This cold Chinese salad is adapted from Buwei Yang Chao’s 1945 cookbook How to Cook and Eat in Chinese.

40 small radishes

1 -sp. salt

½ Tbs. soy sauce

1½ Tbs. rice vinegar

1½ Tbs. sugar

2 tsp. sesame oil

Note – Double the sauce ingredients if the round radishes are relatively large.

Wash the radishes and cut off both ends. Use the back or side of a heavy knife (or anything heavy and flat) and smash each radish gently. Do not break it into small pieces, but leave it so that you can still pick each up as a whole radish. The idea is to create some more surface area for the dressing.

Mix in 1 tsp. salt and let it stand for 5 min. Then mix in the soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, and sesame oil.  Chill until ready to serve.