Daikon ~ Mooli 大根

Daikon

When I came to the UK to live, I swore to live (or rather survive?) without Japanese food. Simply because I didn't think I could get hold of necessary ingredients here in London.

Soon after I arrived in the UK, a friend of mine who had been here a couple of years before myself took me to a tour around Piccadilly Circus and showed me some Japanese grocery shops as well as teaching me some tips of living in London including how to pronounce Leicester Square correctly.

My worry of not having Japanese ingredients was immediately gone but I didn't jump into Japanese food regime because yet some things seemed still wrong I thought.

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Several years have past since then, going through the time dealing with a couple of cravings of food I used to eat, I grew to become a happy Japanesey food cook and eater.

Although my old colleagues in Tokyo were half-jokingly asked if I could survive with notorious "awful English food" (and I was seriously worried), I actually like it and found that ingredients themselves here are very good and flavourful.

For example, super market chicken tastes almost as flavourful as some famous branded chicken in Japan. Carrots are rather fruity and fragrant like Yuzu citron. Pork tastes lovely, Lamb is sold everywhere (not easy to find in a normal Japanese super market or at a butcher.) Downside of it is only when I want to cook some subtle flavoured Japanese dish with a couple of different ingredients, each flavour stands out too independently and doesn't create a good harmony each other, however this is a minor issue as long as I don't cook such dishes. Besides, organic food is rather cheap and more available comparing to Japan and more tasty.

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OK, coming back to Daikon (大根)...

 

As it's often sold as Mooli, when I saw this vegetable at a suburban Tesco for the first time, I was so surprised but also quite happy because I thought it was very Japanese and didn't think just a normal Tesco would have it. Today I still feel quite happy and excited whenever I buy it. Now that I live in London, Tesco Express nearby doesn't sell Daikon unfortunately and I go to Borough Market just to buy one of them.

I like Daikon. Because Daikon is very useful. There is a variety of way of eating Daikon, cooked, raw or pickled.

One of my favourite way of cooking (if this is yet considered cooking) is Daikon Oroshi, grated Daikon. I just need to peel the skin and grate it. That's all. It will never be a main dish but nice side dish to eat with Tamago-yaki (ommlette) or with rice or by itself as a nibble.

For example, something like this. Daikon Oroshi in a flowery bowl. The front is Tamago-yaki.






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By the way, Daikon sometimes go outside the kitchen, too - in idioms:

"Daikon  Ashi" (Daikon (looking) Legs)
This might be dead word by now but it refers to fat legs, usually of women. Clearly this is not used as a compliment.

"Daikon Yakusha" (Daikon Actor)
This refers to "bad actor".  According to Wikipedia, the origin of Daikon Yakusha seems to be simply to do with a pun. One origin considered is that Daikon is highly disinfectant and never causes food poisoning no matter how it's cooked, thus doesn't "hit". Oh well.