If you've ever been to a Korean restaurant, you were probably presented with an array of side dishes (banchan) to accompany your meal. I love the side dishes as much as the main meal (though it gets close if the main meal is kalbi or bulgogi.); together, they make a great combination: a hot main meal that contrasts nicely with the cold, vinegary, often fermented banchan. The most well known example of banchan is kimchi, spicy fermented vegetables; the background of the above photo is some kimchi I bought from a store made from napa cappage, which is a classic kimchi ingredient. 
Another dish I love that my favorite Korean barbeque place serves (the New Jang Su, for those of you in the Boston metro area) is pickled daikon slices. Daikon is a mild large white radish most frequently associated with Japanese and Korean cuisine. I've also eaten daikon in mooli parathas, which is small pieces of daikon (mooli) in an Indian flatbread (paratha).
Pickled daikon can be addictive - the vinager and sugar combination mellows out the radishy sharpness of the daikon. With a little help from the internet and some experimentation, I present my version of pickled daikon, shown in the top photograph in the foreground (if anyone knows the Korean name for this dish, please let me know!):Pickled daikon
-0.5lb daikon (one smallish root, 2.5" dia, 10" long - scale up the entire recipe if your daikon is bigger)
-1tsp kosher salt (I used coarse sea salt since I didn't have kosher salt at hand and I think it worked out fine)
Korean red pepper to taste (I didn't have any of this, so I used Penzey's aleppo pepper, which I thought worked well. Other recipes suggest a bit of cayenne pepper as another possible substitute.)
3 tbsp white vinegar
1 tsp rice vinegar (optional; you can change the ratio of white vinegar to rice vinegar to suit your tastes. I find the flavor of rice vinegar alone to be a bit strong.)
3 tbsp white sugar
1. Slice daikon into slices as thin as possible. You should be able to see through the slices, as seen in the above picture. You could also cut the daikon in strips, but I like the way the slices look.
2. Salt daikon slices and let sit for ten minutes.
3. Rinse daikon and put in bowl.
4. Toss in pepper
5. Add everything else (both vinegars and sugar)
6. If liquid is level is too low, add a bit of water.
7. Cover and let daikon sit overnight in refrigerator in vinegar and sugar mix.
According to what I've read, the daikon should be good for a few days stored in the refrigerator.
Aww, look at the picture of the baby daikon radish on my chopsticks!
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