So my sister likes to shop at Horrock's Market, a local gourmet food/nursery store. Yes, that's an odd combination, but it works for them. And no, I can't provide a link and generate some free publicity for them, because they don't seem to have a Web site. Their loss.

And being a good gourmet food store, they have some pretty unusual items. And knowing my tastes for the unusual, she sometimes picks up odd stuff to see if I'll like it. This time, however, she may have gone too far.

I like sushi, and I like hot food. So naturally, I like wasabi; but I also know that the best way to indulge in wasabi is to just lightly touch a piece of sushi to the dab of wasabi, so that there's just a slightly green residue on the sushi. More than that is a hazard. (Epee Bill told me of his first encounter with wasabi. He mistook it for guacamole. Epee Bill loves guacamole, so he took a really big scoop. I have trouble comprehending how he survived...)

And I've had wasabi nuts before at a bar in Boston. They might have been wasabi peanuts, or maybe wasabi soy nuts, I forget. But they were quite tasty, in moderation.

But the wasabi peanuts from Horrock's Market may just qualify as biological warfare.

The wasabi nuts in Boston had a light wasabi coating around them. These wasabi peanuts from Horrock's are a style sometimes called crunch-wrapped: the peanuts are wrapped in a corn-and-rice-cracker shell. So all the elements in place are great. I like peanuts, I like crunch-wrapped nuts, I like corn and rice.

And I like wasabi. Which is liberally dusted onto the outside of the crunch wrap.

In a powdery form.

When they do that to anthrax, they call it weaponized. Why? Because the powder becomes easily airborne and thus can reach more places and be more of a threat.

Well, trust me, the powdered wasabi on Horrock's wasabi peanuts is weaponized.

When you bite into one of these nuts, there's a good chance that you'll release the powdered wasabi. The crunch effect releases a lot of energy, and that can propel the powder out into the air spaces of your mouth.

If you're particularly unlucky, your breath will catch the weaponized wasabi and propel it into your sinus cavities, where there's just nothing you can do but wait for the pain to subside.

If you're a little more fortunate, all that will happen is the weaponized wasabi will disperse across your entire mouth, spreading the heat everywhere. Somehow there seems to be plenty of heat to go around. And of course, that makes your mouth water, so the saliva gets infested with wasabi.

And woe to the person whose mouth is too hot, and who decides to quench it with a drink. The weaponized wasabi mixes quite well with whatever liquid you might choose, and forms a very efficient slurry that burns all the way down your throat.

And the worst part is: the things are so darn tasty! So although I have to eat them carefully, I can't stop eating them. I started with three pounds a week ago. (Actually two weeks ago, but I was away in Boston for a week.) Slowly I have whittled them down to about a pound. But this is the first time I've ever encountered a food where you have to acquire a skill to eat it safely.

And I'm very careful to brush or lick the wasabi powder off my fingers. I live in fear of touching my eyes with weaponized wasabi. (Go ahead and laugh. I once had a toothpaste cap flip shut and flip some toothpaste right into my eye. It was one of the most painful experiences of my life.) Who needs pepper spray? Give me weaponized wasabi!