The Viaducto Piedad neighborhood is one of those middle-class neighborhoods of small, decrepit, geometric houses built in the 1970s. In the last two decades, a community of Chinese immigrants who came to Mexico in search of better economic opportunities has been settling there. In several blocks around Coruña Street, they have built their homes and set up their restaurants, supermarkets and businesses next to their Mexican neighbors.
Unlike the Chinatown on Dolores Street(the smallest in the world), which has been undergoing a process of gentrification and tourist development for several decades, in the Viaducto Piedad neighborhood you can feel the soul of an authentic Chinatown in gestation (beyond the Chinese chitchat stores and Chinese cafes to which we are so accustomed). You can see families of Chinese origin doing their daily chores in the street, you can hear Mandarin, see signs written in Chinese characters and find imported products from the Orient in the stores.
The visit to Chinatown begins with a breakfast of dim sum or steamed Hong Kong style snacks. And it is at Jing Teng restaurant where you have to try them(you can read the note we wrote here). There they have an attractive buffet of Chinese tamales, of dumplings of rice flour and wheat flour dumplings filled with pork, chicken, shrimp and/or vegetables served in traditional bamboo baskets. There is also duck and bacon laquedo in plum sauce and a wide variety of oriental dishes at very affordable prices. This restaurant was founded more than eight years ago by a couple who emigrated from Hong Kong. Like the owners, most of the staff and diners are Chinese, which guarantees the restaurant's authenticity. Monse, the Mexican waitress who caters to Spanish speakers, recommends "going on Sunday, as that is the day they bring everything out". Jing Teng is located at 3256 South 65-A South Street and is open Monday through Sunday from 8am to 6pm.
Another neighborhood luminary is Ka Wong Seng, a Cantonese food restaurant that specializes in a wide variety of seafood. On Wednesday and Saturday nights they have hotpot, a pot of boiling fish broth in which raw food is cooked and taken from a buffet. This dish can be accompanied with a Tsingtao Chinese beer. Ka Wong Seng is at Albino Garcia 362 and is open Monday to Sunday from 9am to 10pm.
After a delicious meal and already inspired, you can walk to the mini-super Hua run chao ji shi chang to buy the necessary ingredients to cook Chinese dishes at home. There is an extensive variety of imported products such as soy sauces, tofu, bamboo shoots, teas, medicinal roots, pokies and many other oriental delicacies. The mini-super Hua run chao ji shi chang is located at Albino Garcia 307.
If you are still in the mood, you can get your hair cut at the Lang esthetics with an oriental stylist or get your nails done at a local salon. Lang esthetics is located at 243 Coruña Street.
And how many more Chinese secrets might not have been kept in the Viaducto Piedad?
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Also in Local:
Jing Teng: the most Chinese restaurant in town with dim sum specialty
From the lands of the dragon: history of food in Mexico