Trader Joe's Shishito Crisps

Okay, this calls for an historical Trader Joe's dried, crispy, snackified veggies recap. The first ones I ever recall seeing were Trader Joe's Contemplates Inner Peas. I liked those pretty well. Sonia and I both enjoyed Trader Joe's Kale Chips. We thought the Broccoli Florets were okay. And I was a fan of the Crispy Crunchy Okra while Sonia was not. Most recently, we looked at the Oven Dried Bell Peppers. Bell peppers are among our favorite veggies in existence but strangely, we were not enamored with the dry version very much.

Enter: Trader Joe's Shishito Crisps. Once again, the ingredients are simple: just the titular veggies, rice bran oil, and salt. While I've heard of shishito peppers, I don't believe I've ever had them, and I'm not familiar with their flavor at all. Hey, there's a first time for everything.

First thoughts? They remind me of zombie fingers. They're brittle, crunchy, salty, and lightly oily. There seem to be three different colors in the bag: green, brown, and yellowish—with the green color being by far the most common. The taste? Maybe somewhere in between a bell pepper and a poblano pepper. I'd say the spice level is in between a bell and poblano as well—that is to say: not very spicy but not completely devoid of spice. After eating a few, there's an interesting residual warmth that's very pleasant.

They're not as flavorful as I was hoping they'd be, but the faint peppery taste combined with the rice bran oil produces enough sapidity to keep me interested. They'd go great with soup. Or a salad. Or soup and salad. I'd say these rank just above the aforementioned dried bell peppers and just below the crunchy okra in the annals of Trader Joe's crispy veggies.

So let's say I give these seven out of ten stars. Sonia is on board for the same. That's a "not bad" score for Trader Joe's Shishito Crisps from both the beautiful wifey and me. Product of Thailand. I think we paid about three bucks for the bag. Wait. Two hundred calories for the whole thing? Shoot. If I could learn to cultivate an eight out of ten star appreciation for this product, I'd drop the pounds like nobody's business.

Bottom line: 7 out of 10.