By Barbara Damrosch
Crisp, crunchy, tangy, zippy, zesty, snappy, peppy, pungent, piquant and sparkly. These are some of the adjectives that the United Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Association, in a 1977 pamphlet, proposed to radish growers for marketing their product. Radishes “give zing to salads,” the association wrote.
Well grown and well displayed, radishes sell themselves. I think of exquisite, bunched French Breakfast radishes heaped high in an outdoor market stall, their leaves a healthy green, their small, red, white-tipped cylindrical roots firm and inviting. No need to label them “piquant.” But cooks aren’t always familiar with the full range of radish types, beyond the little red balls served at Thanksgiving. Some are hard to come by unless you grow your own.
