radis

The French love their radishes, sold in shops as a botte de radis (bunched together like a bouquet). They feature as a simple amuse-bouche, dredged in salt, or on a plate of crudités, and often used to add a colourful garnish to a dish.

The word comes from the Latin for ‘root’ (radix)— as does the word ‘radical’—politics that strike at the ‘root’ of established doctrine. In the south, older people still call them raves.

In France, under the Third Republic, they used to say ‘the radical is like the radish, red outside, white inside.’ Red for the flag of the labor movement, the white symbol of the royalists. The French Communist said the same thing about the Socialists at the time of World War I.

Both the red and black radis noir are nearly always available, and increasingly the white, or daikon, is as well.

Ne pas avoir un radis (to not have a radish) means to be completely broke.