Natto
posted on 16 Feb 2004 by maki ::
16 comments
Japanese people like to consume soy beans in many forms. The most well known soy bean product outside of the country is tofu, and edamame (green soy beans) is gaining in popularity too. There is one Japanese soy bean product that probably will never become very popular in other countries though, and that's natto.
Natto is probably the quintessential "weird food" of Japanese cuisine, like haggis in Scotland or lutefisk in Norway. As a matter of fact, not even all Japanese people can tolerate it. People who live in the "western" (actually the south-western) half of Japan, who did not grow up eating natto, often despise it. But for those of us who grew up in the "eastern" half, natto is a really good thing.
What is natto then? It's steamed soy beans that have been fermented for a few days, with the addition of some beneficial bacteria (natto bacillus) that grow on rice straw. The soy beans are brown, soft and covered with sticky gooey matter, rather like the sticky slippery stuff that's inside an okra. If you saw this sort of sticky gooey stuff on food other than natto, you'd dump it immediately. But for some reason it's not going to kill you when it's on natto. As a matter of fact, natto is lauded as a health food, because the soy beans become very easy to digest when they've been natto-i-fied.
The other disturbing (for the uninitiated) aspect of natto is the smell. It can smell pretty strong, sort of like stinky socks. Some people can't stand this smell, and there are natto manufacturers now who produce an "odorless" or "low-odor" natto. I think that the smell is all part of the whole experience though.
This evening, as I mixed up a pack of natto for dinner, Max slowly backed away from with a look of sheer horror on his face. He can't stand the smell, he says. And believe me, Max is not a picky eater. He loves just about every other strange and exotic (to him) Japanese, Chinese, or any other type of food. He even loves those boiled chicken feet that is served at some dimsum places, though I can't even bear to look at them. But natto totally throws him off.
I do love natto though. The best way to have it is with a little soy sauce, a bit of hot mustard (most natto brands come with a tiny mustard pack), mixed well until plenty of gooey strings form around the beans. You can add a bit of chopped green onion if you like, or shredded nori seaweed. For extra sliminess, add a raw egg. This is great served on hot rice, or mixed with spaghettini. Unless of course, natto strikes horror in your heart too.
There is an excellent site about natto, if you want to see how gooey and stringy it can get. (Mine was not that gooey, probably because I had stored it in the freezer.)
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Natto
While living in Japan I ate raw squid eyeballs, deep fried eel heads, raw liver of a manta ray, and all sorts of squishy, squiggley things that defy description. Still, after all that, I have never been able to stand the smell, let alone the taste, of natto. Fortunately we lived in Kyoto in the southwestern part of Japan, where people don’t really eat natto so much. However, every time we travelled to Tokyo we were offered natto for breakfast. Ugh! Stinky socks you say? Really stinky socks.
Natto
My mom would prepare natto (with raw egg) every so often when I was growing up. I’ve tried to like it, but I really can’t stand the smell. A non-Japanese friend of mine particularly likes a natto-maki roll that one of the sushi restaurants makes— he is a stronger man than I.
Natto
Never tasted natto, but looking at the picture I could swear it was rice and beans, the most tipical dish from Brazil. And, well, I love it… I want to try natto!
Natto
Yoko I love natto-maki :P
Elise yes they do smell…but like cheese, that’s part of the attraction! hehe.
Laura…I love rice and beans, and this is rice and beans…but is rather a different experience :P
Natto
Ouhhhh!!! I love Sushi and Natto Maki is one of my favorite choose. I’m looking forward to go back to Japan and eat Sushi as much as I can.
love
Hope Bloom
Natto
Just ate natto then. Mmm ..yum yum…
Natto
My Japanese husband despises natto. But, I have become addicted to natto with rice. Yum! I am American by the way.
Natto
I love natto. It’s good stuff. It took me a year to eat it again after my first awful experience (a pack of natto makki zushi from Universe) but it was worth it. I find that no other breakfast is so effective at waking you up (because of its disturbing taste and sensation) and sustaining you with energy (because it is already broken down).
The health benefits are debatable, since the “facts” come from Japan, but I reckon it does you good.
I found this looking for other sites espousing the virtues of natto by typing “i love natto” into Google. I put a movie of natto eating on my webshite recently, you see.
Good job.
Natto
Thanks so much for the information. I would like to try the most authentic natto available. Would you be so kind as to recommend a supplier? It would probably have to be by mail order and I live in the Hamptons part of Long Island and our specialty stores probably will not carry it.
Thanks again for the information,
Chris Stanley
Natto
Chris, you can see if Katagiri in Manhattan will send you natto. Katagiri is a bit expensive, but quite reliable. Otherwise, there are some very good small Japanese grocery stores in Nassau County, if you can drive that far. There’s one in Port Washington, Nara J-Foods, and also one in Roslyn, Shin Nippondo I have shopped from those places myself so can vouch for their quality.
