Most commonly understood Chinese translation for Pak choi / bok choy

[abcdefg]

6 hours ago, evn108 said:

Another leafy green vegetable question... to me this is the weirdest, and might just be that it has lots of names in Taiwan? 大陸妹，A菜, 萵筍, 萵苣.... are these all the same vegetable?

 

@evn108 -- Here's wo sun 莴笋。

 

https://www.chinese-forums.com/forums/topic/54904-chinese-stem-lettuce-莴笋炒豆腐/

[imron]

6 hours ago, Christa said:

It's a pain that "oil vegetable" means green stemmed pak choi in the north

Not for the people who live there

[Christa]

4 hours ago, imron said:

Not for the people who live there

Yeah, I suppose not.

[dwq]

35 minutes ago, Christa said:

Yeah, I suppose not.

 

I think you mean "No, I suppose not"?

[dwq]

In Hong Kong I almost never hear 油菜 used to refer to a type of vegetable. I think 菜花 / 油菜花 is used instead for what you call 油菜 (they're sold with the flower part most of the time).  When we say 油菜, we refer to the dish (boiled vegetable with oyster sauce) instead, and the vegetable used is not limited to a single type.

 

Also, 菜心 and 芥蘭 are different vegetables.  When cooked, 菜心's stems are more fibery, like a bunch of vertical fibers tied together, whereas 芥蘭's are more dense and solid and breaks apart cleanly when chewed.  The taste is also quite different.

 

Edit: I asked people around me and cannot confirm it, so I struck out the part about 菜花 / 油菜花 .

[Christa]

39 minutes ago, dwq said:

I think you mean "No, I suppose not"?

Do I? 

[Christa]

23 minutes ago, dwq said:

In Hong Kong I almost never hear 油菜 used to refer to a type of vegetable. I think 菜花 / 油菜花 is used instead for what you call 油菜 (they're sold with the flower part most of the time).

 

So, in Hong Kong, you use 菜花 / 油菜花 to refer to choy sum?

[dwq]

48 minutes ago, Christa said:

 

So, in Hong Kong, you use 菜花 / 油菜花 to refer to choy sum?

 

Well, if you ask me what I call choy sum, I'd say 菜心 . To be honest I'm not sure if it is different from 油菜花 , I think they taste similar.

 

Edit: And 菜心 is what you can find most of the time on restaurant menus in HK. I don't recall seeing 菜花 dishes recently so either my memory failed me or it went out of fashion (like 娃娃菜 taking place of dishes made with 黃芽白 before).