Houttuynia

Heat and fat are the only thing that gets a genuinely fishy-tasting root onto most tables at all.

A sharp cold dressing is the standard treatment, acid doing most of the work against the funk.

Raw sulfur against raw fish-note pungency; the two funks somehow read as one dish.

Numbing tingle distracts from a flavour some diners never get past.

Salt grounds a root that otherwise tastes like it wandered in from the seafood counter.

Crushed and scattered over the cold-dressed root, fat and crunch soften the fishiness considerably.

Two polarising herbs stacked; if you can eat one you can usually eat both.

Leaning into the fishiness rather than fighting it, the pairing reads as consistent rather than strange.

Funk against funk, barnyard dairy and a fish-scented root, an idea no tasting menu has plated yet.