daikon

Daikon
A pile of daikon radishes.
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Eudicots
(unranked):	Rosids
Order:	Brassicales
Family:	Brassicaceae
Genus:	Raphanus
Species:	R. sativus
Variety:	R. sativus var. longipinnatus[1]
Trinomial name
Raphanus sativus var. longipinnatus L.H.Bailey

Daikon (from Japanese ダイコン (daikon^?), literally "large root"), Raphanus sativus var. longipinnatus, is a mild-flavored, very large, white East Asian radish. Despite being known most commonly by its Japanese name, it did not originate in Japan, but rather in continental Asia.

Although there are many varieties of daikon, the most common in Japan, the Aokubi Daikon, has the shape of a giant carrot, approximately 20 to 35 cm (8 to 14 inches) long and 5 to 10 cm (2 to 4 inches) in diameter. One of the most unusually shaped varieties of daikon is the Sakurajima from Kagoshima Prefecture, shaped like an oversized turnip with white outside and bright pink inside.

The flavour is generally rather mild compared to smaller radishes.

Names

Daikon is also known by other names, including winter, Japanese, Oriental, or Chinese radish; mooli or muli in Hindi, Punjabi, Urdu, and Bihari; mula in Oriya, Assamese, Marathi and Bengali; muula in Nepali; moorro in Gujarati; mullangi in Tamil, Telugu and Kannada; mu in Korean; bai luobo (白萝卜) in Mandarin Chinese; lobak, loh bak, lo-bok, or lo baak in Cantonese; labanos in Tagalog; daigo in Chamorro[from the Pacific Island of Guam]; and rabu, phakkat-hua, or củ cải trắng in Vietnamese.^[2]

Culture

The examples and perspective in this article may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please improve this article and discuss the issue on the talk page.

Sakurajima daikon

The variety 'Long White Icicle' is available as seed in Britain, and will grow very successfully in Southern England, producing roots resembling a parsnip by midsummer in good garden soil in an average year.

Storage

The roots can be stored for some weeks without the leaves if lifted and kept in a cool dry place. If left in the ground the texture tends to become woody, but the storage life of untreated whole roots is not long.^{[clarification needed]}

Nutritional information

Daikon is very low in food energy. A 3 ounce (85 g) serving contains only 18 Calories (75 kJ) but provides 34 percent of the RDA for vitamin C. Daikon also contains the active enzyme myrosinase.

Notes

1. ^ Mish, Frederick C., Editor in Chief. “Daikon.” Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary. 9^th ed. Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster Inc., 1985. ISBN 0-87779-508-8, ISBN 0-87779-509-6 (indexed), and ISBN 0-87779-510-X (deluxe).
2. ^ Charmaine Solomon, Encyclopedia of Asian Food, Periplus 1998.

External links

• Asian Radish at NutritionData.com

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