Dai-Style Pineapple Rice

Dai-style pineapple rice (bōluó fàn) is a signature preparation of the Dai ethnic minority, the dominant group of Xishuangbanna — the subtropical prefecture at the southern tip of Yunnan bordering Myanmar and Laos. Xishuangbanna sits below 600 metres elevation, produces tropical fruit year-round and has a food culture far more closely linked to mainland Southeast Asia than to the Han Chinese tradition. The Dai are culturally and linguistically related to the Thai and Lao peoples across the borders.

Glutinous rice (nuòmǐ) — the sticky short-grain variety, not standard long-grain — is soaked overnight and drained. It is mixed with fresh coconut milk, sometimes a small amount of sugar, and occasionally coloured with natural plant dyes for festive versions. A ripe pineapple is hollowed from the top, the core and some flesh removed to form a container, and the rice mixture packed in around remaining pineapple pieces. The filled pineapple is then steamed upright for an hour or more until the rice is fully cooked and has absorbed both the coconut milk and the pineapple juice from the surrounding flesh.

The finished dish is sliced vertically through the pineapple at serving, so each portion contains a wedge of rice fragrant with both coconut and pineapple, with a strip of the fruit's flesh at the outer edge. The flavour is mildly sweet, tropical and rich — quite different from the savoury register of most Chinese rice preparations.

It appears at Dai restaurants in Jinghong as a standard menu item alongside other Dai specialities: grilled fish in banana leaf, ant egg dishes and various river herb preparations. Outside Yunnan, it is listed at Yunnan-cuisine restaurants as a regional curiosity.