The cuisine of Yunnan is enriched by the tremendous cultural diversity of Yunnan Province and enhanced by its location in the southwest corner of China. Yunnan shares borders with Myanmar, Vietnam, Tibet autonomous region, and Sichuan and Guizhou provinces. Yunnan is also home to the largest ethnic minority groups in China, which boasts 25 out of 56 ethnic minority groups in China. That extraordinarily cultural diversity makes Yunnan a land teeming with lively cultural cross-fertilization and creativity. That richness is reflected in the varied tapestry of Yunnan cuisine. Yunnan cuisine also benefits from the fact that the land is one of the richest in biodiversity in the world.

One of the most beloved cuisines in the Yunnan region is bamboo rice. Bamboo sticky rice is a specialty of the Dai people. Among the green hills, Banna is surrounded by the Mekong River, which is known as the “rice basket of China" with its enormous rice paddies.

Yunnan cuisine has similarities to that found in northern Thailand and Laos. It is spicy, sour, and herbaceous, with generous use of chili, coriander, and lime juice, but without fish sauce. The Dai people also liberally use fermented soybeans, lemongrass, bamboo, mushrooms, flowers, ferns, algae, and gooseberries foraged from the jungle.

Bamboo rice is made by putting clean rice and water into a bamboo tube, soaking it for seven or eight hours, then covering it with a banana leaf and roasting it over coals for 12 or 13 minutes. The rice comes out soft and fluffy, with a delicate bamboo aroma.

Bamboo is an amazing plant life thrives there and features with a cheap price, so it is often utilized in Yunnan cuisine. To make authentic Yunnan-style bamboo rice, the bamboo must be the Chimonocalamus variety from Xishuangbanna. Only the young green part of the bamboo plant is used in cooking. Split horizontally, the bamboo shaft is stuffed with a variety of possible choices, such as diced pork or chicken mixed with chili, ginger, coriander, Sichuan pepper leaf, sticky rice, or diced pineapple. The resulting dish is delicious and nutritive, a whole meal in a bamboo tube.

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