Alright! I will not tolerate this lugubrious piece of pea slander that could only be uttered by a bilaterally symmetrical bottom of the barrel hominid. I hate this libel with every fiber, denatured protein and apoptotic cell of my being. Blood has been spilled for less.
First, let us dissect Riko's complaint:
"Awful texture, a taste & smell like leaves and so bitter," she says committing an act of distaste rivaled only by Chris Kempczinski's reluctant bite of his company's burger.
The phrase, a taste & smell like leaves, is utterly uninformative. Why? Because there are hundreds to thousands of distinct volatile compounds in leaves. It is a genuine disservice to place the odor and flavor of peas in the same category as the leaves and blossoms of the Bradford pear. (Which, if you don't know, smell similar to rotting meat.)
Secondly, the texture and bitterness of peas has much to do with the development of starches. Plants produce the energy-carrier ATP and the hydrogen carrier NADPH through photosynthesis. Then, the Calvin cycle performs carbon fixation (using RuBP) and uses those two types of molecules to produce trioses (which are 3 carbon sugars, through redox reactions) and other byproducts before regenerating the RuBP using fresh ATP and NADPH. In peas that are plucked from the vine, this final process of regeneration is sabotaged, and stored sugars and trioses are turned into starches. The trioses undergo several transformations to form ADP-glucose. ADP-glucose is transformed into amylose starch by the starch synthetase enzyme, amylose is transformed into amylopectin starch by the starch branching enzyme and you end up, in a short few hours, with a pea depleted of all its natural sugars.
How does this affect flavor and texture you ask? Well, sugars, y'know, are flavorsome. And if you get rid of the sugars you get rid of what tastes good, which means they can't mask these nasty tasting things called saponins. While there are a few tasty saponins, most (including those found in peas) are bitter, astringent and unwholesome. Certain individuals and younger children especially have a higher sensitivity to bitter tasting compounds and can perceive them more strongly. Additionally, the starches in peas have an unpleasant waxy texture instead of the yielding texture of high sugar content hypertonic peas.
Tldr; Peas should be bought very fresh, within hours of being picked. If you cannot do so, may I suggest the greatest convenience food of all time, the frozen pea? By freezing the peas, they do not undergo starch conversion and remain sweet.
In other words, it's all Yuuka's fault. (I mean duh, she was arguing for natto curry and natto pizza in the opening pages of the opening chapter: biggest hear me out of all time.) Do not blame the innocent pea, for it is all Yuuka's fault. She should have gotten the tasty frozen peas instead.
