Radishes

What’s black and white and red all over? Multicolored, multipurpose, multicultural radishes. But say “radish” to Americans of English or French descent, and what probably pops to mind is a cheery little crimson ball or a scarlet-tipped white oval. For some others—of Korean or Japanese heritage, for example—the word is more likely to conjure up images of tapered white cylinders or stubby green oblongs. People of Russian or Hungarian descent might picture turnip shapes, dark as charcoal. And the radish-loving Chinese might envision a half-dozen types, including softball-size globes with flesh of shocking pink (at right) or lime. Although all Raphanus sativus started out in the Old World, it has been cultivated and modified so extensively over such a vast area for so many centuries that its original birthplace and form are not known.