New year, new tastes

Peak season

Baby bok choy: Bok choy has made it into the American produce mainstream, but other Asian brassicas -- a family of green vegetables including cabbages, mustard greens and broccolis -- still seem a little exotic. That’s even true for baby bok choy, also called Shanghai. The two bok choys share mildly sweet, slightly cabbage-y flavors, but baby bok choy seems to be a little more flavorful, despite it’s diminutive size. It’s not really a baby, of course, it’s just smaller even at full maturity. Baby bok choy has wide, spoon-shaped stems and pale green leaves. Though bok choy is usually sold by the head, baby bok choy is sold three or four heads to the bunch. Choose heads with vibrant unblemished leaves -- that’s the part that will fade fastest.

$1 per bunch, various vendors.

Yu choy: This is another Asian brassica, but one that comes from the broccoli end of the spectrum. It looks like a cross between broccoli and mustard greens, with thin, leggy stems, dark green leaves and telltale yellow flowers (it differs from Chinese broccoli in that the latter has white flowers and a bluish-green cast to its leaves). Particularly when it is grown in cool weather, yu choy has a sweet flavor with a mustardy bite. You’ll sometimes find this labeled simply choy sum, but that can also refer to some other vegetables with stalks and leaves.

$1 per bunch, various vendors.

Pummelo: Giant golden pummelos are a popular symbol of plenty at Chinese New Year celebrations. Though they are relative newcomers to California farmers markets, pummelos are among the oldest of the citrus fruits. Along with the much more common mandarin and the seldom seen citron, pummelos are the parent fruits from which are descended all other citrus -- lemons, limes, oranges and grapefruit. Pummelos look like gargantuan grapefruits. Though most grapefruits are softball-sized, pummelos can weigh up to 20 pounds or more. Typically, most of that weight is pith. What meat there is in a pummelo tends to be dense and dry. This sounds unpleasant, but because of this texture, pummelos can be separated into segments and then the juice-filled segments, or vesicles, can be “crumbled” into dishes, lending a mildly tart accent. The most popular pummelo is the Chandler, which was developed in the 1960s by two University of California plant breeders, who then went on to develop the Oroblanco and Melogold, popular pummelo-grapefruit crosses.

$1.50 per pound, various vendors.

-- Russ Parsons