Time Out Sydney magazine this month

We’ve always been fans of whole foods. Not the unprocessed stuff – though that’s all good – but things you can eat whole: shallow-fried prawns in their shells, the ubiquitous soft-shell crab. In her search for the city’s best cheap eats, Helen Yee found a new killer ‘whole food’ at Indonesian joint ATL Maranatha: fried soft bone chicken, a whole bird you can crunch into, wishbone and all. It’s just one of the highlights from 25 restaurants Yee scouted for meals under $15 – other gems include those so-good Sabbaba pita pockets. Let this issue become your dog-eared guide to eating on the cheap across the city! If you need to work up an appetite before you affordably indulge – and don’t mind a bruise – we’ve put the microscope on the rise of mixed martial arts in Sydney and you’d be surprised by who’s stepping into the cage. For something more cerebral, we’ve also got the rise of storytelling, the Writers’ Festival and music-light-ideas fest, Vivid Sydney (p24) – Vivid LIVE headliner, Janelle Monáe, “an African American Android Artist”, is this month’s Time Out interview (p14). Happy Vivid, happy eating.

Joel Meares, Editor

The April edition of Time Out Sydney is on sale now at all good newsstands for a mere $4.95 – or subscribe now and get a staggering 75% of the cover price!

CSI George Gittoes

Painter, filmmaker, mad man and “agent provocateur for peace”

The Time Out interview

Janelle Monáe – and android alter-ego Cindi Mayweather – talks tuxes, outcasts and President Obama

Story Times

The gripping story of Sydney’s love affair with... stories

UFC: Training day

Hoons? Thugs? Not so much. We meet the surprising Sydneysiders trying out Mixed Martial Arts

Bright and shiny

Tim Buesing helps us pick Vivid LIGHT’s best sculptures

Cheap eats

Across all points of the compass and all points of the food pyramid, Sydney’s best 25 meals for under $15; plus cheap streets and handy  bottle-os to match

Around Town - Get crafty with zines, talky with Vivid IDEAS and join a design love-in at Semi-Permanent

Art - Love stories and femmes fatales; Australian Symbolism; plus a contemporary art checkup

Comedy - Belly sore? Too bad. Comedy Fest’s still here and we’ve got you covered – start with a trip to Pluto

Film - They came from outer space: intergalactic Nazis, the Men in Black and that hulky son of Odin

Food & Drink - Five stars for Sixpenny; Matt Moran feeds the ladies who lunch;  a Tetsuya’s alum hits Bronte; Afghani cuisine; and a madame makes her return

Kids - Diary of a Wimpy Kid author Jeff Kinney and more Sydney Writers’ Festival highlights for tots

Museums - “Definitely not iceberg lettuce”: the scoop on what the doomed and saved ate aboard the Titanic

Music - Has Catcall produced the horniest song ever? Plus: welcome back Temper Trap and Tenacious D

Nightlife - Avicii goes off at Vegas-style superclub Marquee 

Performing Arts - Simon Stone does Eugene O’Neill; Pamela Rabe talks Liaisons; and the Fat Swan bounds back

Time In - Julia Zemiro’s Eurovision drinking games and a Trainspotting prequel

Travel - Mai Tais in Honolulu, chardonnay in Gerringong