Greg Who Cooks
Executive Chef
How could I have forgotten bok choi???
Mebbe cuz it's so often called pak choi nowadays.
There's so many vegetables I never heard of in Asian markets that I doubt if I'll ever be able to try them all, by the time I figure out what they are and how to use them. I'm particularly confused because one of my favorite Asian markets is Korean, another is Vietnamese, and they don't even always call the same vegetable the same thing. Nor do they always have an English name. I'm still trying to figure out what some of them are.
I just discovered some of my notes! Here's some of the Cabbage family (Brassica):
bok choy = Chinese cabbage / snow cabbage = Brassica rapa subspecies or B. campestris
kai lan - Alboglabra group of Brassica oleracea ... Pak kana in Thai
gai choi = mustard greens / green mustard cabbage = Brassica juncea
yu choi = rapeseed / oil vegetable (in Chinese) = Brassica napus
Of course I didn't include any of the well known ones, broccoli, cabbage, Napa cabbage, etc.
Here's a few that aren't Brassica but hope nobody will mind me including them. I particularly like the garlic chives.
ong choi = water spinach = Ipomoea aquatica
ngo gai = culantro = Eryngium foetidum (Vietnam) (pak chi farang in Thai)
bu chu (Korean) - garlic chives - Allium tuberosum
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