In Lithuania soon after the fall of the Soviet Union, queues for food and essential supplies were still common place and it was not unusual for people to join a queue without knowing what was at the end of it.
I am reminded of this as I walk home along Nanchang Lu each day. There is always a long queue of people waiting at a small window down a narrow alleyway. Today it was a horrible wet miserable day and so the queue was shorter than usual so I thought I would join it.
When I peered over someone’s shoulder I could see an old man, his back quite deformed and a younger assistant making some kind of pancakes. I asked a man in the queue, who spoke a small amount of English, and he told me they were made of wheat and onion. They certainly looked good and I was quite prepared to wait my turn for one. However after about five minutes the queue didn’t seem to be moving at all and the same man explained that only 20 can be made at one time and each customer was limited to a purchase of 20 pieces.
It appeared therefore that I would have a very long wait if everyone in front of me wanted 20 each. I gave up waiting and made a promise to myself to do it again with more patience and see if all the waiting was worth it.
If anyone knows what these are, please tell me.