Who invented wasabi peas

At that time, in the UK, only a few aficionados of Japanese food were familiar with this potent green ingredient. Nowadays, it is a popular flavouring for snacks. In particular, wasabi peas are increasingly replacing potato crisps and salted nuts as the go-to nibbles with drinks. In this blog, we explain the origins of wasabi peas, their possible health benefits and how they can add taste and crunch to your mealtime.

It is a type of horseradish grown in Japan, whose root is harvested and turned into a paste or powder to flavour food. The paste is used as a fiery condiment, mixed with soy sauce and pickled ginger, for sushi, while the powder is often used as an ingredient or coating for crunchy snacks such as roasted or fried peas. You can even find wasabi-flavoured ice cream. As wasabi stimulates your nose more than your tongue, its taste is similar to that of hot mustard or horseradish rather than chili.

Seasoned with a little chilli powder, pepper, or wasabi, kaki no tane is often slightly spicy. The crackers are then mixed with peanuts, and the dish is usually eaten alongside drinks. A traditional Japanese treat, anpan is a bun with a sweet, sticky filling. Around Japan, you can find anpan with fillings of red bean paste, white bean paste, sesame paste, and chestnut paste.

Invented in , during the Great Japanese Empire , anpan was one of the first snacks to incorporate Western bread into Japanese cuisine. You can find them at convenience stores, supermarkets, and bakeries around Japan. Photo by Charles Kim via Flickr.

A traditional Japanese dessert, dango is a sweet rice dumpling. With a similar appearance to marshmallow, dango melts and turns golden when you toast it.

These savory pretzel sticks were first released in , making them a classic Japanese snack. New flavors appear on the market regularly.

Sampling Japanese snacks is a wonderful adventure. From the classic to the unconventional, Japanese snacks offer a delicious insight into the local culture. Senbei Photo by City Foodsters via Flickr A type of Japanese rice cracker, senbei has apparently been in existence since the 8th century. Imagawayaki Crispy on the outside, soft on the inside, imagawayaki is a popular Japanese dessert. Daifuku A popular Japanese sweet snack, daifuku is a type of mochi.

Choco Bananas Choco bananas are a simple, but popular, summer festival food in Japan. Karinto A classic Japanese dessert, is usually found at traditional cafes and ryokan. Kaki no Tane Kaki no tane is a savory snack that consists of crescent-shaped rice crackers.

Eating a piece of wasabi peas, you can easily enjoy both of these features at once. Wasabi peas are very addictive. You just can't stop once you have started. Easy to imagine, spicy wasabi peas go fine with some Japanese sake! If you love some Japanese sake, why not try some wasabi peas as an appetizer? Click to purchase some wasabi peas!

Wasabeef is a unique wasabi flavoured potato chips. Their original flavour has many big fans. The thick beefy taste and little spiciness and freshness of wasabi are worth a try. The U. Department of Agriculture's National Nutrient Database shows gives a figure of calories in grams of wasabi peas, or approximately calories per 1-ounce serving. This makes these tiny snacks very calorie-dense, meaning they contribute a lot of calories in only a small portion of food.

It's easy to eat more than a small handful of wasabi peas, so be aware of your portion size. If you're consuming excess calories and not burning them off, you'll gain weight. Legumes, such as peas, are very good sources of fiber. In just 1 ounce of wasabi peas, you'll get over a gram of fiber.