What does your heart desire?  I am sure somewhere on the pavements or roads around Jinan there is a street peddler who can supply what you want.

Tonight I watched an owner and 4 generations working the same stall.  The whole stall fitted on the back of one of the many mini electrical trucks.  The tray would be about 1.5m long by 1 m wide.  On top of this they had added a platform about 2m x2m.  The wife was kneading the dough.  The grandmother (with baby on her back) was separating the kneaded dough into portion size.  The father then flattened them into round flat loaves (8cm diameter) applied various toppings and cooked them in a wood fired tandoori style BBQ.  He saw me watching and smiled.  On my way home I stopped and bought one.  He remembered me an indicated I should choose a different one.  It was dipped in sesame seeds.  It was warm and toasty with layers of air trapped in the middle.  This cost Y1 ($AUD 0.15).

A little further along there was a towel stall.  The terry towelling ranged in size from about 20cm square to bed sized ones.  I found out today that some use this size as a top sheet in summer.  At the back of the stall was a toddler with a sippy cup.  She would take mouth full and then squirt into a pattern in the dust.  She kept a watch out at her parents to be sure they did not see.

On the same street there is a stall that sells gold fish of varying sizes.  They are kept in a number of poly boxes like broccoli is stored in Australia.  The water is kept cycling with a complicated series of pipes and pumps.  I am not sure how she packs up about 15 boxes at the end of the day.

Next door to her stall is a luggage salesman.  He would have 30 different sizes and designs of suitcases.  He spends his time frantically dusting them.  His stall is situated between a demolition site and the road.  He actually has one line of bags on the roadway.

Further up the street is a fluffy toy seller.  He works out of his car.  Inside it there appears to be no room to sit and drive let alone be a passenger.  The bonnet, roof and boot are also packed high with allsorts of stuffed animals.  They range in size from 10cm to over 2m.  How he keeps them clean in the street environment I don’t know

I saved my favourite stall till last.  They sell nothing but pocket knives.  They know me by name because I always stop and have a look at their ever-changing stock.  I showed them my pocket knife and got very condescending looks.  They then dived under the stall and came up with a small sharpener.  It cost me Y2.  So we were all happy.

I will have to use a post to describe all of the various fast food stalls that are available.  I will have to sample them all first in the spirit of research of course :-)!!