category: food/groceries: vegetables: leaf vegetables

Pak-choy, Chinese Cabbage, Spoon Cabbage, Bok Choy, Chinese Mustard, Celery Mustard, bot.: Brassica chinensis, de.: Pak-Choi, Paksoi, Chinesischer Senfkohl, fr.: pak-choi, pak-choy, es.: alpiste chino

Pak-choi or spoon cabbage belongs to the botanical family of cruciferous plants (bot.: Cruciferae, Brassicaceae). It is a leaf vegetable related to cabbage and originally comes from Asia. Pak-choi is mainly produced in China, Korea and Japan. It was introduced to Europe by Asians living in Amsterdam, Netherlands. In Europe this vegetable is cultivated only in small amounts in the Netherlands.

Pak-Choi forms loose leafs that remind of chard. Darker leafs with light leaf veins are slightly bitter. Pak-choi Shanghai is a small variety with green leaf veins. So far it is only grown in China. After only two months Pak-choi is up to 50 cm tall and ready for harvesting.

In terms of nutritional physiology Pak-choi is a vegetable with many valuable and important nutrients – their amount is twice as much as in white cabbage. Its name bak choy is derived from the Cantonese language and means white vegetable (bei/bak = white, choy = vegetable). In Mandarin it is called bei cai and in the Netherlands paksoi.