A talented street food vendor in Zhengzhou City of central China's Henan Province has gone viral on social media for his exquisite designs of pancakes.
The 27-year-old man named Yang Qiankun can whip up many cute pancakes shaped animals, dolls, cultural relics, and even aircraft carriers, fighter jets and helicopters.
The stylish pancake went popular among primary school students in the city for the special design and the cheap price -- one yuan (about 14 U.S. cents) for one piece.
Yang's videos recording the pancake cooking and selling soon went popular on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, and attracted tens of thousands of followers within just a few weeks.
"I have more than 10 categories of designs for the pancake covering such fields as the military industry, animals, architecture, cultural relics and seafood, to cater to the interests of my children customers. The inspirations may strike me in a sudden. Sometimes, I will also present ideas from my social media followers through my pancakes," Yang said.
With a master's degree of civil engineering, Yang came up with the idea of pancake art by accident when he was learning the cooking skill from his father after resignation from his previous job.
He said that at first he was surprised by the enthusiastic response from his student customers and online followers.
Now he feels delighted that his pancakes can not only satisfy the hunger as a food, but also extend happiness for children and adults as a gift.
"Some of my followers online asked me to design their favorite figures during the childhood. They asked for the customized designs as a treat for children. So I filmed two videos on these designs to fulfill their wishes. I found it was an interesting interaction between the people online and offline and a good conversation spanning time and space," Yang said.
Street food vendor in central China goes viral online for exquisite pancake art
