These asian vegetables are commonly used in chinese soups and chinese cooking.

I consulted many reference books while researching and writing for these chinese vegetable pages and find them quite difficult to understand and it took me a while to re-write it in a way I could understand and appreciate.

As much as possible, vegetable pictures are posted. Some of the pictures are taken by me. Alas, I am a very amateurish photographer so I had to rely on friends I met on the web and at flickr.

I hope this list becomes a good starting point for many who are interested in chinese cooking to get to know some common asian vegetables. The list is brief because details of each asian green featured here have their own individual pages.

I will use the Cantonese names of the asian vegetables if I think they are more well known than the mandarin names. A good example is bok choy. I will also include the mandarin name as transliterated in hanyu pinyin.

Preparing Asian Vegetables With Bare Hands

I started helping out in the kitchen when I was fairly young. My grandmother did not like the idea of me holding a knife. So, I was shown how to pluck and pinch green leafy vegetables into bite-sized pieces by hand. I was often directed to a corner of the kitchen floor with a bunch of vegetables for "cutting" and a stack of newspapers to lay on the floor to catch the sand and dirt from the vegetables. A red round plastic strainer for placing the vegetables before washing complete my arsenal. I spent many happy hours preparing these asian vegetables. It felt good to be a part of the effort to prepare the family dinner.

I missed those days!

One of these days I will take videos of how to prepare asian vegetables by hand and post them here...when I finally learnt how to take and edit video clips.

This is a growing list. Do come back often to check for new content.

Green Leafy Vegetables

Bok Choy 小白菜

Also known as chinese white cabbage, pak choy (another transliteration of the cantonese), bai cai (mandarin 白菜) and chinese chard. More at the Bok Choy Page

Chinese Lettuce

Photo source: Geoff604 at flickr

Chinese lettuce is known as sang choy in Cantonese and sheng cai in mandarin 生菜. In Taiwan it is known as 莴苣 Wo ju. More at the Chinese lettuce Page

Chinese Spinach

Photo source: avlxyz at flickr

Also known as amaranth, yeen choy (cantonese), xian cai 苋菜 (mandarin). More at the Chinese Spinach Page.

Choy Sum

Photo source: FotoosVanRobin at flickr

Choy sum is also known as the chinese flowering cabbage, cai xin ((菜心 in mandarin), yow choy, and yow choy sum (those with yellow flowers). More at the Choy Sum Page

Chrysanthemum Leaves

Photo source: Jimmy Hsu at flickr

Chrysanthemum leaves is known as tong ho or tang ho 茼蒿. More at the Chrysanthemum Leaves Page

Napa Cabbage

Photo source: Forest and Kim Starr at mediawiki.

The napa cabbage is also known as the celery cabbage and the peking cabbage (北京白菜). The scientific name is brassica pekinensis. So named as it is grown in Peking (the old name of Beijing, the capital of China). It should not be mistaken with the common green cabbage (Brassica oleracea) which is round. More at the Napa Cabbage Page

Water Spinach

Water spinach (空心菜) is related to the common morning glory which is a very common wild plant with purple, pink or white flowers. More at the Water Spinach/Kang Kong Page

Tubers and Roots

Daikon

Photo source: Chris 73 at Wikipedia

Daikon (白萝卜 bai luo bo) is the japanese name for the big white radish. It is called "luo bo" in mandarin hanyu pinyin, and "lo bak" in Cantonese. It is a tuber that looks like the carrot, except it is whitish in colour. More at the Daikon Page

Lotus Root

Photo source: yewenyi on flickr

Lotus root (莲藕) is the root portion of the lotus plant. The plant grows in ponds with the flowers, stems and leaves above the water and the roots below the water. More at the Lotus root Page

Sprouts & Shoots

Bean sprouts 豆芽

Photo source: Stefan Eberlein at wikimedia

Bean sprouts is a generic term for sprouts from any kind of beans. However in Chinese cuisine, it generally refers to either the mung bean sprouts or the soy bean sprouts. More at the Bean sprouts Page

Melon & Squash

Winter Melon

冬瓜 looks like a water melon but is actually a squash. It has little taste but absorbs the flavours of the food it is cooked with. More at the Winter Melon Page