CAKES.(Chinese food cart vendor in New York, New York)

SALES DEPT.

The other day in Chinatown, at the corner of Bowery and Grand, David Chen, the seventy-year-old, five-foot-three Cantonese-born owner and proprietor of a small food cart, was going about his business. There was no hint of any anxiety about sars, nuclear weaponry, or banking flimflam--just the usual focus on coming and going, especially of honking cars and trucks and of backpack wearers shuffling on foot. There was not a face mask in sight.

Chen stood inside his gleaming stainless-steel roofed cart, which was stocked with his single ware--"all natural hot mini cakes--20 pieces for $1.00."This label, in English and Chinese, appears on three sides of the cart. He seemed to be spotting every likely customer from half a block away, and they came to him in bunches, especially Chinese-speaking mothers escorting small children, with dollar bills in hand. Most of his customers were Chinese. There was a plump woman with a small boy who said they had come on a special ten-dollar bus trip from Boston. "Can't go wrong for a dollar,"she said.

Behind Chen's cart, on the curb, stood a huge open umbrella. Chen was sportily attired in an immaculate baby-blue windbreaker over a crisp matching shirt, creased black pants, and black shoes. Pinned to the jacket was his license:

THE CITY OF NEW YORK

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH

MOBILE FOOD VENDOR