Cucumber

UAE-grown cucumbers, picked young. Thin skin, small seeds, and crisp enough that most households here eat them the way you would eat fruit — washed, cold, cut into batons.

They belong in every Levantine salad, in raita and khyar bi laban, in a lunchbox, and on a mezze plate next to labneh. Because the skin is thin there is no need to peel, and peeling costs you most of the crunch.

Choose cucumbers that are firm from end to end, with no soft or yellowing tip. Yellow means it stayed on the vine too long and the seeds have hardened.

The fridge, but not the coldest part of it — cucumbers get water-damaged below about 7°C and go translucent. The door shelf or a salad drawer is right.

Keep them dry. A damp cucumber in a sealed bag goes slimy in two days.

Five to seven days refrigerated.