Shanghai bai cai or bak choy is one of the most popular Chinese vegetable today. In the DC area, you can buy it in almost every supermarket.
I use it in a quick stir fry, and with fried or soup noodles. Even chopped in small pieces and tossed into fried rice.
This vegetable is also easy to clean and doesn’t take as much time, as, say, gailan, which sometimes involves trimming off the fibrous parts the stems, or choy sum, which has to cleaned really well between the leaves and stems.
Shanghai bai cai come in large sizes and in baby sizes. The latter is perfect for serving to guests because they look so attractive with its lovely light green stems. They can be either left whole, or cut in quarters, as shown above.
This vegetable is different from baby bok choy, which has dark green leaves and white stems, another beautiful vegetable.
