Japanese daikon

Julie,

If they're shaped like logs, they indeed are daikon, as Seppo pointed out. If
they are shaped like, but larger than radishes, they are called "kabu" in
Japanese. As a Japanese food enthusiast, (it's Mom and Grandma's cooking for
me -- a Japanese-American that happened to be lucky enough to grow up in Japan,
surrounded by my Mom's family who's been involved with the Japanese food
industry for more than a century) I use daikon frequently, both cooked and
raw. Shredded (or finely julienned) daikon is great to use in salads, while
there are hundreds of recipes for cooked daikon.

Here's a tip that the Japanese like to keep for themselves: we grate the
bottom ends of daikon when we make daikon-oroshi (literally grated daikon)
because the bottom tips have a horseradish-y bite while daikon tops are sweeter
and juicier because of its higher water content -- try it! You can get
different flavors, therefore different uses, out of one single daikon. Daikon-
oroshi is frequently used as a condiment for fried, oily dishes -- combined
with tempura dipping sauces, eaten with oily fishes like salmon, topped over
katsu (deep-fried) dishes, etc.

Although kabu has similar color and texture as daikon, do *not* use them
interchangably.

Hope this helps!

Cathy