Japanese-style peanuts, also known as Japanese peanuts or cracker nuts, are a type of snack food made from peanuts that are coated in a wheat flour dough and then fried or deep-fried. They come in a variety of different flavours.
This type of snack is claimed to have originated in Mexico in the 1940s where a Japanese immigrant by the name of Yoshigei Nakatani invented “Japanese peanuts” (widely known in the Spanish-speaking world as cacahuates Japoneses or maní Japonés). The Mexican version’s recipe for the extra-crunchy shell has ingredients such as wheat flour, soy sauce, water, sugar, monosodium glutamate, and citric acid.