When I decided that what Chew.hu – and the world – really needed was a comprehensive English-language encyclopedia of Hungarian food and drink, I assumed the work involved would be painstaking but relatively uncomplicated. After all, how difficult is it to figure out the name of some food or beverage, how it is commonly consumed in Hungary, and then write it up in English? To answer these questions, I present to you the above picture.
As I snapped the shot a few months back, I figured the item in question was some kind of giant retek (radish), and that when I showed it to one of the local members of the Chew.hu team, they would quickly sort out just what kind of retek it was. No such luck; all I got was “Oh, I know what it’s called, but I can’t think of it right now” and “Well, it’s a giant radish.” One even suggested they were jégcsapretek – the long, pointy radishes whose most common name in Hungary literally translates as “icicle radish” – even though the things clearly were more like snowballs than icicles.
 Radish fetish: Whatever my mystery retek was, it was clearly neither a normal red retek (above) nor the distinctive “icicle radish,” or jégcsapretek. |
As a believer in doing a job right (and a long-time lover of radishes) I went back to the market and enquired at several stalls selling the item about what exactly they were called – and got a different answer from every peddler of the big crunchy orbs. Then, on my way home, I bumped into a friend on the metro, who assured me that she was a regular walking encyclopedia on Hungarian food matters, and would have no problem telling me the proper name of the item I was about to show her. (“Oh, no – I just had these at my grandparents’ house a few weeks back…. what the hell are they called?”)
Undeterred, I asked my friends at the popular Hungarian-language blog Kispad.hu to quiz their readers about what the mystery radish is properly called, and how it is best eaten. Given the gravity of the issue, I waited a month to let the resulting comment thread play out.
The first name suggested was vajretek (literally “butter radish”), the commenter saying this is what the vegetable is called where they buy it. But that answer was quickly deemed incorrect. The next name mentioned was vajrépa (“butter carrot”), but another commenter said that was also untrue, pointing to an allegedly indispensable Hungarian website about vegetable-related questions – Terebess.hu – which claims the name is actually fehér gömbölyű téli retek, literally “white round winter radish.” And if fehér gömbölyű téli retek seems like a mouthful, the Latin name offered on the site was even worse: Raphanus sativus L. convar. niger provar. subrotundus albus DC.
Yet even this seemingly irrefutable answer was not enough to shut the discussion down, as other commenters began to weigh in with yet more new names, or to vouch for other names already put forth. Several continued to insist on vajretek or vajrépa, while kerekrépa (“round carrot”) was one of the more memorable new entrants kicked around and then out.
Finally, the name appeared that I’d been secretly hoping for the whole time: sörretek. This beautiful word – which literally means “beer radish” – had been offered to me by the most convincing of the market-hall people I’d quizzed, and, well, it just sounded right to me. By the end of the thread, there seemed to be a consensus in favor of sörretek, which is what we have ended up using in the encyclopedia, along with the a.k.a. vajretek.
So what broader lessons can we learn from this unusual and maybe eccentric-seeming exercise?
First, it illustrates the relative richness of Hungarian food culture; you are more likely to argue about what to call something in the national kitchen if the kitchen is pretty well stocked. Meanwhile, the lack of a consensus over our radish indicates that regional differences may be at work; no doubt back in the day when everyone was eating radishes like this, what they were called near the border with Austria was different from what they were called in the far reaches of Transylvania. And maybe still are.
On the other hand, the inability of some folks I grilled to even get as far as vajretek also suggests that the growing variety of fresh vegetables and other eatables available in Hungary is causing some younger Hungarians to lose touch with some of the food traditions of their elders. My guess is that if I’d popped the same quiz 20 or 40 years ago, everyone I asked would at least have known their own word for what would have been an important seasonal staple. This alone indicates the importance of cataloguing such traditional foods using things like our encyclopedia, lest Hungary’s magnificent culinary heritage be lost.
Now, as for how to best eat a sörretek/vajretek, I’ll leave that to you. But from my own experience you can’t go wrong with a pinch of salt, maybe a thin slathering of butter, and a big glass of beer, preferably Hungarian.
It’s a turnip. There are lots of varieties – this looks like the all white Thompson and Morgan Turnip. Problem is they go out of season so early.
http://www.mariquita.com/recipes/turnips.html
We wash the greens, fast blanch them, and stir fry them, serve with oyster sauce chinese style.
The bulbs get sliced into salads or diced, boiled and served in miso soup.
yeah, i agree with dumni. looks like a turnip for sure. another decent way to eat em: http://splendidtable.publicradio.org/recipes/vegetable_turnips.html
The greens also do a great version of italian “cimine” – blanch them, saute in olive oil, add a bit of garlic, and serve with orchiette pasta or any nice big pasta shell.
Hungarian grocers usually discard the greens after you buy the veg. We actually get the greens for free sometimes at Bosznyak ter market by asking the veg sellers if we can take away the discarded green tops “for our pet rabbits.” It works.
Fresh radish tops work well as well, but you need to blanch them in well salted water to get rid of the soapy taste.
It is a Japanese or Chinese Daikon. You may want to check out the following website:http://www.plantnames.unimelb.edu.au/Sorting/Raphanus.html#sativus-niger.
But it is defeninately not a niger, because they have a blackish colour.
No, daikon is “jegcsapretek” in Hungarian and “daikon” in Nihongo-ul.
The round while vegtable tennis balls pictured are called “kabu” in Japanese. Kabu/turnip gets softer when cooked and is considered sweeter. Daikon is more watery. I get this info from the Edoko robot sitting next to me dictating this info.
I quit.
Just some search suggestions, I always find Google images the best ways to home in for translations of difficult to describe objects/processes.
Put in “retek fajták” and you get a pretty good list that takes you to the translation offered over at Kispad (http://www.terebess.hu/tiszaorveny/zoldseg/retek.html ).
If as Dumneazu indicated you want the seeds to grow these yourself (or send back to someone in the home country), then within the white varieties (subrotundus albus) there are “Mikepércsi vaj”, “Szentesi fehér gömbölyű”… see http://www.hermesmag.hu/%C3%BAj_lap_18.htm
Personally, the easiest way is to ask the people that grow the things at the market, they are always pleased you asked.
Yes, in Király utca I bought this as ‘sörretek’ today, but where my mum lives in the 10th district (Kőbánya) it is called ‘vajretek’ – I am told
. And doyoknow how it’s called at my nearby greengrocers: ‘jancsiretek’ wow I love it whatever it is called.
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