Pineapple Purple Sticky Rice

Pineapple purple sticky rice is made by soaking purple glutinous rice for hours, mixing it with pineapple flesh and a little sugar, then steaming the lot back inside the hollowed pineapple shell, turning out a ruby-purple rice steeped in fruit fragrance.

The dish comes from the Dai people of Xishuangbanna in Yunnan, who have long taken glutinous rice as a staple and make free use of the tropical fruit around them; binding rice to fresh pineapple shows the Dai gift for turning rainforest abundance into food.

Served whole at the table and spooned out warm and soft, sweet yet tart, it appears at Dai festivals and banquets as a dessert and is a familiar sight at the Jinghong night markets and Dai home-stay tables.

Its form—steamed in the whole pineapple with purple rice and fruit together—and the double taste of tart fruit against soft chewy rice are what mark this dish out.