I wonder if y’all noticed I never mentioned what daikon radish tastes like raw. When I was chopping and grating to make the tasty things this week I took a nibble, as is tradition. They have a bit of a kick to them. You get a pleasant little pepper taste when you eat the usual red radish but nothing to like this. Daikon radish has some zing to it.
The good news is that the bite is in the skin of it though so if you just peel them, consider your tongue safer. I think I was so focused on the smell of these that I completely forgot to talk about their taste raw. I see a few recipes where people just grate them and place them into bowls of soup or noodles.
I touched on the last post about how picky I am about stuff that smells. I’m pretty sure most people are picky about this is too in a way, but you need background on my eating habits. I am absolutely not picky as to what I will try. Sure, sometimes I’ll be in the mood for something specific and refuse outright everything until Robby guesses what I want to eat (WE ALL DO THIS, DON’T LIE). However, if it does not smell appealing whatsoever, I’m just not having it. Even if it is a plate stacked with delicious looking things, I’m hesitant to try it if it smells weird.
Ok, more I think on it, that isn’t a very specific picky thing, that is just evolution. Our senses want to make sure we’re not willingly poisoning ourselves, but we are still out there eating fugu, nuclear spicy hot wings and sugar free gummi bears. We need to get over it, just like we did for the other things and try these new things. My thought as I was preparing the radish was, “how did this become a popular thing? I feel like the first person to try it had to warn others of the smell.” Here were, millenia later and still eating them. It’s tasty. The pickled mix added something you couldn’t just get from regular pickled cucumbers. The cakes were really good and I plan on eating the leftovers for lunch.
I’ll get over the smell thing one of these days, let’s try another thing tomorrow!
Try 52 