Berting's Grill, The Ultimate Pulutan Place

I like fried food. It's so crunchy, greasy, and satisfying. Which brings me to Pulutan, which is also known as pub grub in the Philippines. Initially, these fried treats are heavenly, but after one drink too many, I wouldn't be too cheery about it.

You know the Philippines, where bars/pubs are everywhere and the drinks are cheap as chips.* And of course, with the drinks come pulutan. There are some phenomenal hole in the wall places for these, case and point, Berting's Grill.

My mom claims that she's found a fantastic restaurant at the Ortigas Home Depot Complex.** They have really good homy food at dirt cheap prices. Little did I know it was one of those restaurant come bar places.  But of course, I didn't mind the slightest bit cause that just means that there's going to be damn good fried food.

Just so you know
CHIKININIS= HICKIES.
I told you they have quirky names.

On the menu they have the most quirky kitsch names, but hey, that doesn't really matter when the food is promising.

Billy Kwong, Surry Hills, Australia

Billy Kwong on Crown Street

Here goes Kylie Kwong, the woman with a telly show on the Discovery Lifestyle Channel, cooking away talking about szechuan pepper and organic produce. I'd initially think that her restaurant would be a lot bigger and it would span a larger variety of food. But it was a quite exclusive, like you'd really have to wait outside her restaurant before 5pm, in time for the opening. The day we went, it was raining and it was quite a burden to wait outside.

Hand-written Specials Menu

Some dishes on the menu are said to vary from day to day since they try to buy locally grown, organic, and biodynamic food! I found it quite interesting and apparently they just use organic produce cause it's more expensive.

It was quite cozy and packed

The waitstaff were really accommodating, and they also explained the specials that were on for the day. We took a fair amount of time making up our minds on what to order since everything looked smashingly good.

Marrickville Organic Farmer's Market

Marrickville Farmer's Market

This was definitely one of those unexpected trips for me. Me and my friends headed to Marrickville to visit Reverse Garbage. It's basically a huge warehouse where you could find all sorts of weird and neat stuff! Some of the things are defective and some are second hand. We went there so that we could gather materials for the next spiffy project in design studio.

As we entered the complex of Reverse Garbage, apparently there was a market going on. Markets get me so excited- MORE THAN ANYTHING! So anyway, to make the story short, after we bought materials for the project, we wandered around the farmer's market. There was Gozleme, Mexican Wraps, fruit and veg vendors, a Chai Tent, a coffee stall, an olive stall, and plenty others! And then we bought food and beverages then spent the remainder of the afternoon sitting on the curb talking and munching away.

Mexican Wraps for the late lunch!

My lunch- Mexican Veg Wrap with a Chili Cola

I reckon this could possibly be the best mex food I've had in Sydney! There just aren't any epic authentic places- SADLY. The wrap really packed a punch. It was refreshing cause of the fresh veggies, mainly tomato and lettuce. The veggie sort of stew I would call it was packed with flavor, the whole thing was oozing out the wrap, I'm not kidding! TWO THUMBS UP!:) The chlli cola on the other hand was outrageously different! I never liked chili in the past, but these days, I'm just becoming more and more of a chili freak. The cola had that hint and tang of caramel- it's lovely! The chili factor comes in after you've gulped the drink, the heat races down your throat. After a whole bottle, the chili was racing up my nose- not a good thing, sniff.

Cute cupcakes that my friend baked

As for desert, my friend baked some cupcakes and she was generous enough to share them! It's a chocolate chunk cupcake with strawberry icing!:)

Lemon Pepper Macadamia Nuts

I have come to like my nuts- don't take that the wrong way. Walking through more of the stalls in the market, I came across one that was selling nuts and dried fruit! There was heaps and heaps to choose from, probably around 5 varieties for macadamia alone! I'm too much of a sucker to let it pass, I just had to have some! I really liked these. They were acidic and peppery which cut the butteriness of the macadamia really well! I wish I bought more, I really do.

And that pretty much sums up my Sunday afternoon!:) Oh, pardon the bad photography, I used my phone to take the pictures!:)