Derrick-Green (Pesticide Free Veggies)

Picture of Ong Choi (Ipomoea aquatica)

Products - Ong Choi (Ipomoea aquatica)

Ong Choi (Ipomoea aquatica), is a member of the Morning Glory family (Convolvulaceae). The most common varieties are bright green and grow up to 14 inches tall. Ong Choi is of East Indian origin and a member of the Convolvulaceae (morning glory) family. Ong Choi is extremely popular in Southern China, Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand. Ong choi in Chinese literally translates as "hollow vegetable". Although Ong Choi is closely related to sweet potato (Ipomea batatas) and convolvulus, it has no relationship with the common spinach.

Other Names

Morning Glory, Water Spinach, Kankun, Kong Xin Cai (Kong Shin Tsai), Chau Gan Choi, Rau Muon, and Swamp Cabbage.

Cooking Methods

Lightly boil, steam, stir-fry with shrimp paste, combined with other greens and used in soups. Ong Choi deteriorates rapidly once picked, so ideally it must always be used very fresh. The leaves can be used whole, or cut into smaller pieces and like ordinary spinach, the stems require slightly longer cooking than the leaves.

Almost all parts of the young plant are eaten, although the shoot tips and younger leaves are preferred. Older stems that are from plants cultivated on dry land, contain considerable fiber and therefore the cultural methods emphasize the production of young succulent tips.

In the West, Ong Choi is treated as ordinary spinach. It is sauteed with butter and garlic, or with bacon, and tossed with a little vinegar and sugar. In contrast, the Chinese will consume this vegetable in a variety of ways such as in soup, batter fried, or raw.

The Cantonese exclusively stir-fry it, with a generous amount of garlic (or garlic shallots) and either white fermented bean curd or fermented shrimp sauce; chilli is commonly added.

Picture of Pak Choi (Brassica chinensis)

Pak Choi (Brassica chinensis)

Pak Choi (Brassica chinensis) is a member of the Mustard family. Pak Choi and its variations are amongst the most popular vegetables used in Chinese cooking in Hong Kong and parts of Southern China, is now commonplace in European cooking.

Also commonly known as 'bok choy', the broad green leaves, which taper to white stalks, are crisp and crunchy. The Cantonese name is bok choy or pak choi and the Mandarin name is bai cai. The name means white vegetable in Chinese.

Pak Choi leaves are soft and succulent, with crunchy white or green stalks and young sweet flavoured flower shoots. The whole plant is edible. The slight mustard flavor of Pak Choi makes it a delightful addition to stir-fries, soups, noodle and meat dishes, and salads, if the young leaves are used. In China, the coarser leaves are often pickled.

Pak Choi can be divided into four categories based on appearance:

1. Chinese White Bok Choi is a tall plant (30 cm when harvested) with thick green leaves and white stalks.

2. Shanghai Bok Choi has light green leaves and light green stalks and the plant is harvested when about 15 cm high.

3. Soup Spoon type has cupped ladle-like leaves with white stalks and can grow up to 45 cm in height.

4. Canton type is a short squat type with convoluted dark green leaves and white stalks. Sometimes this type is harvested early as Baby Bok Choi.

Other Names

Bok Choy, Bai Cai (Bai Tsai), Cai Trang, Pe Tsai and Pechey.

Cooking Suggestions

Asian cooks use the entire plant at many stages of development. Also can be dried by dipping the leaves in boiling water and hanging them out to dry in the sun for several days. Drying enables this highly perishable vegetable to be stored for winter months.

Dishes: Sweet soy fried noodles (pad sieu)m Pak Choi Soup and Chicken Dumplings, Soup noodles with vegetables, Pak Choi Salad, Char Siu Pork on Steamed Pak Choy, Sichuan Pepper Pork with Pak Choi, Stir Fry Rice with Pak Choi and Pak choi stir-fry.

Biological Reasons for Why Children Hate Vegetables

Why do children have an aversion to vegetables anyhow?
It is estimated that about eighty percent of chldren do not like vegetables. Some psychologists and nutritionists claim it is because they have not acquired the taste. Parents have poor eating habits and pass it on to the children. Generally parents who do not eat vegetables have children who do not eat vegetables. This may be true in some cases but not in all. I eat vegetables. I love vegetables but my son did not, and I tried to give him that acquired taste. It didn’t work. This theory falls short of a full explanation for why children hate vegetables.

A better explanation can be found in biological studies. Children have an aversion to bitter tastes. They much prefer sweet tastes over bitter tastes, which may be responsible for this aversion. Sensitivity to bitter tastes will vary depending upon the gene variants.

In the study, only the children seemed to have an aversion to bitter tastes while their mothers who were also studied seemed to have tastes, which have developed through cultural and ethnic cuisine. The study found that generally, children tend to grow out of the aversion for bitter taste and their hatred for vegetables.

Is that all there is, just an explanation that children are genetically prone to dislike vegetables and they will grow out of in time? Children are born with over 10,000 taste buds and as time goes by these taste buds diminish. The average adult has about 3,000 tastes buds. What this means is that children will have more robust taste buds. The flavours of vegetables and other foods will be stronger than the flavours that adults taste. Thus accounting for the fact that they don’t like the bitter taste of vegetables. Over time these taste buds diminish and since the flavours are not so strong, these kids who are now grown up can now eat vegetables and actually enjoy them