There are lots of "spinach" substitutes. Malabar spinach (Basella rubra), Vegetable amaranth/Chinese spinach (Amaranthus tricolor), Ceylon spinach (Basella alba), Okinawan spinach (Gynura crepioides), New Zealand spinach (Tetragonia tetragonoides) etc. As noted noted Swiis Chard and beet greens (Beta vulgaris) can be sustituted. Mustard spinach (Brassica rapa var. komatsuna) is also used as a substitute in some situations. While no spinach (Spinacia oleracea) gets to be a big tall plant, some do better than others. Skookum, Hellcat, Teton, do pretty well for me.

I don't think "tswan chi" is malabar spinach. The leaves are similar, but the flowers are different: Madeira-vine (Anredera cordifolia¡]Ten.¡^Steenis) = "tswan chi", "teng san chi", or "yang luo kuei" http://www.yctsayl.idv.tw/html/9d/9d001.htm http://www.wretch.cc/blog/leontsai&article_id=7383586 Propagation: by cutting or bulblets, the plants rarely set seeds http://www.tndais.gov.tw/Veggie/E10.htm http://goods.ruten.com.tw/item/show?11070212191297 ----------------------------------------------------------- Malabar Spinach or Ceylon spinach (Basella rubra) = "Huang Gong Tsai" (means Emperor palace vegetables) or "luo kuei" Propagation: by cutting or seeds http://www.yctsayl.idv.tw/html/9d/9d000.htm

I like the taste raw too. It's quite high in oxalates so not for everyday eating but in a salad every now and then, yum. My son likes it cooked, added to a stir fry right towards the end of cooking. Personally, I find the texture, when cooked, rather unpleasant. The red-stemmed variety (Basella rubra), if you can get it, looks great in the garden. Edens sell the seeds and claim it's the red-stemmed one but when my son grew it from their seeds, he only got the white-stemmed variety (Basella alba).

I usually sow them in punnets early in the season but they don't mind being sown in situ. Usually you can start picking leaves in about 2 months and keep on harvesting until late autumn. They do self-seed readily but as I keep the garden mulched, I don't get many volunteers (one of the drawbacks of mulches...). They are also resistant to insects, birds, rats etc, etc... In Paris, in African grocery shops, I saw bags of powdered Molokheya leaves - a rather unattractive vivid green powder which is used to thicken stews and sauces. Rose-Marie