The mainland Southeast Asian culinary corridor — the geographic and cultural region Duguid covers in *Hot Sour Salty Sweet* — encompasses the cultures of the Mekong River basin: southern Yunnan, northern Burma, Laos, northern Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Despite their significant cultural and linguistic differences, these traditions share a set of structural flavour principles that distinguishes them from Thai coastal cooking and from Chinese cooking to the north. Understanding these shared principles is the foundation for understanding the specific techniques of each tradition.
Naomi Duguid & Jeffrey Alford, *Hot Sour Salty Sweet: A Culinary Journey Through Southeast Asia* (2000); Naomi Duguid, *Burma: Rivers of Flavor* (2012)