Cool, crisp with lots of crunch

This is definitely a favorite summer vegetable in China, where it is treated with a lot of respect. Unlike Western chefs who view the cucumber as mainly a salad ingredient, Chinese cooks use the cucumber in many different ways.

It is eaten raw, pickled, stir-fried, and cooked in soups.

There are many different types of cucumber available in the markets, from the foot-long telegraph cucumbers, to fat, speckled dark green on white varieties. There is also the current crowd pleaser - short, straight green cucumbers that are mainly burpless.