Vegetables

There is a far greater variety of vegetables in China than here. Aside from having a wider range of types and numerous forms of dried and processed vegetarian products, bean curd being particularly notable, the Chinese also relish parts of vegetables generally discarded in Western cooking, such as radish greens, cucumber skins, or the red roots of spinach. For lack of proper refrigeration and transportation, however, many regional specialties never travel beyond their own provincial boundaries. Consequently, the unique flavor and texture of the blue turnips of Tientsin in the north might be totally unknown to a southerner, and by the same token, a northerner might never taste the bitter melons of the south.