Chinese Smashed Cucumbers, pai huang gua, is showing its trendy side in New York this summer, says an article titled Smashed Cucumber Salad Takes Manhattan published in The New York Times Tuesday.

The article said that the Chinese smashed cucumber salad tastes different to the occidental sliced cucumber salad.

Once smashed, the cucumbers are roughly sliced or broken up with the hands — even better for removing the watery seeds — then sprinkled with salt and briefly set aside. This process softens the skin, firms the flesh and turns the peel a bright and appetizing green. It’s important to use fresh, firm-fleshed cucumbers; old soft ones will turn to mush.

The Chinese staple cucumber salad, pai huang gua, is dressed with a vinaigrette of soy sauce, rice or black vinegar, garlic and sesame oil. In the North and West, chiles and sometimes Sichuan peppercorns are often added.

Smashed cucumbers have long been found at local Chinese restaurants, like Xi’an Famous Foods. But this summer, they are suddenly everywhere in New York.

“There’s something about the roughness, and the variety of shapes and sizes that you get with smashing that is incredibly satisfying,” said Julia Goldberg, a sous-chef who devised the dish with Brooks Headley, the chef and owner of Superiority Burger.

Ms. Goldberg has figured out some useful tweaks to the usual method. She smashes the cucumbers inside a sealed plastic bag to keep the seeds from flying everywhere, and uses the same bag, filled with ice, as a weight on top of the draining cucumbers to make them even colder and crunchier.

“I love the idea of manipulating an ingredient with my hands instead of a knife for once,” she said.