Napa cabbage

Napa cabbage (Brassica rapa subsp. pekinensis or Brassica rapa Pekinensis Group) is a type of Chinese cabbage originating near the Beijing region of China that is widely used in East Asian cuisine. Since the 20th century, it has also become a widespread crop in Europe, the Americas and Australia. In much of the world, it is referred to as "Chinese cabbage". In Australia it also is referred to as "wombok". The word "napa" in the name napa cabbage comes from colloquial and regional Japanese, where nappa (菜っ葉) refers to the leaves of any vegetable, especially when used as food. The Japanese name for this specific variety of cabbage is hakusai (白菜), a Sino-Japanese reading of the Chinese name (白菜), literally "white vegetable". The Korean name for napa cabbage, baechu (배추), is a nativized word from the Sino-Korean reading, , of the same Chinese character sets. Today in Mandarin Chinese, napa cabbage is known as dàbáicài (大白菜), literally "big white vegetable", as opposed to the "small white vegetable" that is known in English as bok choy. Other names include Chihili or Michihili. Outside of Asia, this vegetable is also referred to as Chinese cabbage or sometimes celery cabbage. It is also known as siu choy (Cantonese 紹菜), wombok in Australia and wong bok or won bok in New Zealand, all corruptions of wong ngaa baak (Cantonese 黃芽白). In the United Kingdom this vegetable is known as Chinese leaf or winter cabbage, and in the Philippines as petsay (from Hokkien, 白菜 (pe̍h-tshài)) or pechay baguio. Another name used in English is petsai or pe-tsai. In Russia it is called pekinskaya kapusta (пекинская капуста), literally "Beijing cabbage". In Sweden it is known as salladskål (sallad cabbage) or sometimes kinakål (china kabbage). The first records of napa cabbage cultivation date back to the 15th century in the Yangtze River region in China. From China it later spread to Korea and Japan. Beginning in the 19th century with the Chinese diaspora, it was distributed to the rest of Asia, Europe, America as well as Australia.