phak kwahng tung (ผักกวางตุ้ง)

Thai. ‘Guangdong (Kwangtung) vegetable’, usually referred to as Cantonese vegetable. General name for a leaf vegetable in the family Brassica, which has several species. Generally, the name is used to refer to the species Brassica campestris or yao choy, commonly known as Chinese mustard cabbage, which has long stalks, skinny leaves and yellow flowers. It is very similar to another member of the Brassica family, but without the yellow flowers, i.e. Brassica alboglabra, which is commonly known as Chinese broccoli and in Thai as kha-nah (fig.). Other members in this family include Brassica chinensis or bok choy, which is known by the common name Chinese cabbage and has two varieties, i.e. phak kahd khao kwahng tung, with broad green leaves and white petioles (fig.), and phak kahd kiyaw kwahng tung, with both green leaves and green petioles (fig.). It is sometimes called phak kwahng tung hong te (ผักกวางตุ้งฮ่องเต้), or simply hong te (ฮ่องเต้), with hong te being Thai for Huang Di (皇帝), a Chinese term that refers to any sovereign of Imperial China between 221 BE and 1916 AD, and could thus be translated as ‘Imperial Guangdong vegetable’. When still small it may additionally be referred to as baby hong te (เบบี้ฮ่องเต้). 回