Southeast Asia heats up with spicy Chinese cuisine

NANNING — A package of spicy hotpot flavoring printed in both Chinese and Burmese drew attention at the 5th Lancang-Mekong Business Forum in Nanning, capital of south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, in early July.

The raw materials for the seasoning were imported from Chongqing Municipality in southwest China and processed in Yangon, Myanmar to suit the tastes of the Myanmar people.

“Spicy Chinese food started appearing in Myanmar 10 years ago,” Sean Yann, 37, a Chinese-Burmese maker of the spicy hotpot flavoring, said in fluent Mandarin.

Yann said that spicy Chinese hotpot was introduced to high-end restaurants in Myanmar after spicy mixed vegetables sold by the Chinese became popular locally.

In recent years, Chinese foods with a numbing, spicy flavor known as “mala” have gained ground in Southeast Asia.

This trend was also confirmed by Li Jing, a young man from Wenshan Zhuang and Miao Autonomous Prefecture in southwest China’s Yunnan Province, who attended Yangon Foreign Languages ​​University three years ago to study Burmese. He said Chinese hotpot is very popular in Yangon, with many shops on the main streets selling malatang (food boiled in spicy soup) and hotpot.

“Many Myanmar people can say ‘hot pot’, ‘bad’ and other Chinese words, which are also indispensable topics in our conversations with Myanmar friends,” Li said.

As Myanmar consumers’ love for the “bad” taste grows, Yann’s company is working with local supermarkets to introduce its spicy stew flavoring.

Although the products cost 1.5 times more than local ones, they still sell 20,000 to 30,000 packs a month. Yann said a dozen similar spicy products from other brands are also selling well in local supermarkets.

According to data from China’s e-commerce platforms Meituan and Dianping earlier this year, online searches for mala and hot pot in Thailand increased 700 percent year-over-year. More restaurants offering bad barbecue and hotpot have sprung up in the popular resorts of Bangkok and Phuket.

Zhuo Bingyue, who runs a Thai restaurant in Nanning, said that compared with spicy Thai food, the “bad” taste of Chinese food is more complex and rich, a feature that appeals to Thai youth.

Driven by programs such as the Belt and Road Initiative and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, the scope of cooperation between China and the member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations has expanded, with no impediment to trade and logistics. . Chinese flavored foods like mala are entering Southeast Asia in more diverse and efficient ways.

Infused with a rich aroma, the Yulin International Spice Trade Market in Yulin, Guangxi sees an endless stream of truckloads of spices like star anise and cinnamon. The annual trade volume of spices in Yulin is about 800,000 metric tons, and the related industrial chain employs more than 100,000 people.

Yulin seized the opportunity to implement RCEP and continuously expanded its trade with ASEAN countries in the field of spices, exporting more Chinese seasonings to Southeast Asia to satisfy the taste buds of local people.

At the 5th Lancang-Mekong Business Forum, more than 100 industry representatives from Lancang-Mekong Cooperation countries including China, Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam discussed cooperation opportunities in food processing industries and agriculture.

Suriyan Vichitlekarn, executive director of the Mekong Institute, told the forum that in recent years, as infrastructure connectivity between LMC countries accelerated and logistics systems improved, combined with increasing demand for food, changes in consumption patterns and technological advances in food processing and LMC countries’ packaging, market and trade in the food processing industry has continued to expand, providing more space for future cooperation.

“China is a huge market with unlimited opportunities, and we look forward to more exchanges and cooperation with Chinese companies in the future,” said Kitti Supchukun, president of Thailand’s agricultural corporation Grenades Biotech Co Ltd.

xinhua