Sunday, August 18, 2013

青龙菜

The literal translation for 青龙菜 (Cantonese: Ching Long Choy) is green dragon vegetable. I remember having this dish a few years ago. Before that, I have not heard of this vegetable at all so I wanted to find out more about it.

This led to a search on the web for more information and to my surprise, this vegetable is none other than 韭菜 (Mandarin Pinyin: Jiǔcài, Cantonese: Gau Choy). In English, the name is Chinese chives, also known as garlic chives, Oriental garlic, Chinese leek (Allium tuberosum).

I would like to add that this "ching long choy" does not taste like "gau choy" (garlic chives) at all. I like the strong taste of "gau choy" and this green dragon vegetable has none of the strong taste of garlic chives.


It is grown in Cameron Highlands by a man named Lau Kuan. There is an article in the Star newspaper dated Monday May 16, 2005 entitled "Farmer rejects pesticide use in growing chives" that explained why this green dragon vegetable does not have a strong taste like the normal garlic chives.

Below is an extract from the above article that describes the method used to grow this green dragon vegetable:

"He lets his chives grow for six weeks before chopping off the top half of the leaves to be used as mulch and fertiliser. He then covers the remaining chives with a thick nylon netting for 10 days in a process known as blanching before harvesting them. Limiting sunlight made the chives more tender and delicious as they contained less fibre, Lau said."

This method is a slight modification of the method used to grow yellow chives (韭黃 - Gau Wong in Cantonese). To grow yellow chives, normal garlic chives are harvested by cutting them about a few inches above the ground, leaving the roots in the ground to grow again under cover without being exposed to the sunlight at all.

You get yellow chives by covering the remaining roots totally to let them grow in complete darkness whereas by covering them with nylon nettings and letting them grow under limited sunlight, you will get this green dragon vegetable.

If you are interested to grow your own yellow chives, please refer to this blog post with the title "Growing Yellow Chives". It has photos for every step on how to grow yellow chives. Modify the method by limiting sunlight instead of total darkness to grow your own green dragon vegetable.

So after knowing all this, the green dragon vegetable is no longer a mystery to me. I hope all of you get to have a taste of this dish to see whether you like it or not.

P/S
I also found a blog post written in Chinese published on Friday June 1, 2012 entitled 金马伦 (Cameron Highlands) that has many photos of Mr Lau and his chives farm. If you are interested to see the farm and how this green dragon vegetable looked like after being packed for sale, please go and have a look, thank you.

28 comments:

  1. well, i don't really like the 青龙菜 because it taste like celery that kind of taste to me~ >.<

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    1. Hhhmmm, I don't think the taste is similar to celery at all. Maybe your taste buds are special, hehehe.

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  2. hey Mun, coincidentally, I ordered a plate of this green dragon vege..and it cost RM16! I think it was a bit overpriced for a small portion.. but then I like the taste of it! :)

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    1. Hello Claire, so you like the taste! Since according to the star article, it is grown without using pesticide, it could be consider as organic vegetable so may be that's why it is expensive. Since you like it, why don't you try to grow it yourself? :)

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    2. Pasar selling this very mahal la. Hdncr restaurant also mahal

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  3. I don't cook this vege as my kids don't like it.

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    1. Your children don't like gao choy or ching long choy?

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  4. Sometimes, i eat some veg from the mixed rice stall, i do not know the name of the veg...

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    1. If want to know, can ask the mixed rice stall owner the name of the vege, right?

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  5. Hi Mun, thank you for visiting my blog. :D I have yet to try this veggie I've always wanted to try to cook this dragon veggies, but I can't seems to find it anywhere in the morning wet market. >.< must be pretty rare.

    http://cleffairy.com

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    1. Hi Cleffairy,

      You are welcome! Thank you for dropping by too.

      I believe they mostly sell to restaurants.

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  6. I like this vege. First time had it in serembsn.passr selling quite mahal. Rm5 rn7 small bundle

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    1. Does not use pesticide, can be considered as somewhat organic, that's why mahal loh.

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  7. I think I tasted this veggie before and I like it. Crunchy and no green taste at all.

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  8. I didn't know that is "green dragon veg" but it looks like one of the greens I looove to eat! So yummy in the photos!

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    1. I believe this name is used in Msia only. In HK, it may have another name.

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  9. I usually cook sawi..this dragon vegetable is new to me..

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  10. i ate this vege once in some restaurant. We thought the name was kinda weird when we first introduced by the waitress. Anyway, we liked it because it was so tender and not much 'kan' - fiber :)

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    1. Good to know that you have eaten this before and like it. :)

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  11. Very interesting read. DOnt' think I've ever tried the 青龙菜 before. And they don't look anything like 韭菜 at all. I've gotta head to that article you referred to and read more. :) Thanks for sharing.

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    1. Hello Amy,

      You are welcome! Would you like to try to grow this? I am sure you will be able to. :)

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  12. Replies
    1. You can try to grow it yourself so you will get to try it. :)

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  13. Where to buy the Qing Long vegetable in Singapore?

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    1. According to

      http://www.luxuryhaven.co/2015/10/green-dragon-vegetables-with-jin-hua-ham-recipe.html

      you can buy it online.

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  14. Hello, just want to say that in July 2016 NTUC Singapore finally started selling it. It isn't cheap and the veg wasn't fresh but it's still really nice. I first had it at a restaurant a few months back.

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