Dai Ethnic Cuisine — Lemongrass and Wild Herbs (傣族香料料理)
I
Origin
Xishuangbanna, Yunnan Province — Dai ethnic minority
II
Description
The Dai ethnic minority of Xishuangbanna in southern Yunnan (bordering Laos and Thailand) cook with tropical ingredients: lemongrass, galangal, kaffir lime leaf, banana flower, and wild chillies — creating dishes more akin to Lao and Thai cuisine than Han Chinese cooking. Pineapple rice cooked in pineapple shell (bo luo fan), bamboo-tube rice (zhu tong fan), and grilled fish wrapped in banana leaves are signatures.
III
The Thread
—Lao cuisine (direct neighbour)
—Thai Northern cuisine (cousin cuisine)
—Vietnamese cuisine of the Northwest
IV
Flavour Context
Tropical, herbal, sour-fresh, wild — completely outside the Han Chinese flavour vocabulary; Southeast Asian in character but with specific Yunnan ingredients
Pillars V — VII
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