Months before the pandemic shut almost everything down, I had written about the disappearing street vendors. The main reason for this, at least in the cities, was that gates were placed to secure the houses and residents of individual communities, so no one could enter without a permit given by the guard at the gate.
With the lockdown, the opposite happened. Vendors are back on our street but they sell wares other than the usual.
The usual was bread brought by the pan de sal man on his bicycle, and which old residents called potpot because of the horn used to announce the vendor’s presence.
The usual was puto, kutsinta, rice cakes housed in two round tin containers…
Keep on reading: The return of street vendors