There's Something About Natto

Since I moved to Japan I have eaten some very strange things -- raw horse, raw sea urchin, raw lobster, raw scallops, deep fried tiny whole fish (head and tail and ribs and all), grilled octopus balls, roasted cow tongue, green tea ice cream, rice balls and red beans for dessert, seaweed salads, corn and potato pizza, curry buns, and deep fried spaghetti sticks, just to name a few. Surprisingly, most of these things taste very good, and did not induce any kind of vomiting. However, over the weekend I had the pleasure and pain of tasting Japan's most notorious stomach-turning food... NATTO.

To put it bluntly, natto is fermented (rotten?) soy beans. It usually comes in small plastic containers, with a packet of mustard and a small packet of sauce, which is all mixed together. It doesn't look so bad before you mix it, but once you do, everything changes. It's an extremely smelly thing, akin to a very strong moldy cheese, and its texture is sticky, slimy, and often compared to the stuff you find in your handkerchief after blowing your nose. Even Japanese people hate this stuff -- or at least it seems that you either try it once and hate it, or love it for life.

This famous foul food is, naturally, very healthy and provides many benefits to the consumer. (Why do we have the cruel life irony that the things that taste so good are awful for us, while nasty natto is a cancer fighting food? It's simply not fair!) So, I figured that I had to give it a try.

Before....



And after...



Ah well. You can't win them all. But at least I can say that I tried it once, right!

To learn more about natto, please watch this fascinating video with instructions in English.