The Meinong White Radish Season opens in late autumn, offering a taste of the season's limited, understated freshness

A Seasonal, Understated Delicacy

Clear-stewed radish and pork rib soup is sweet and elegant, fried eggs with shredded radish are salty and tempting, and pickled radish is crisp and appetite-whetting. Making pork belly with preserved mustard greens using radish sprouts is always the dish children fight over at the dinner table; and stir-fried radish cubes with chili is a rice companion that never goes out of season all year round. What is more, radish sprouts steeped in water with old ginger can treat wind-cold; and the older the radish, the more fragrant it becomes, and simmered into chicken soup it has an outstanding flavor, making it a precious ingredient for nourishing the body and replenishing qi... In Meinong, an ordinary little radish can be extended into all kinds of dishes, and these are flavors that are utterly homey yet always make children's mouths water and travelers yearn for them.

The little radish that Meinong locals speak of is the "White Jade radish" that has become famous in recent years. White Jade radish is a small radish variety unique to Meinong. It was introduced from Japan a hundred years ago, took root in Meinong's soil, and grew into a flavor of its own. White Jade radish does not need to be peeled, has a sweet, delicate texture, and is full of a rich radish aroma; whether pickled or eaten fresh in soup, it is delicious. To say it is unique to Meinong is not an exaggeration at all. Perhaps Meinong's water and soil are special; it is said that aside from Meinong and the neighboring Shanlin, little radishes grown elsewhere simply taste different.

Every late autumn, farming families young and old turn out to busy themselves with the harvest, and travelers far from home rush back to taste the most familiar and longed-for flavor. White Jade radish has a short growing period and does not keep well; to eat fresh radish dishes, you can only do so during the harvest season of November and December each year, making it the most typical "seasonal limited" ingredient. Precisely because of this, even though its season comes earlier and the price is good, such a delicacy cannot be found in ordinary markets. The small figure of the White Jade radish has thus been passed down for a hundred years in farm families' small vegetable gardens and pickling jars, becoming an indispensable yet little-known understated ingredient in every household that is rarely known outside the Meinong area.