Q I KEEP seeing pak choi in the supermarkets – can you tell me something about it?

Kath, Acocks Green.

A PAK choi is an Oriental cabbage which can be eaten raw in salads or cooked. It has a delicate flavour rather like lettuce, the leaves are soft and succulent with crispy white stems and take very little cooking.

The delicate flavour works really well with fish and meat. Pak choi is widely used in Chinese cookery but is now becoming popular in the UK, mainly due to our love of Chinese food. Pak choi is available in most supermarkets but Chinese supermarkets tend to offer many different varieties.

* Luke Tipping is head chef at Simpson’s Restaurant, 20 Highfield Road, Edgbaston. 0121 454 3434 or www.simpsonsrestaurant.co.uk If you’ve got a culinary question for Luke, email paul.fulford@birminghammail.net or write to Paul Fulford, Birmingham Mail, Floor 6, Fort Dunlop, Fort Parkway, Birmingham B24 9FF.