Cool and thanks. I just bought a Japanese cooking magazine in midtown and they mentioned Nira. I was just about to use Scallions, but I will head to Sunrise Mkt now.

These are super easy to grow. They come back every spring in our herb garden.

Many of the buildings in my area grow these in their front gardens. They have little purple flowers growing off of them and you can smell them for sure when walking by.

Nice picture. Based on the appearance and @caliH's comments, I wonder if they are related to society garlic.

we have these growing along our fence. When our neighbor mows the lawn along the fence, our backyard smells like garlic...

These are weeds in my garden - I can't get rid of them! Think they'd make a good pesto?

I love garlic chives (gau choi in Cantonese). I find them to be really versatile and always use them in my potsticker fillings, sometimes wontons too, they're great in pad thai and pajon as well as a simple stir-fry with shrimp or even just stir-fried with bean sprouts (but trimmed of the ratty tail and mushy/grainy heads, please!!).

Aha! I bought these labeled as 'chives' from a Hmong farmer at the market. I thought they were rather flat for chives, but used them in homemade chevre gnocchi.

I also love them in a stir-fry. Chopped bite-sized along with a quick saute of garlic and a drizzle of soy sauce with rice wine ... ... So fresh, simple, and delish!

I used these for the first time in my latest batch of cucumber kimchi! They really do look like grass, but they're so yummy! Unfortunately my local store sold it in such an enormous bunch that I couldn't use them all before the went bad, but both this recipe for cucumber kimchi and the kimchi fried rice are a good way to use them up!
http://theweekendgourmande.wordpress.com/2010/06/06/kitchen-firsts-making-and-cooking-with-kimchi/

I love them. I made a brilliant sauce with it, and also stirred it into my grits: http://www.burpandslurp.com/2010/04/07/spring-for-life/

Wrote a post about nira and how to use it last Fall:
http://eatbufordhighway.com/cooking/cooking-with-nira/

I always thought these were called Asian flat-leaf chives. I didn't know they were called Nira. Cool!

They are growing in my yard, and yes, they tend to take over a bit. They're all over.

I'm planning to freeze them, as you would do chives.

Or infuse them in vinegar for gifts.

Garlic Chives are, um, prolific. Mine were nearly impossible to kill (and they can take over). They are very easy to grow, and tolerate a lot. They are a great plant for a container herb garden. Just make sure to give them good drainage and they'll be in your herb garden for a long time, and produce as much as you can eat... probably more.

All the cultivars I know have white flowers; however, regular chives do have purple flowers. While regular chives have round hollow leaves, nira (garlic chives) are flat and not hollow.

Though garlic chives are invasive in that they spread very easily from seed and are prolific seed producers, there are plenty of ornamental alliums grown for their flowers. I'm not sure what the culinary worth of the ornamental varieties are. For example, ornamental sweet potato vines, though edible, apparently don't taste very good.

BTW, garlic chives are very easy to grow and are very tolerant of the conditions. They can be grown indoors and are definitely well suited to a container environment. If you dead head them, they won't spread.

For all the other names it could be going by in the ethic markets: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garlic_chives