Varieties

Radish varieties can be grouped by season—spring, summer, winter, fall—or physical properties. I prefer the latter. Westerners are most familiar with table radishes, also referred to as spring or summer radishes. These are the small, jewel-toned, white-fleshed varieties with bushy green tops. In Asian cuisines, large, long radishes with white or white-and-green skin are prepared in myriad ways. Coarse-skinned black orbs with ivory flesh are common in eastern Europe and Russia.