Richard Reyes may be relatively young at 24, but as a partner to Ailene and the father of two, he sounded matured — jaded in his outlook on life maybe — when interviewed by Daily Tribune.

As the fish balls he was cooking puffed up and turned golden brown while afloat in a deep wok of oil so hot it came close to its smoking point, Reyes remarked it's a day-to-day survival for him and his young family.

A native of Negros, Richard can be seen in and around Litex in Quezon City with his food cart, saying he grinds it out daily, rain or shine, to provide food on the table.

The fish ball vendor, who stopped working as a security guard when his wife got sick and he had to watch over her in a hospital, begged off from being photographed.

"I used P5,000 of money we've saved to build the food cart. On a good day, I earn P1,000 but there are slow days. Business is like gambling; sometimes you win, and sometimes you lose," he said in Filipino.

Aside from fish balls, best sellers for him, according to Richard, are kwek-kwek and tokneneng (quail and chicken eggs in orange flour coating), kikiam and squid balls.

"Not going out with my tulak (cart) is not an option because my wife is sickly and she has medicines that I have to buy," Richard said.