September 20, 2011

Yunnan's Bamboo Rice (lemang)

At the Yunnan Ethnic Minorities Cultural Village - there is this special food stall which sells lemang or bamboo rice in their dialect.
It is prepared in almost the same way as our Sarawak lemang. The girl preparing it is very lovely and she serves us in a very gracious way - we were like royalty. Each lemang is only 5RMB or 2.50 ringgit. Our group shared one tube.
My friend dividing the lemang with her chopsticks. I actually never thought of using chopsticks with lemang!! But this is the done thing here. Eating bamboo rice with chopsticks for centuries!!



The bamboo tubing is easily pried open..look how lovely the bamboo cooked rice is. It is a very convenient way of cooking rice while travelling in the mountains. Set up fire. find some bamboo. wash rice...and lo and behold..your evening meal is cooked in no time. Some times a fish or some meat is placed in the rice and cooked together...lovely to think of a meal like that in the open. I hope Anthony Bourdain would have another go coming to Borneo and taste better food in the jungle!!


Banana leave wrapped rice...this can come out of a bamoo and then wrapped in banana leaves for easy carrying in a back pack. Having travelled much in the jungles of Sarawak I find this a very natural way of dealing with our food. Sustanence is so traditional  and our ancestral ways are more than intelligent!! Tribal knowledge should be respected by all means.

6 comments:

sintaicharles said...

What an eye-opener. Must have tasted great.

Ensurai said...

Charles..I am more used to the Sarawak lemang (because of the coconut milk). The Yunnan rice (big rice) is excellent in texture and taste...and this lemang here is less salty and not so oily. Good...goood...gooooood...is all I can say. We Asians must respect our own rice production and revere its role in our society/societies. No one should sneer at this wonderful crop.

Lee said...

Hi Sarawakania, I sure would love to try this.
Looks delicious too. Not expensive. I bet it smells good too.
I love see how they do it, in bamboo.

Here we have the famous Yunnan cross bridge noodles. Really delicious.
Very interesting post.
Have a nice day.
Lee.

Anonymous said...

i also more cozy with the local "pangang" . sometimes,i either buy a piece of pangang or yau char kui to dip into my kopi-c or kopi-o(yummy,eh...) at the kopi-tiam before going to office.

- Ah Ngao

Ensurai said...

Hi Uncle Lee...
Yes...the rice cooked in bamboo is nice. And the better cook is often remembered..I love the Cross Bridge noodles too. Won't mind going back for more!!

You have a good week ahead too...

Ensurai said...

Ah Ngao...good lemang for tourists...but no curry was offered. This is very tourist type of business not like home cook. Since there are so many tourists a day the girls get very tired. Yet we were well treated.

Pulut panggang of Sarawak...da best la...and especially good with home made kaya..I know it is cholesterol choking food....but once in a while we can spoil ourselves...Cheers.

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