Wasabi peas
Pea break
by Michelle Chihara
When hankering for snack foods, Americans rarely reach for dried peas.
Especially not dried peas covered in hot green Japanese mustard.
Our loss. Wasabi peas -- also packaged as "roasted hot green peas," and
sometimes labeled with the wonderfully translated-from-the-Japanese tag line "A
happy present from the earth" -- are dried green peas coated with wasabi, the
fiery Japanese condiment. Roasted into salty snacks, the peas turn out spicy
and crunchy, like little sinus-clearing nuts. After one handful, it becomes
very difficult to resist the next. Happy, indeed.
Wasabi peas are available at most stores that sell Japanese snack foods. We
got ours at the Japonaise Bakery and Café, 1020 Beacon Street, in
Brookline.
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