Fuchsia Dunlop

Interesting. I think I wrote you an email about this topic recently, so happy to see an “authoritative” answer, and this confirms my suspicion that, as with many Chinese vegetables, there is great regional variation as to what things are called.

The type I’ve seen sold as 蒜苗 here in California, with the English description “Taiwan Leek”, looks more like the type on the right. My in-laws (who came from Shanghai, though my mother-in-law grew up in Vietnam, and her family is from Guangzhou) both say that 蒜苗 refers to the young stem, similar in appearance to 韭菜花, but often with a curved stem — I guess what you’d call a “garlic scape” in English.

Here in California (where garlic can grow year-round, and where a lot of Asian vegetables are imported), I’ve been able to get green garlic at the Asian market through the winter; sometimes the bulbs seem a bit over-developed, or have even been cut off, though. At the farmers markets, it seems to be much more seasonal.

In Sichuan and Hunan, are these available year-round, and if not, what do people usually use instead?

The ones I get can be seen (sort of) in this picture:
http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6240/6351794523_39c970343d_z.jpg

In America, suan miao are commonly referred to as “garlic greens”, and are fairly easy to find in urban farmers markets when in season.

I was rather confused by your description of suan miao in your book, because where father is from (Jinan) “suan miao” is produced at home by soaking garlic cloves in water until they sprout; when the green sprouts reach about 4-6 inches, they are snipped, chopped, and used as a wonderfully pungent garnish or topping. It’s completely impractical to do this at the scales needed for twice-cooked pork, and it wouldn’t have the required texture either. However, you can grow them indoors at any time of the year, and it’s been a nice treat since moving into an apartment building with no garden.

I think I need to take a trip to a Chinese supermarket soon, these look like fine additiion to one of your recipes. I have got lots of Chinese vegetable seeds to grow on my allotment this year. One of them is Chinese celery which I have never had before. I could do with some of these garlic stems too!

This is very helpful, as I always wondered what green garlic even looked like. The garlic stems are easily found in Berlin, as they are common in vietnamese cuisine as well, but I don’t think I’ve seen green garlic around here. Well, at least now I know what to look out for!

@Postercowboy — Just be aware that “garlic chives” — jiǔ cài (韭菜; gow choy), often called Chinese leek, look very similar to the picture on the left. However, they are not the same thing.

Jiucai can be either green or yellow (I believe the latter are cloaked from the sun), and can come with or without a flower on the top.

Just to add to Will’s comment:

‘garlic chives’ look a bit similar from a distance, but if you go closer you’ll see they have flat, spear-like leaves, whereas the garlic stems are round and thick, like stems. As Will says, they can be either green, or very pale yellow (these are blanched like chicory). The ones that have flower buds on top are flowering chives (韭菜花）, and they are thinner, shorter and less ROUND than garlic stems – the stems tend to be less smooth,so if you hold one in your hand you can feel its edges.

There will be pictures of all of these in my forthcoming book. I may try to post a photo of the chive varieties at some point in the meantime.

@Dan L. thanks for the tip on at-home sprouting. I had a recently purchased garlic head which must have been a bit old (and un-treated), as it started to sprout right in the drawer. I sprouted a few cloves in water, and within a few days, I had some small sprouts. They were delicious with savory steel-cut oats, and in a wheat-gluten “intestine” stir-fry.