Rice Cooked in Bamboo Tubes, also called Bamboo Rice or Fragrant Bamboo Rice, is a type of roasted food consisting of rice and some spices, contained in a bamboo tube.
Generally, it is made by people who live in mountainous regions. The main ingredients of it are rice and meat, which are put into a fresh bamboo joint with enough water, sealed with banana leaves and baked on a charcoal fire until the bamboo turns black.
Originally, this kind of food was made by some minority nationalities, such as the Dai, Hani, Lahu, Bulang, Jinuo and Jingpo people in Yunnan Province. Due to its special flavor, Rice Cooked in Bamboo Tubes has become very popular among other ethnic groups, especially the Zhuang minority and Yao minority in Guangxi. You can find it easily in many snack stalls in these regions.
Different Kinds of Rice Cooked in Bamboo Tubes
There are two kinds of Rice Cooked in Bamboo Tubes depending on different ingredients and cooking methods: Rice Cooked in Normal Bamboo Tubes and Rice Cooked in Fragrant Bamboo Tubes.
Minorities like the Hani, Laku, Bulang and Jinuo people often make Rice Cooked in Normal Bamboo Tubes. When people go out to work or go hunting in the mountains, they cut a bamboo joint and put the rice they take with them into it, adding the right amount of water, roasting it in the fireplace until it's done. It's then cut into 2 or 4 pieces and shared with each other. Bamboo joints are good replacements for pots and bowls. Well-cooked bamboo rice has a distinctive flavor of soft roasted rice and bamboo.
Rice Cooked in Fragrant Bamboo Tubes has a very specail fragrant taste. Fragrant bamboo, with the scientific name of Cephalostachyum pergracile, is usually the size of a wine cup, with a length of 40 centimeters; it is the best choice to make bamboo rice, especially tender and fresh joints of it. The softness and freshness of the roasted rice in fragrant bamboo can be kept for 10 hours, and it's tasty when served hot or cold.
The Origins of Bamboo Rice
In the geographical condition of the tropics and subtropics in Yunnan Province, local people often go hunting and farming in dense forests. It is inconvenient for them to cook when they go out, so they have figured out an idea to solve this problem.
During the meal break, they cut some bamboo joints from nearby woods as food containers, get some clean spring water, and put the ingredients that they take with them, like rice and meat, into the bamboo tube, and make a fire to bake it until the food is completely cooked. They can also pick some wild vegetables to cook delicious bamboo soup, which is ideal with bamboo rice. That's where bamboo rice originated from.
How to Do Homemade Bamboo Rice
Ingredients
Bamboo joint 1 pc (tender bamboo would be better; the more water it contains, the longer it can be baked), water 100 ml, rice 500 g, bacon 2 pcs, pickles 2 pcs, oil, salt, spices like soy sauce and black pepper.
Steps
- Cut the bamboo into a 25-centimeter-long and 6-centimeter-wide bamboo joint, and drill a small hole at one end of it.
- Wash the rice and soak it for 30 minutes, mince the bacon and pickles into pieces, put them in a bowl and mix.
- Add some oil, salt and spices to season the mixed rice.
- Stuff all of these prepared ingredients into the bamboo joint through the hole, and add 100 ml water.
- Seal the hole with a strip of clean cloth. Bake the bamboo and control the heat properly: high heat for 15 minutes, mid heat for 5 minutes, low heat for 3 minutes.
- When the mouthwatering bamboo rice is done, cut it into 2-4 pieces and share.
Learn to Make Rice Cooked in Bamboo Tubes wih China Highlights
Rice Cooked in Bamboo Tubes is a famous dish among the Zhuang Ethnic people in Longsheng, Guilin. Take a Guilin Longji Terraced Fields Tour, visit a local family in Longsheng, join in how to make this dish with the family, and finally taste your fuite of labor.