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Yesterday, the midday sun was scorching, but the heat from Andrew Burke's coal stove was even more intense.

As he pushed his cart along sections of Orange Street in downtown Kingston, he made several stops as customers flocked him to purchase his salt fish fritters, their savoury smell detected from a distance away. Known as the 'Fritters King', the 34-year-old street vendor has been selling for approximately 15 years, and has used a portion of his earnings to take on the stock market.

"I am teaching myself financial literacy, so mi a learn about investments, stocks and bond as well as currency trading. I have paid people to mentor me but it never worked out, but I have learned a lot from the losses I had in 2019 until now. So now mi can identify certain movements of the stock market so I have learned the right timing when to sell and so on," Burke said.

As he adjusted his food gloves, the Matthews Lane resident told THE STAR that he started out in 2009 by selling juice.

"But in 2010 came the [Tivoli] incursion and it change up things on the street. So mi couldn't sell the way I want to, so I know I had to come up with a different way of how to do things. I love cooking from I was small and mi always tell mi self say mi want to have a restaurant when mi grow up big. But the people dem weh mi grow up with make it look like to own a restaurant or have $100,000 was impossible," Burke said.

Unable to push his sky juice cart and sell freely in sections of downtown following the incursion, Burke said he tried his hand at frying dumplings but failed miserably.

"The dumpling never come out to my liking, suh mi try the fritters and mi mind tell mi to stay with it. So mi start do it until it become perfect. Mi want those who a eat it to always remember the taste with each bite that them take. Suh mi just change it up and start add lots of salt fish and a lot of seasoning including broccoli, sweet pepper and other things. Every day mi come out, mi come with a different flavour," he said.

From as early as 4 a.m., Burke said he is up preparing the dough, adding that his fritters are in high demand from all demographics.

"Everybody gravitate towards mi fritters dem. Dem have a signature smell and mi have at least 100 customers on every lane. Sometimes mi go with garlic pepper and another time lemon pepper. Everybody eat dem, from the Syrian, Spanish, to the Chinese, to my set of people. Rich and poor eat dem. Mi sell off every day," Burke said.

Conducting business in the sweltering heat has become the norm for the street food vendor, who says he is in his comfort zone whenever he is on the road.

"Pushing the cart in the sun has got easy for me because I can't do anything to make myself comfortable. I am always on the go because I have a goal to have a fritters company and a franchise like Burger King and dem other food company deh. Mi try make mi fritters be in the top game too, suh people buy from Sunday to Sunday because anuh everybody can buy a lunch for $1,000. But a fritter for $200 and a bag juice will help," Burke said.

As he continues to educate himself about financial literacy, Burke said he has learned from his mistakes.

"Mi end up withdraw some US dollars from mi investment and the bank end up freeze the money, suh dem nuh handle trading money. One a di time mi act in greed and lose about US$5,000 (approximately J$786,500) and it send mi in depression. But mi get over it and back on it again. By next year, mi ago either rent a space or buy half of a container and do mi business," Burke said.