Garlic chives, Allium tuberosum, Chinese chives, Oriental garlic, Chinese leek, the Chinese name kow choi, Japanese name nira, all represent a vegetable related to the onion.

The Chinese name for the species is variously adapted and transliterated as cuchay, jiucai, kucai, kuchay, or kutsay in countries like Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines.

It is also sometimes called “green nira grass” where “nira” is Romanization of the Japanese word meaning garlic chives. The plant has a distinctive growth habit with strap-shaped leaves which is very dissimilar to garlic and onion.

The thin straight white-flowering stalks that are much taller than the leaves. The flavor is closer to garlic than chives. It grows in slowly expanding perennial clumps or readily sprouts from seed.

Both leaves and the stalks of the flowers are used in flavoring as a stir fry ingredient.

In China, they are used with a combination of egg, shrimp and pork to make dumplings. They are a common ingredient in Chinese dumplings and the Japanese and Korean equivalents.

The flowers may also be used as a spice. The leaves of garlic chives are cut up into short pieces and used as the only vegetable in a broth made with sliced pork kidneys.

A Chinese flat bread similar to the green onion pancake is made with garlic chives. Garlic chives are also one of the main ingredients used with Yim mein dishes.

Garlic chives are widely used to make pan cakes, clear soups and many other dishes. In Nepal, cooks fry a curried vegetable dish of potatoes and A. tuberosum known as dunduko sag.

In Manipur, India, garlic chives locally known as ‘maroi nakuppi’ are widely used in Manipuri Cuisine dishes like Ooti and various others. In Philippine kutsay pies are made from garlic chives.