, right. And so, uh, I ended up in a couple of kitchen jobs, and I was kind of at a point around my. It's kind of, kind of fun. It's pretty nice. I like being in the kitchen. Love being in the kitchen. And I got a job at Skoda butts with my old business partner, and, uh, he suggested. He said, hey, let's do it. Let's. We should do a sushi truck. That would be kind of fun doing. Doing sushi, but I'm. Again, you know, the idea of doing traditional sushi in a food truck in corpus Christi in the middle of summer, you know, that didn't sound appealing. I'm dealing with fish. And so we started talking, talking about other ways we can do sushi, right, or how can we do something unique and different that corpus might appreciate?
And so sushiria, kind of that name came about first. And then the idea of the spanish rice and things like that. And so it was. It was pretty fun, you know, like, it was nice having a business partner, but again, you know, like, life happened. I had a.
I'd say that the biggest. The biggest struggle with doing anything, right. Like, is battling the thoughts in your head, right. With anything.
[00:34:33] Speaker A: Right.
[00:34:34] Speaker B: I mean, you can. You can have the most positive and be outlook on life, right. But still, you know, at the end of the day, you're still. Still dealing with those, you know, I don't think demons, but just. Just life, you know? Life dealing with life. How do you do with life, you know? So, yeah, I had a substance abuse problem for. For a few years. Coming up next month on two years clean.
Ended up ultimately having. Having a heart attack and kind of one of those blessings in disguises, I think, opens up your eyes to a lot of. A lot of things.
Just what's important.
And my life ultimately was important. Being around with my mom, being around with my friends and my family and all the people who've supported the business so far and not wanting to let go of the business. So it was, it was, it was a big thing, you know, something that I think about every day.
[00:35:27] Speaker A: Damn. Congrats, man.
[00:35:28] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:35:29] Speaker A: Yeah, a lot of people charge. Like, it makes me think about one of my uncles, man. He was like, very, like. Like, it was like crack or one of the bad drugs. Like, you always on it. Just always. And you can tell, like, he wasn't in a good spot.
[00:35:43] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:35:44] Speaker A: And then, I don't know. I think it was because of my grandmother's passing that, like, he just totally just changed, bro. Like, he stopped. It's like 9D.
[00:35:53] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:35:54] Speaker A: Like, dude, why? That's. It's so strange to me how some type of event, like, that can happen and then just. Just flip.
[00:36:02] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:36:02] Speaker A: You know what I mean? And that's why I was. I was like, had. Had that person thought before, hey, I gotta stop one of these days. You know what I mean? And eventually, one of these days shows up in the tie in the way that you don't expect.
[00:36:16] Speaker B: Right.
[00:36:17] Speaker A: And then you just. And then the person decides, oh, that's.
[00:36:20] Speaker B: Exactly what it is. It's. It's when, you know, I mean, I didn't expect. You know, it's one of those. I was. I'm 37, you know, when that happened, I was 30, 35, you know, and still young enough that I felt like, you know, like I. You know, I can keep doing this, and I'm gonna be finding. Nope. I mean, that it was just. It happened, and I'm like, I can't. I can't do that. I can't. I can't keep on that path. You know, it's nothing.
It's not healthy, you know, ultimately, it's not healthy, you know? And I've been feeling better overall again. You know, like, it opened up my eyes to a lot of things. You know, a lot of stuff was laid out on the table with me and my partner, and just kind of realized we weren't on the same page, you know, which I think was kind of a good thing.
And we decided to split ways, and I took over the business, and so, again, blessings in disguise, you know, I.
[00:37:09] Speaker A: Guess, kind of, yeah. So is it. So you guys were partners, right? You're like a partnership. Is it. Is it difficult now mean that you're. You the sole owner?
[00:37:20] Speaker B: Right, right.
[00:37:20] Speaker A: Is it difficult now being the sole owner as opposed to two partners?
