Pea People: why Australia’s food writers obsess over peas | The Canberra Times

There is a subset of the food writing community that I think of as “Pea People.” We Pea People are, as the name suggests, unnaturally obsessed with the fresh, sweet spiciness of peas. Of course, like everyone else, we get excited about other vegetables. But while you’re enthusiastically shaving truffles onto your white asparagus spears or melting morels over morels, you’ll find us here tossing peas into the air and catching them in our mouths like a circus seal.

I have recorded every standout pea encounter I have ever had in my memory banking. Inside the potting shed at Restaurant Pearl Morrisette in Ontario, Canada, was a small bowl plucked from the garden. Pea mosaic with Spencer Gulf squid from Sydney restaurant Sixpenny. And the pea-flavored Wandou cocktail from the excellent Kato in Los Angeles.

And then, of course, there is the prince of peas, the world-famous Guisante Lagrima, or teardrop pea from the Basque Country. They are known as “vegetable caviar” but caviar must be very lucky.