Vegetables
Shanghai Bok Choy
A compact small bok choy with short, fleshy pale-green stalks and spoon-shaped green leaves.
- 繁體中文
- 小棠菜
- English
- Shanghai Bok Choy
- Bahasa Indonesia
- Shanghai bok choy (小棠菜)
- Tagalog
- Pechay Shanghai (小棠菜)
What is it?
Shanghai bok choy is a leafy brassica sold widely in Hong Kong markets. FEHD uses Green Chinese cabbage; this guide keeps that official alias while using the familiar market-facing English name.
How to identify it
Look for a compact upright head, short thick pale-green leaf stalks and rounded spoon-shaped leaves. It does not have the long flowering stems typical of choy sum.
- Compact, low upright bunch
- Short, thick pale-green stalks
- Rounded to spoon-shaped green leaves
Common confusion
Shanghai bok choy forms a short compact head with thick stalks; choy sum has longer slender stems and may develop yellow flower buds.
Common Hong Kong household uses
Commonly stir-fried, blanched, added to soup or served with noodles.
Preparation or handling
Separate the outer leaves and rinse soil from the stalk bases and leaf joints. Split larger heads lengthwise and drain before cooking.
Storage
Keep dry in the refrigerator vegetable drawer and use soon. Discard slimy, rotten or strongly off-smelling stalks.
Helper tip
Ask for 小棠菜. Check the short thick stalks and compact head; it is not choy sum.
What Ma’am or Sir may say
買一斤小棠菜，揀細棵嫩啲。The employer wants about one catty of smaller, tender Shanghai bok choy.
Useful market phrase
唔該要一斤細棵小棠菜。Does the image look correct?
Last reviewed
Sources
- Hong Kong Food and Environmental Hygiene Department — Public Market Items - Leafy Vegetables
- Hong Kong Food and Environmental Hygiene Department — Leafy vegetables Cantonese pinyin
- Hong Kong Food and Environmental Hygiene Department — Public Market Items Multilingual Booklet
- Philippine Bureau of Agriculture and Fisheries Standards — Philippine National Standard for Pechay