Street food is as old as civilization, but these masterful vendors in China really raise the game by elevating their creations to actual art.
Here are four examples of commonly found food items created without special equipment. Just ingenuity and pure creativity.
Cotton candy flower
You know cotton candy but you've never had a giant cotton candy flower. This vendor carefully twirls new colourful layers of candy onto a stick, neatly tucking in each layer to form a gorgeous bloom at the end. Bellissimo.
Candy pigs
A "candy blower" in Beijing makes balloon pigs out of candy. Here, he asks his patron to help blow on the pig's tail to inflate its body as he sculpts it.
Crepe with style
Look at this stripey crepe. The vendor takes the time to create various layers of color, which come together in one pretty, swirly treat.
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Sugar paintings
It's just brown sugar, right? But wait -- how about a Chinese dragon painted in sugar, using nothing but the humble ladle as the brush? This vendor sits by a cooled marble slab and crafts sugar versions of old Chinese paintings. He places a stick for a handle on each creation before the sugar hardens entirely, moments before someone bites into it and destroys it forever.