In the Higuera street food market in Coyoacán, Rogelio has been making hot cakes with a twist for nearly thirty years. His is the second generation in the family; his nephews man the hot-cake stand on weekends.

He can execute a portrait of any child's favorite cartoon character with pancake batter. In fact, he can do a portrait of any child (or adult) as well. When the kiddies aren't around, Rogelio is more than willing to take a little poetic license.

He begins by drawing the outline, which he lets cook until it is quite brown. Then he fills in the details -- sometimes highly exaggerated -- of the subject's, shall we say, secondary sexual characteristics.

Here is the result of one of Rogelio's most recent works. The subject was quite pleased, perhaps because of the correspondence between the pancake and the way she sees herself.