Daikon Radishes and China Town

This morning I noticed that my daikon radishes were getting crowded. So I picked every other one. Their foliage had grown together and it was hard to get them apart without breaking the leaves of the ones I wanted to leave behind. I’ve never grown these types of radishes before, so I’m treating them like my regular radishes. I keep radishes fairly close together at the start and thin them when I can get the first little roots out of them. So now the radishes are about 5” apart as opposed to 2 ½. If they act like other radishes then they will take off in the next couple of weeks. One of the radishes was already a little over an inch wide.

I don’t usually cook with daikon radishes, but I love the pickled ones from Korean restaurants. So that is what I made. I have to let it sit for a day before it is ready, so I’m impatiently waiting.

I also picked a tatsoi that is starting to bolt. I’ve been stealing its outside leaves for a couple of weeks, so it probably isn’t as big as it would have been, but my salads appreciated the theft. I still think its rosette looks so pretty.

This afternoon we made an unexpected trip to Chinatown. Our friends wanted to go out for dim sum, so of course we all said yes. There is nothing my family likes more than a good pork bun or maybe a shrimp dumpling. Afterwards some went home but the rest of us stayed to take a look at the new park created by the Big Dig (Boston’s central artery was put underground). Parts of it are still being planted and very messy, but most of it was finished (though the trees could use a good 15-20 years growth). I thought a lot of the plantings were boring. Very monoculture. I suppose it is easier to take care of that way, but it doesn’t have much interest. Other parts were quite nice and they had some really beautiful blue irises. My favorite part of the trip was not the new green space at all, but an old one near Long Wharf. There is a beautiful arbor with wisteria growing up it. Sadly only parts of it were in bloom right now, but the parts that were smelled heavenly.