My sister did something similar the first time she encountered wasabi in a Japanese restaurant. Based on its colour & texture, she assumed it was avocado...boy, she was wrong!!! My kids love to snack on those wasabi peas, much better than chips, and waaay more exciting.

I think it's good to mix things up; we cook lots of Indian at our house, but also Asian, Mediterranean, Mexican-ish, and generic hippie stuff like stir-fries and lentil soup...it's so much fun to experiment with spices and ingredients, just dumping salt on everything shows a woeful lack of imagination to my mind!

On a somewhat slightly related note, has anyone seen the film "King Corn" yet? It's just opening at our local independent cinema this week.

~D