[00:37:24] Speaker B: It is. Right. So there's a lot more. A lot more weight, responsibility, you know, I mean, I'm doing, you know, everything that he. That we were doing together. You know, I'm doing 100% by myself now. I do have help every now and then, you know, on certain. Certain things. Um, but it's not. It's not as fluid or it doesn't flow as well as. As it could. With having that partner, you know, especially with him, because he was. He was. He was definitely the sushi guy. Right. Like, I was the other side of it. You know, the recipe guy, you know, putting. Putting things together. He was the sushi guy. They. Everything made everything look pretty. So when he went. When we went separate ways, it took me a long time to. To. To. I don't say it's not even perfecting, but to. To get my roles to look like roles to look better. So it's. It's. It's been an interesting process.
[00:38:09] Speaker A: Yeah. So is sushi, like, because they say the sushi is like one of those arts or whatever. Is it really light? Is it really that way?
[00:38:17] Speaker B: Yeah. No, I mean, I think people expect to have, you know, the beautiful presentation with sushi, and that's what I struggle with, too. Right. Like, again, because I'm on a food truck and I got to work at a pace where I can get the food out fast enough. And I know people expect to wait a little bit at the food truck because everything's coming out freshen. But, like, you know, what point do I see? Like, it needs to look perfect and beautiful and have that presentation but also look like street food. I don't know. I'm kind of. Kind of fighting that. The balance.
[00:38:44] Speaker A: Oh, that's tough, man. Wow. So, well, you were saying that it's changed a lot. Like, you were talking earlier, that from when you first started, like, the presentation is a lot different.
[00:38:53] Speaker B: Yeah. Even the color of the rice. So the first batch of rice that was made, the rice didn't even look like how it did now look very light in color. And that first batch was, like, the perfect batch of rice. And batches two through, like, 20 were. Did not come out, you know, anywhere close. That first batch, I took a lot of. Lot of experimenting to figure it out.
[00:39:13] Speaker A: To figure out how to make it like that, how to make it, like.
[00:39:15] Speaker B: The first batch, because it would either come out too mushy. And again, I've made sushi rice a lot of times. Right. But not the way that I'm doing it now. So it took a lot of trial and error to get it to where it is right now. And then even more experimenting once I. Once I figured out, all right, I. This is a flavor that I wanted, and how do I get the color. Look a little deeper in color, make it look more like spanish rice? So it's.
[00:39:36] Speaker A: Yeah, so that. So the. I guess the seasoning you put on it makes the. Makes it the color that it is. Oh, okay.
[00:39:42] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:39:42] Speaker A: Wow. To finally get it there. That makes sense. It's amazing. I got to try it, bro. So tomorrow you're going to be somewhere, right? I saw it on your, on your, on your list of the places you're going to be. Where you going to be tomorrow?
[00:39:53] Speaker B: Tomorrow I'll be at fizz over on airline. Yeah. Yeah, I.
[00:39:57] Speaker A: Cool.
[00:39:57] Speaker B: It's a dangerous place to be. I love sodas. Is it really? So the last time that I was there, I had 344oz in the 4 hours that I was here, which is not good.
[00:40:07] Speaker A: Which flavor?
[00:40:08] Speaker B: So the one that I get, I think at this point, is kind of like a secret menu item. It's called the dean, but it's doctor pepper base with cream, vanilla, coconut, and salted caramel.
[00:40:20] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:40:20] Speaker B: It's amazing. I love it. Wow.
[00:40:22] Speaker A: So you get to pick the flavors. I haven't been there. I've been wanting to go there. They've actually been there for a while now.
[00:40:26] Speaker B: They've been there for. Yeah, I don't know, about a couple years now, maybe a year or so. Yeah.
[00:40:29] Speaker A: Whatever. Whatever's there usually closes down fast.
[00:40:32] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:40:32] Speaker A: It's interesting that they're still open. It's pretty cool.
[00:40:35] Speaker B: Yeah. And she's super, the owner. She's super supportive of the food trucks there. You know, she invites, you know, any food truck that to let's set up there. I know Martin. Martin with Marty McPY's was there a lot and Hefez was there a lot.
