Do you know which one is bok choy?
What do you call this vegetable?
This one is called bok choy.
That one's probably bok choy.
Spinach.
Spinach?
Yeah.
What about this vegetable?
Baby spinach.
This one's bok choy. Okay. What's that? One big box.
Okay, but what's that one?
Big bok choy.
Big bok choy!
What about this one?
Oh...
That is bok choy, isn't it?
They're both bok choy.
Bok choy, often confused with pak choy, seems to have won our hearts
and is Australia's most eaten Asian veg,
consumed between five to ten times more than any other Asian veg.
But despite its popularity here in Australia,
one shouldn't think of bok choy as a vegetable to eat in all Asian dishes.
For example, I would rarely, if ever,
use bok choy in a Vietnamese dish.
My family has been selling leafy Asian veg
here in Australia for over 30 years.
So let me show you some alternatives that I love to eat.
Let's start off with gai lan,
which is called Chinese broccoli.
Now, if you love broccolini,
you're going to love this vegetable
because it's really firm and crispy if you put it in a stir fry
Choy sum,
it's basically a skinny bok choy, but it cooks in half the time.
Now my favorite veg of all time has to be water spinach,
better known as kangkong or tōng xīn cài.
The reason is because its stems
are super crispy and crunchy. When you bite into it,
it definitely makes one of those very visceral crunching sounds,
but also the leaves are just like spinach.
So not only are you getting awesome crunch when you do a stir fry,
but you're also getting the savouryness of the spinach leaves
Next up, we have small green mustard,
better known as guy choi.
I love this in a soup.
In a chicken broth or chicken soup
because its leaves start to permeate a lot of that flavor.
So this in a soup
is significantly better than a lot of the other Asian veg
because it imparts this very earthy herby,
but also savory flavor into a soup.
Next up, we have wombok or better known as Chinese cabbage.
Now, this is a superfood like kale.
Lots of nutrients lots of flavor.
It's not only great in stir fries and in soups,
but also it's the basis of kimchi,
which is why I love it so much.
So this is chives, the regular ones,
which the French love to put in an omelet.
But this is Chinese chives,
so it's flat instead of circular and thin.
Now, this eaten raw —
it's got that garlic spice and flavor in it.
And if you're going to make dumplings
or mix any minced meat, that's your go to.
Now, there is one bok choy
in between the green stem and the white stem.
That's the best of both worlds.
It's got the tenderness of the small green
and it's got the flavor of the big white bok choy.
So it's not widely available,
but if you can find it, give it a go.
It's called baby bok choy or white bok choy.
There are so many amazing vegetable options.
Why has bok choy become so successful?
And why do we love it so much?
Bok choy came to Australia during the 1850s
during Australia's gold rush when Chinese migrants came over here
and planted the seeds in market gardens.
Bok choy's popularity grew for three main reasons.
Firstly, Aussies were getting sick of cauliflower and broccoli.
Secondly, they were really easy to stir fry
or steam or boil in a soup.
And lastly, they were great for farmers
because they're very hardy brassica
that can grow pretty much everywhere.
So back to the first question, "Why is the name so confusing?"
Well, in the mid '90s, seed companies
started mass-producing bok choy seeds
and selling them to farmers across Australia.
They called it 'Shanghai',
named after the city, from which it originates.
Because most farmers don't speak Cantonese
There was some loss in translation
between some farmers calling it Shanghai,
others bok choy and others pak choy
cut to today and Australia's peak vegetable industry body,
Ausveg, calls this pak choy and this bok choy.
So if you're confused, you're not alone.
For me personally,
having grown up with some Cantonese influence.
I consider this bok choy
and I think anybody in Australia
who's grown up with friends or family who can speak Cantonese
would probably call this bok choy, too.
And now that you know more about Asian veg,
what fruit or veg do you want to know more about next?