A dish of Chinese chives and snails [Photo/thehour.cn]

Many vegetables are in season in spring, including lettuce, spring bamboo shoots, and Chinese chives. From early February to March, Chinese chives and snails can be cooked together, a popular delicacy during early spring.

Toward the end of spring and beginning of summer, in-season vegetables include amaranths, cowpeas, cucumbers, bitter gourds, and tomatoes, to name a few. However, these vegetables are rarely in short supply, unlike baby ginger and baby lotus root, which are in season for only a very short period of time. If you don't buy them right away, you'll have to wait until next year for another chance. Baby ginger in particular is only available in early May.

In Jinhua, a city in central Zhejiang, ginger is prepared in a variety of ways. Baby ginger can be made into a cold dish served with rice wine, or it can be cooked with sliced eel and chicken or pork.