Chinese Fast Food in the Puebla-Tlaxcala Valley: Ethnographic Approach to the Culinary Experience in Shopping Malls

Abstract

One of the main leisure options in urban and rural-urban areas of Mexico are shopping malls. The cities of Puebla and
Tlaxcala are not the exception in the expansion of the shopping mall model that proliferates in the central region of the
country, expanding and consolidating the consumption needs associated with this commercial model. One of these needs
is food, which is satisfied in food courts, where the fast food model continues having a predominant presence. The culinary
offer in these spaces is led by the chain restaurants that are most representative of culinary globalization, which leave room
for proposals from local entrepreneurs, among which we can find Chinese food. This article constitutes an ethnographic
approach, to the culinary experiences of Chinese fast food diners, made through participant observation, in the context of
some shopping malls located in the cities of Puebla and Tlaxcala, where perceptions of identity are explored: the local —
Tlaxcalteca and Poblano—, the foreign, the Mexican, and the cosmopolitan. It was observed that the perceptions of Chinese
food in the region are shaped around its identification as a foreign cuisine, which although it contributes to the diversity of the foodscape and is part of the regional culinary cosmopolitism, for many diners is a dispensable option such affirmation
invites us to reflect on what is and what is not admissible for diners in the definition of the culinary region.