The Infamous Natto
This entry was originally published on October 10, 2007. It has been reformatted and updated with expanded information.
Update - April 29, 2008
I am now a huge fan of natto. I don’t eat it every day for breakfast but I do eat it frequently, about twice a week. It’s cheap, a good source of protein, and actually a lot of fun. I’ve become a fan of slimy foods.
Original & Impressions
Well, I did it. I caved. I broke down one more assimilation barrier. It’s been a long time since I was first introduced to natto and I’ve avoided to eat it every single time. Or, people have just assumed that because I’m foreign, I’m unable to eat natto, and never offer it to me.
Except today, during school lunch, I figured, “What the hell?” and impressed my co-workers by eating a whole package of what is essentially, moldy beans. I even managed to deal with the sticky strings, which involve rapid chopstick turning and a fair amount of luck.
To be fair, it wasn’t as bad as the horror stories made it out to be. My first impression was that I was eating a slightly turned Swiss cheese (and yes, I’ve accidentally eaten that before). There’s definitely a sharp, pungent cheese quality about it, but only in aroma, which may explain why some people compare it to blue cheese in Europe. This aroma is only enhanced by adding the soy sauce and spicy mustard packets that accompanied the natto. The actual taste is mild and, once you get past the strings, just like the taste of a regular soybean. In terms of texture, the only thing I can think of it being similar to is baked beans with about 3 pounds of melted cheese per can.
Eating natto
If you buy natto in the grocery store, you will probably get a package that looks like this:
The natto is separated from the condiments by a square of plastic or are attached to the lid. The condiments included are generally soy sauce and mustard, but people often add other things to their natto, such as green onions or sugar. There’s probably a list of popular natto condiments, but I think that for this dish, anything goes. You could probably even drown it in ketchup, American-style, if you wanted to.
To eat the natto, you first stir it up to encourage string growth. No idea why, because this makes the dish even harder to eat, but the strings seems to be an essential component to enjoying natto. So stir it up! Stir it for a good 30 seconds before drowning it in soy sauce and mustard.
The strings are quite difficult to deal with…just when you think you’ve freed a bite-sized mouthful, it turns out that there are microscopic strands chaining your chopsticks to the natto. In order to free them, you have to spin them in circles rapidly after shoving the natto in your mouth. I succeeded about 70 percent of the time, although some strings got caught on my sleeves and threatened my shirt.
But despite all this - the stink, the strings, the trouble - natto does have a good amount of health benefits. It contains a good amount of fiber, protein, calcium, vitamin C, iron, and potassium.1 So, I’m resolved to keep eating it until I like it because the amount of health benefits outweigh the smell.
Other notes
After consuming natto, it’s advisable to instantly put the food container in the trash. The college student method of cleaning2 is not advisable. Natto will very quickly stink up your apartment with an odor that smells like a combination of rotting food and stinky, sweaty gym sock. Even if you’ve just finished an an earthquake strikes, put the natto container in a trash bag, tightly close it, and then get under a table.3
- http://www.nutritiondata.com/facts-C00001-01c218e.html [↩]
- The college student method of cleaning is leave it on the counter, deal with it in the morning [↩]
- I’m joking, of course, the logical move would be to be safe first! [↩]
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Comments
Hey Caitlin,
I read your comment on hinano’s entry so I came to see if I could dispel some of your worries. I’ve browsed through your blog and read your entry on Nabari no Ou. You have a very clear and accessible way of writing that I think will reach out to a lot of people. I really don’t think you have anything to worry about as far as not being able to contribute. You seem to have a lot of neat and insightful things to say from what I’ve read. =] And as far as experience goes, I’ve only started blogging a couple of weeks ago. So I’m pretty much a n00b myself, in the same boat as you and all. One of the objectives for this round-robin is to be able to learn from each other and develop our writing skills.
Please do consider joining our round-robin. The sign-up post is at my blog. You’re welcome to it any time you’ve made up your mind.
First time I’ve seen a real life pic of natto before. It does look somewhat orrible’ but since I regularly eat soybean, reckon I can stomach natto ^^.
Forgot to try it when I was at Elevenland, but I think I could probably tolerate it since I’m fine with stinky tofu.
Same, first time I’ve seen natto in action. I’m slightly interested in taste-testing this thanks to your enlightening post. ^^
@lanie-emon: It does look gross but it’s pretty good. If you eat it with other things, it tastes very much like a regular old soybean but it will just have stuff on it.
@Shin: Then you could probably down gallons of natto and smile afterwards! I can’t get to stinky tofu…yet.
@Nagato: Natto is very healthy too and a cheap protein source. I like having another cheap food source when I’m feeling cash-strapped. Another great motivator for trying new foods.
reminds me to eat the natto in the fridge, hope its still good lol… looks less nasty in real life
oh thats about the same(after conversion rates) as what i paid for here in singapore.
Aww, it looks slimey!