Tempura, seaweed and wasabi are quintessential Japanese flavours. Mix them together and you get this Aji Ichiban Seaweed Tempura Wasabi.

Each piece is about 6 cm x 3 cm with tempura bits sticking to a sheet of seaweed and dusted with wasabi seasoning.

The smell of wasabi is unmistakable on opening the package and persisted through to the bold taste that makes no apologies for being wasabi. Some pieces have more wasabi than others and these were the ones where the wasabi borders on being so spicy that it’s bitter and goes up your nostrils into your sinuses leaving you with a runny nose and watery eyes. For the vast majority where the wasabi is more reasonably distributed, it brought a pleasant heat to the crunch of the tempura and the moreish umami of the seaweed. Overall, though, they’re much too burning-spicy to enjoy more than a few at a time.

This Aji Ichiban Seaweed Tempura Wasabi contained 80 g. It was produced in Japan and gifted by family visiting Hong Kong in 2017.