Pak Choi

British and Dutch imports. Available in some supermarkets as well as from Chinese stores. A Chinese green leaf vegetable with thick fleshy white stems, it is only the best known of many leaves, all more or less similar to chard, spinach or sprouting broccoli, that are used in Chinese cooking. Most are steamed, stir-fried or blanched then simply sauced and eaten as an accompanying vegetable; some are also good in soups. Some are sold when flowering, some have a distinctive taste, for example Gaai-Choi’s (Chinese Mustard Greens) strong tang of mustard. Perhaps the choicest of all is Choi-Sum or Chinese Flowering Cabbage.