Dai Cuisine With Special Flavour

Dai dishes are rich in national flavour and local colour, and form a unique school of Yunnan cuisine. The ways of preparing their dishes included grilling, steaming, chopping and pickling, altogether 120 varieties. As for the characteristics of the taste, they can be summed up as being sour, pungent, and fragrant. The flavor of glutinous rice cooked in bamboo, fish grilled with sweet grass, chicken boiled with sour bamboo shoot and fried moss are beyond telling in language or writing unless you taste them yourself.

About a kilometre south of the county seat Yunjinghong, there is a picturesque Dai village called Manjinglan. There is Manjinglan Dai Nationalities Flavor Food Street. Here in recent years the Dai people opened many restaurants for tourists. After having feasted their eyes on the beautiful scenery of Xishuangbanna, they would taste the various Dai dishes such as the grilled fish wrapped in lemon grass, the glutinous rice cooked inside the hollow of the bamboo stalk, steamed minced pork wrapped in banana leaves, steamed brain of pig, deep fried banana and moss... Following we shall recommend some of these important Dai dishes.

Fragrant Bamboo Rice

Also called bamboo stalk rice, it is made from November to February of the next year when the bamboo is fully grown. Rice is then put inside the hollow of the bamboo stalk and cooked over an open fire till it is done. The bamboo rice is fragrant in smell, soft and fine in texture. It is usually used to entertain guests as staple food.

Fish Boiled With Sour Bamboo Shoots

Sour bamboo shoots, indispensable in the Dai kitchen, can be used as seasoning ingredient or as a dish. The Dai people take young bamboo shoots in spring, cut them into fine slices and pickle them. Fish boiled with sour bamboo shoots is a favorite dish of the Dai. To prepare it, fry the sour bamboo shoots for a short while, add suitable amount of water, and when the water boils, put the cleaned fish into the sour soup. When the fish is done, add some green pepper. The dish is ready in a moment. It is tasty and appetizing. Chicken, spare ribs and beef can be cooked in the same way.