But yeah, the, you can, she has different menu options, different, different names for her drinks. So you can mix and match, whatever. So, yeah, pretty good. Pretty fun.
[00:40:55] Speaker A: Yeah. So you picked it up? You picked all four of those?
[00:40:57] Speaker B: No, no, that one. That one was one that they had together. Yeah.
[00:41:00] Speaker A: Yeah. That's dope. Yeah. So you're gonna be there tomorrow and then Friday. Are you gonna be somewhere else Friday?
[00:41:07] Speaker B: So that's something I can have it struggle with trying to figure out. Yeah. Because it's, it's too hot to be setting up at lunchtime in.
[00:41:13] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[00:41:13] Speaker B: I mean, it's just, just baking out there, you know. So I may or may not be out at PetSmart. I'm not too sure. And I may wait for the, the fall time to start doing more lunch stuff.
But Saturday there's a grand opening for a new gym over off of Staples. And I think it's like AE.
[00:41:29] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:41:30] Speaker B: Gym or something.
[00:41:31] Speaker A: Staples and which intersection?
[00:41:34] Speaker B: I haven't even looked. I think it might be.
That's good, Holly.
[00:41:38] Speaker A: Yeah. So that's another challenge for a food truck. Finding spots to, like, post up and be consistent, like, throughout the week, I imagine. Wow. Well, man, what, best of luck to you, bro. Yeah. If anything else, you got anything else you want to share before you go? How do we find you? Are you predominantly on Facebook, or.
[00:41:55] Speaker B: Yeah, I use Facebook a lot. I don't post as much to Instagram like I should, but it'll be Sushiria Cc on Facebook and sushiria 361 on Instagram.
[00:42:05] Speaker A: Do you get business through social media? How social media for you as a business?
[00:42:08] Speaker B: It's pretty good. I mean, that's. That's the biggest way that people reach out to me. Um, they'll message me, you know, through the business page, uh, asking if I'm free this day for an event or to set up.
[00:42:17] Speaker A: Yeah, that's cool. You're even on Google. I saw. Yeah, you're on Google.
[00:42:20] Speaker B: Did. Yeah.
[00:42:20] Speaker A: Did you set that one up, too, or.
[00:42:21] Speaker B: Yeah, set that up. Yeah, we had set that up when we had the. The location at snappies, so, yeah, I just thought you keep it, and it's pretty good.
[00:42:28] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Sushiriya, it's definitely unique, and they like the logo that the Mexican do with the Japanese.
[00:42:34] Speaker B: Yeah, that was part of the rebranding. So, my buddy, you know, again, like. Like, the success that I've had so far, you know, is not because of me solely. I've had a lot of support, you know, from the. From the food community and my best friends, you know. So my buddy, before we decided that would be good logo, he had commissioned a friend of ours to draw that up. And I like having. That's part of, like, why people recognize me, have the mustache very similar to that, too. So it's a combination of me and one of our favorite characters from. From blood and blood out.
[00:43:04] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:43:05] Speaker B: And so it kind of stuck, you know?
Was it spider or magic? Magic with the big one? Yeah, it kind of stuck, and I think it works out. I think it really kind of can conveys, you know, the. The vibe of the business.
[00:43:21] Speaker A: So that's important. Like the branding. Yeah, or the branding of the company. It's awesome, man. Yeah. Well, shoot. You check them out. You guys find them on Facebook. You guys can be at Fizz on Thursday and on Friday, check out their Facebook page. Is that where you put the schedule at Facebook?
[00:43:33] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:43:33] Speaker A: Check them out on Facebook. You guys, thanks a lot for. For listening to the podcast. Shout out to Maya back there, the producer. Thanks a lot, Eric, Francesca, everybody, on the YouTube chat. Thanks for being in there, you guys. Derek, man, thanks for coming into the show. Hopefully hoping, pray. Hoping and praying for your business, bro.
[00:43:49] Speaker B: Thanks, brother. Appreciate.
[00:43:50] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, for sure. You guys have a good one. See you later.
