Rábano

Fat coats the tongue before the isothiocyanates land, so the burn stays short.

Salt draws water to the surface and the pepperiness comes with it.

Starch is the buffer; without it a plate of radishes is just repeated burn.

Acid tames the mustard oils and keeps the slices from browning at the edge.

Cultured fat does butter job and adds the acid butter cannot bring.

Two alliums-adjacent sharpnesses, but the chive is green where the radish is hot.

Crunch and acid against fatty meat; the taqueria puts it on the plate for free.

Quick-pickled, the heat drops away and only the crunch and colour survive.

Peppery isothiocyanate against pea sugar, both raw and cold.

Salt-fish glutamate makes a vegetable that is mostly water taste like food.

Toasted seed oil coats the burn and adds the nuttiness the root lacks.

Two cooling-then-sharp sensations stacked; it reads as more crunch, not more heat.

Pungent, cold, sour, thin. Four ingredients and no fat anywhere.

Peppery crunch is the correct reply to a soft sour lump.

Peppery water against saline water. The isothiocyanates work as a mignonette.

Rendered fat wants a raw bitter crunch, the way sushi wants pickled ginger.

Both green-sharp under the sugar; the radish makes the berry taste more like fruit.