Lucky Lix's Food Cart

Lucky Lix's Food Cart is a hand drawn, four wheeled cart, outfitted with steamers to provide delicious, freshly steamed dumplings to the population. The proprietor, Lucky Lix, operates the cart himself and pulls it with him wherever there are customers to feed. He adjusts his prices based on the district which keeps his sales high, and complaints low.

Origins

Lucky Lix is a wiry, cheerful man who is always happy to chat and give uplifting advice to anyone who will listen. In his youth he apprenticed at a Guild registered bakery, but was fired for being too slow and chatty. With that reputation he drifted between short-term, ill-paid jobs for several years until his family were evicted for failing to pay their tax.
With all their belongings on one single cart, Lix lived with his mother and sisters in the slums. In an effort to raise money, they tried selling trinkets in the Free Market Square but never earned much. Many terrible things befell them on the street. Lix was beaten and robbed several times, leaving him with a permanent limp and blindness in one eye, but his attitude never changed.
Through watching people in the markets every day, it occurred to Lix that mothers struggled to manage their children while trading and bargaining, so he decided to try and sell bit-sized food instead of trinkets. Steamed dumplings was a natural choice because of price and resources. They used their old cart to wheel around to all the different markets. Their success was hardly instant, but after a few years of summer festivals, Lucky Lix had saved up enough money to register with the Merchants' Guild.

The Cart

The cart was soon upgraded to a lighter version with a canvas roof for shade. Strips of colourful cloth and glass chimes were added for more character.
Inside the box of the cart are three braziers, usually fuelled with dung briquettes. Above these sit six tin vats of water which are kept simmering throughout the day. Each bamboo steamer can cook four skewers of dumplings at a time. All the ingredients are kept in compartments at the very bottom of the cart.

The Food

Steamed dumplings are a fast, easy and cheap food. They were traditionally served to children during harvesting seasons when there was little time to cook. They are perfect to make fresh on a food cart as they require few ingredients, and very little time or effort.
Lucky Lix serves the balls of steamed dough on wooden skewers in sets of three or five. You can have the dough filled with a paste of fruits (depending on season), a questionable mince of meats, or plain. They can be drizzled with honey, or salt and herbs, or fermented bean sauce. In the festival season, Lucky Lix also sells rice wine, if you have the coin for it.
Prices can range from a tint (a raw tin coin) to a half stamped bronze, depending on location.

Method

The dough is made from wheat flour, yeast, water and salt. Fillings are cooked separately, at an undisclosed location. Lucky Lix takes a handful of dough and flattens it into a circle on his palm where he will add the filling of your choice. The dough is balled up, stuck on a skewer with its friends, and steamed in a bamboo basket. The dumplings are served on the skewer. If you've drizzled it with honey then this gets very sticky, but that is part of the charm.

Location: Hammar
Owner: Lucky Lix
Type: Hand-drawn mercantile box-cart
Colour: Green
Size: 5 paces long, 3 paces deep, 5 spans high (excluding roof).
Materials: Wood, iron, and tin

Summer Festivals

During the summer festivals, the cart stays around the Games Arena, or journeys around the Market District. Lucky Li aims most of his sales toward the children during the day, and wine-house patrons during the evening. He seeks out lines of people waiting to enter the arena, or sets up near street performers who have drawn a crowd.
The price during festivals are a half bronze for five dumplings, or two sticks of three dumplings.

Off Season

Being one of the few food stalls on wheels, Lucky Li spends most of the off-season traversing the many diverse districts of Hammar. He has quickly become a local hero to the poorer districts of Hammar for bringing fast, sweet, and affordable food within their reach. Since stamped coin is rare in these places, Lucky Li will accept raw coin. The price during off-season is a tint per set of three dumplings.