How do you say 'bok choy' in Mandarin?

Cuisine Food & Drink
1

Every Web source I find translates it as “bai cai” (白菜) but that is standard Chinese cabbage. Entering it into an image search does not give me photos of bok choy. Can someone help me on this?

2

hmm, i always assumed bai cai too, but images of “bok choy” look like what’s called qing jiang cai – 青江菜 – here.

3

Brassica rapa chinensis

Sometimes called 小白菜

4

I don’t think 青江菜 is the same thing. It has a more “spicy” flavor than bok choy, doesn’t it?

I was thinking 小白菜 too. I’ll ask my wife tomorrow. I’m sure she’ll know.

5

沒圖沒真相！No pictures, no truth. :laughing:

Also check 大白菜 you’ll know the answer. :whistle:

6

[quote=“golf”]沒圖沒真相！No pictures, no truth. :laughing:

Also check 大白菜 you’ll know the answer. :whistle:[/quote]

7

This is 青江菜。

Any more pics? I tell you what they are. :sunglasses:

8

OK, the photo is what I call ‘bok choy’ (in English). Does everyone agree?
And given that we English-speakers borrowed the word ‘bok choy’ from Cantonese, why did we use it for qingjiangcai instead of bai cai? Any idea why ‘bok choy’ is not ‘bai cai’, since the Chinese characters for ‘bok choy’ and ‘bai cai’ are the same.

9

Wiki has this:

[quote]
Baby bok choy, Shanghai bok choy, or mei quin choi (Chinese: 上海白菜; pinyin: Shànghǎi báicài; Japanese: 青梗菜, chingensai) refers to greener varieties where the varioles are also green. It is simply a less-mature version that could develop into the white-stemmed variety with more time to grow before being harvested.[1] In Shanghai and other eastern China provinces, it is simply called qīngcài (青菜; literally blue/green vegetable) or qīngjiāngcài (青江菜; literally “blue/green river vegetable”).[/quote]

10

Hey, thanks.

11

Do the big cabbage-sized heads of bok choy even exist in Taiwan? I don’t recall seeing them here, but I don’t spend much time in the wet markets.

I’ve got lots of Chinese food recipes that talk about separating the bok choy whites from the greens, and cooking them for different times, but that’s not necessary with the “baby bok choy” (?) that’s usually in supermarkets here. The only headache is that when a recipe calls for “one head of bok choy” I’m not sure how much to get.

I believe these names vary a lot across China and Taiwan, so dictionaries and various Wikis are of limited use.

12

My shopping and questioning in the supermarket today leads me to believe that it is indeed the 青江菜 (qingjiangcai). I was mistaken about them being different things.

13

天津白菜 (tian1 jin1 bai2 cai4)