[steven]

I see what you mean, but if it's a bit of a stretch to assume that you (if you were American at least) don't know what ramen is. Again, I don't know the situation in the UK-- is it common in the UK as well?

Thanks for the picture of what you guys call flan over there!! That is quite interesting. I see those all the time in Japan and actually didn't see too many of them in America. As far as purin being 'baked' flan, they do have purin that says 'baked' on it or even 焼きプリン... they don't taste all that much different to me. I didn't realize that most of them were steamed though, so I guess that was my mistake.

A daikon is definitely a type of radish, but I wouldn't suggest that calling it a radish is a good idea. I'd say just keep the daikon term to avoid confusion. When the people you're talking to go "what's that??" you can always say "It's a type of radish". This is instead of saying "radish" and having them tell you "you're crazy". This is probably one of those cases where you do need both the Japanese and the "English" version of the word (the English version being "it's a type of radish"). Let's put it this way, try google imaging "chinese noodles", "radish", and "pumpkin" and see what comes up. Ramen will make an appearance, as will daikon (much to my chagrin)--but maybe those daikon would account for people who have heard them referred to as "radishes" when studying japanese or another language before. Try flan, too, just for kicks. I thought it would change for google.co.uk, but surprisingly it didn't really seem to make a difference (I only tested it for flan).