If you can drive out even further, there is a Japanese-Asian supermarket in Edgewater, NJ called Mitsuwa that has just about every Japanese grocery item you can think of.
A page with a list of Japanese groceries in the NY area is here.
Natto
Being fed natto since a new-born, I crave it whenever I’m in some remote location in the US where they do not sell such exotics.
The stuff smells, but that’s part of why it tastes good! Sometimes the best stuff smells the worst. Good cheese. Good Kimchi. Good spaghetti. Good thai dishes using fish sauce. Natto is definitely not an exception. The fact that it has many health benefits, especially for a western meat eater (it helps clean up your blood vessels by binding to cholesterol) was something I learned lately, and rejoiced, knowing that it was already something I loved eating.
For the faint of heart however, they now sell pills containing the active ingredient “nattokinase” at hippy markets/co-ops..I’m sure other places as well.
Natto isn’t liked by all Japanese, this is true. My uncle Akimasa can not stand it, so he sticks to “Ama-natto”, which is the low-odour version. This is understandable, since the smell is rather kitsui. My Irish-American father eat’s natto, one pack a day around 7:00, since he has high cholesterol. This, combined with a healthy diet rich in fish, vegetables, and poly unsaturated fats has kept him out of the doctor’s office.
Elise,
Raw squid eyeballs, I had no idea that these were a delicacy! I could see ink being extracted and used for making a squid ink spaghetti (Spanish) or ramen (Japanese).
Deep fried eel.. sounds great, but the heads were sold seperate? Never had that either. Liver of a manta ray.. Ahh, that must have been tasty, much like raw liver of moulard ducks, commonly used in french cuisine. When I worked in sushi shop, we used Monkfish liver as a Japanese analogue. Au torchon! Squigly things that defy description.. Pickles! Raw squid pickles! .. or Seaweed.. haha.. Man, I miss Japan all of a sudden.
Give me natto maki with Green onions mixed in!
-rj
I first had natto when I was
I first had natto when I was staying in Germany for a month and it was among the most tasty things I managed to eat there. I didn’t really notice the smell, but then again I don’t have a very good sense of smell in general; I left my window open when I had it just in case. I have yet to try it with soy sauce or mustard, but I do like with white vinegar on top.
I think Wikipedia compared it to being an acquired taste similar to blue cheeses. Maybe I’m weird, since I grew up eating neither and now love both!
acquired taste
Natto sure is an acquired taste, and I think it’s one of those foods that does get better once you get past the initial stages. I had a problem for a long time with fresh coriander, but now I sometimes almost crave it. Human tastebuds are strange indeed.
Yummy Natto
I grew up in the US, and visited Japan about 5 times. My wife is Japanese, and at first, I thought Natto was smell and gross. After a year or so of being exposed to it, I started liking it. Now I eat it everyday, most of the time straight from the box (to avoid carbs). Its funny, when traveling in Japan, I get a lot of funny looks when the “Gaijin” is eating Natto and looking like hes enjoying it.
I've got some, now what?
I went to may favorite store and looked for some natto. I found some in the refrigerated part of the store, whoowee, step one. I figured that the consuming of natto occurred during breakfast due to my extensive watching of “slice of life” anime. Great, steeling myself I open the prepackaged tub and found a little packet of mustard and the natto. I have never smelt anything like it before but in for a penny, in for a pound. I grabbed my chopsticks and got to stirring. A little unclear on the concept, the mustard went in the stirred tub of beans. The texture started to shift from a honey with lumps to a taffy with lumps. Wondering when to stop the stirring, the chopsticks lifted and the natto followed. I was not to enthused as to what greeted my first bite. With most things, the first serving should not be the making or breaking of a food. I ate another bite, not much improvement. Now, strong cheese and I have had a love affair of longstanding, chilies are my friend, seafood cooked and raw are frequently enjoyed in my home. This was another food to get used too. My eyes leaked and my nose ran. This isn’t a barrier for me as this also occurs with other strong foods. I don’t seem to eat them for breakfast.
My mistake I realized, was that most people eat natto with something else! If I was paying attention, some rice would be available to ease my acceptance of this new sensation. I did drink a lot of water. My wife noticed my distress and asked if I was alright. I pointed to the natto. She smiled and turned down the offer to share.
I have since tried it again with a bowlful of hot brown rice. I resisted adding to the sliminess with the raw egg but some scrambled egg cooked with onion and cheddar allowed me to enjoy it in my wimpy way. I will not be deterred, future breakfast will be enjoyed with fewer and fewer additions until it will be natto and rice alone.
Its not bad at all, thank Maki!
mysofa
Dedicated to all things yummy.
One of the best comments
One of the best comments I’ve ever gotten here. Fantastic.
Thanks mysofa!
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