Asian Vegetables

Hi Nesa,
   I have been in your beautiful city three times and loved it. I have also 
spent a lot of time in other areas of Southeast Asia such as Vietnam and 
Thailand so I am familiar with your climate. All of my experience in growing 
vegetables however has been here in the Seattle area of Washington State. 
This area is famous for its cool cloudy weather and the hot season vegetables 
such as bitter melon and yard long beans won't grow here at all. Cool season 
vegetables such as Choy Sum, Gai Lan, Bok Choy and Chinese Cabbages do great 
during our relatively long cool springs and falls. If I try to plant them 
during our very brief summers during July and August they almost immediately 
bolt and go to seed before they ever get big enough to eat. This would seem 
to suggest that they couldn't be grown at all in your hot climate but I have 
seen them growing in small farmers fields all over Southeast Asia. I think 
that they must have locally adapted varieties available to them. If you can 
get out into some of the areas surrounding the city where you will probably 
find small farmers growing for market. Talk to them about what varieties they 
are growing. I don't know how free you are to travel but I bet that if you 
cross the Straight into Malaysia you would find many small farmers growing 
produce to be shipped into Singapore. This is what I find the most 
fascinating about all of Southeast Asia. You can find many people growing 
vegetables for sale on plots of land that we would consider to small to even 
bother with. Many times right in the middle of some of the largest cities.

Hope this helps some,
Bruce Stayner
Seattle,Wahington
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