relish, vegetable side dish that typically is eaten in small quantities with a blander main dish. Relishes are frequently finely cut vegetables or fruit in sour, sweet-sour, or spicy sauce. They often are used to enhance or to add flavour to dishes because of their contrasting texture and spicy or piquant taste.
The Indonesian and Malaysian sambal, Indian chutney, achar, and raita, and Korean kimchi are relishes that accompany virtually every meal in their respective cuisines. Lombardy in Italy specializes in mostarda di frutta, a melange of fruits preserved in a sweet syrup made sharp with mustard. In the Pennsylvania Dutch (see Pennsylvania German) cuisine of the United States, “seven sweets and seven sours” traditionally were served, among them many that are favourites throughout the country: pickled cucumbers, onions, beets, crabapples, and watermelon rind as well as mixtures of chopped vegetables such as piccalilli and chowchow.