Bamboo-Tube Fragrant Rice

Bamboo-tube fragrant rice is made by soaking glutinous rice, packing it into a freshly cut fragrant bamboo tube, sealing the mouth with banana leaf and roasting it by the hearth; the tube is split open to eat, the grains steeped in bamboo scent.

The dish comes from the Dai of Xishuangbanna, who dwell in a rainforest rich in fragrant bamboo and use the tubes as natural cookware, fusing sticky rice with bamboo scent, a prime example of Dai cookery shaped by its surroundings.

Once roasted, the tube is split and the rice lifted out as a fragrant log, the grain soft, faintly sweet and laced with bamboo, eaten as a staple at everyday meals, fairs and festivals alike.

Its form—roasted in a whole fresh bamboo tube and lifted out once split—and the natural bamboo scent woven into every grain are the hallmarks of bamboo-tube rice.