Hi Ann,
I find the happa daikon to have a wee bit of a bite to them, but nothing too serious. Regular daikon and happa daikon do not have the same hairy leaf as a regular radishes.
We use them two ways: 1. Chopped up in miso shiro (soup).
2. Finely chopped, stir fried with a little sake and carmelized with soya sauce. You could add a little heat to the dish with some hot peppers. A side dish to be eaten with rice.
It seems in some parts of Japan that people simply through away the leaf portion of a daikon radish-such a waste- and are thus quite surprised when we tell them that you can eat them. In addition, most have not heard of happa daikon.
One variety of the top of my head is called hattorikun-from either Sakata or Takii. I don't think they are hybrids so you should beable to save the seed. I will check at hope to see what else I have. I try to harvest the leaves once the root gets to the size of a pencil or so. We also eat the root in miso shiro, too.
