The Mystery Produce Box: Looking Up New Food Words

Tuesday's Mystery Box

1Every Tuesday afternoon, a cardboard box of vegetables from a farm outside town lands on the Mensah family's front porch. Nadia always gets to open it. Most weeks it holds things she knows, like carrots, potatoes, and lettuce. This week was different.

2"What are these?" Nadia asked. She lifted out a pale green ball with a few leafy stems poking out of it. Under it lay a round brown root shaped like a spinning top and a white radish as long as her forearm. A bunch of leafy greens with bright red and yellow stalks was tucked along one side. The packing card listed this week's vegetables: kohlrabi, jicama, daikon, and rainbow chard.

3Nadia's little brother, Kofi, read the card out loud. "Jick-a-ma," he said slowly. Nadia was not sure that was right, and she had no idea how to say kohlrabi. Dad handed her his phone. "Let's ask the dictionary app," he said. Nadia typed in each word. Every entry showed how to say the word, and a small speaker button read it out loud. Kofi tapped the button for jicama three times and laughed. "It starts with an h sound!"

4Next, Dad cut a few slices of each vegetable for a taste test. The raw daikon tasted a little sharp and peppery. The jicama was sweet and juicy, and it crunched like an apple. Kofi said the kohlrabi reminded him of broccoli stems.

5Tucked in the box was a small recipe booklet. Nadia flipped to a recipe called Sweet and Crunchy Slaw. Step 1 said, "Julienne the jicama and kohlrabi." Step 4 said, "Season the slaw with lime juice, lime zest, and a pinch of salt." Nadia had never heard of julienne, but the booklet had a glossary at the back. She found the word there, and Dad helped her cut the vegetables into a colorful pile.

6When the vegetables were cut and mixed, Dad covered the bowl and put it in the refrigerator. "We'll dress the slaw right before dinner so it stays crunchy," he said.

7After dinner, Nadia wrote the family's weekly review card. Her first try said, "The daikon was big. The jicama was crunchy." She frowned. Those words were not wrong, but they did not paint a clear picture. She pulled the family thesaurus off the bookshelf to look for words that were more exact.