Sometimes Foodie: Pea Crackers (Original Garlic Flavor)- Asian Food Market: Cherry Hill, NJ

Pea Crackers (Original Garlic Flavor)- Asian Food Market: Cherry Hill, NJ

Remember these from my last food haul? The twisted shape looks just like Fritos Flavor Twists, reviewed here, but the name has me pretty confused. Are these made with peas? I figure the light yellow colored crisps can't be made with any kind of green pea, so does this mean these snacks are made with chickpeas? I guess we'll find out!

The packaging is the same as any other savory snack, it's a foiled and heat-sealed bag, but I feel like the design is very Americanized. This is a Taiwanese product, but the color choices look just like the branding for Cheetos, and the bag's sunburst background looks dynamic like Dorito's. I was able to find an old picture of this product before the design change, and it looks like they are aiming for a younger market. I think the design works pretty well, and the bright colors definitely caught my eye when I was walking down the snack aisle.

As you can see, there are no pictures of peas on the package. Only garlic. (Which I am totally okay with.)
So, what are Pea Crackers made of?

According to the ingredients list:

Pea, Palm Oil, Corn Starch, Wheat Flour, Tapioca Starch, Salt, Sugar, Garlic Powder, Sodium Bicarbonate, ~~tons of fun chemicals and additives that I don't feel like typing up~~, Natural Garlic Flavoring, and Silicone Dioxide.
It's fair to say the ingredients are little to no help in figuring out what kind of "pea" is used in this product, but whatever it may be, it's pretty processed. (Like all junk food.)

Once the bag was opened I could smell garlic salt and this oily aroma that reminds me of the Umaibo Sticks I reviewed a few years ago. I enjoyed a few different flavors of Umaibo Sticks, but their scent was really processed and artificial, so it was my least favorite thing about them. Other than the garlic, I wouldn't say these smell appealing.

As I poured the pea snacks into my container I could see that the spiral shape is really similar to the Fritos Twists, but the curl is a little looser and the edges are a bit more square.

I picked one up, and I was impressed by the light and airy feel of these snacks. I am not sure how these are fried, or in what, but the little crisps really do feel cracker like. If I had to compare the texture to anything, it would be the fried noddles that come with duck sauce in Americanized Chinese food.

Surprisingly, the garlic flavoring is really nice and strong, without being too artificial or overbearing. (Then again I am Italian and I eat garlic like there's no tomorrow.) The initial garlic flavoring comes from the powdery coating on the outside of the crisp, but the cracker itself also has a hint of garlic oil.

After munching on a few of these curls I can only assume that the "pea" used in this snack was chickpeas, since the overall flavoring reminds me of a garlic hummus, but I could be wrong.

As someone who loves garlic, I really enjoyed these snacks. These little curls have a light dusting of translucent garlic powder, so you can look forward to licking stain-free garlic-y fingers once you're done snacking, but these will also leave a pretty strong flavor in your mouth, and your breath is going to be lethal. Make sure you can brush your teeth or chew gum after snacking, or you won't be making any friends. Other than that, I highly recommend these little snacks, and I am looking forward to trying the wasabi version next.