Pablo Pasapera vividly remembers the China dream that brought him to Beijing eight years ago. Like many business executives who have looked East in the past decade, he and his Mexican partners were all about the numbers.

"We thought, 'If each Chinese would eat one tortilla each day'," he said. "Of course, it's not that easy."

When he arrived in China to bring traditional tortillas - made of corn flour, not wheat - he found himself in a country that didn't know much about Mexico or its food traditions. And in a huge land where rice and noodles are king, people didn't have much enthusiasm for corn.