Napa cabbage when used as food. The Japanese name for this specific variety of cabbage is hakusai (), a Sino-Japanese reading of the Chinese name "báicài" (), literally "white vegetable". The Korean name for napa cabbage, baechu (), is a nativized word from the Sino-Korean reading, "baekchae", of the same Chinese character sets. Today in Mandarin Chinese, napa cabbage is known as dàbáicài (), literally "big white vegetable", as opposed to the "small white vegetable" that is known in English as bok choy. Outside of Asia, this vegetable is also referred to as Chinese cabbage. Regionally, it is also known as sui
Fat choy Fat choy Fat choy (; "Nostoc flagelliforme") is a terrestrial cyanobacterium (a type of photosynthetic bacteria) that is used as a vegetable in Chinese cuisine. When dried, the product has the appearance of black hair. For that reason, its name in Chinese means "hair vegetable." When soaked, fat choy has a soft texture which is like very fine vermicelli. Fat choy grows on the ground in the Gobi Desert and the Qinghai Plateau. Over-harvesting on the Mongolian steppes has furthered erosion and desertification in those areas. The Chinese government has limited its harvesting, which has caused its price to increase.