title: Integration of ethnic food into Swedish food rituals. The cultural fitness of tacos.
abstract: This paper explores the meaning of the Mexican dish tacos for Swedish consumers. As such, this study examines the relationship between ethnic food and food culture in light of contemporary changing food rituals. The results reveal that the Swedish food ritual of Friday dinner can be enacted through eating tacos. Friday dinner is a point in time and space at which family members gather, after a busy week following divergent schedules that keep them from eating together, and to which children's food preferences are central. Tacos fulfil all the requirements for a quick-to-cook yet social dish that enables hardworking but time-constrained families to eat together. The much-debated informal and fragmented character of food consumption in contemporary society is accommodated in the taco meal.
authors.affiliation: School of Business, Economics and Commercial Law, Göteborg University, Dept of Marketing, Box 600, 40530 Göteborg, Sweden. cecilia.soler@handels.gu.se
authors.forename: Cecilia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Solér
authors.forename: Maite Creixell
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Plazas
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002562:Ceremonial Behavior; D002648:Child; D003296:Cooking; D003469:Culture; D004032:Diet / Q000208:ethnology*; D005190:Family; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000208:ethnology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008800:Mexico; D008875:Middle Aged; D012931:Social Environment; D013548:Sweden; D055815:Young Adult