Garlic Chives

APPEARANCE: These are long, flat green leaves, about ¼ inch wide, reminiscent of a green onion but always sold as leaves only, never with a bulb.

QUALITY: Uniformly dark green leaves are good; often the shorter they are, the younger and thus the more tender and mild in taste.

COMMENTS: Gau choi has a stronger taste and a tougher, more fibrous texture than either spring onions or true chives. Its flat, rather than tubular, leaves indicate that it belongs to the garlic clan of the onion family; even so, “chives” is an appropriate epithet because Southeast Asians use it in the same way Westerners use chives.