On Sun, 2 Dec 2007 16:05:19 -0500, "tim" <...@yahoo.com> wrote:


Gunma gourmands unveil the serendipity sandwich: Natto, coffee jelly and
cream

Sometimes, the smallest slip-up can give birth to a major hit, as foodstuffs
manufacturer Gunma Sando has discovered with its natto (fermented soybean)
and coffee jelly sandwiches, according to Spa! (11/27).

Natto are a popular dish in the Kanto region, but the fecal-looking -- and
smelling -- soybeans are hardly the most enticing sandwich filler,
particularly when mixed with fresh cream and coffee jelly.

But Gunma Sando ground the natto into the smallest viable chunks and
countered its awful odor by adding the jelly and cream to create a dish that
has tickled the taste buds of consumers across Japan. Fermented soybean,
coffee jelly and fresh cream sandwiches are now the biggest selling items at
some of the sandwich company's outlets.

The sandwiches contain one part natto, three parts coffee jelly and 10 parts
fresh cream, all stuffed between slices of bread strictly cut at a thickness
of 1.15 centimeters, a combination Gunma Sando's owner Koji Suzumura tells
Spa! gives the sandwich its golden touch.

"We developed the sandwich after the old owner of the company accidentally
dropped some fermented soybeans into a bowl of cream one day, decided to
have a taste of the concoction and liked what it did for him," Suzumura
says. "When we first sold the sandwiches, we had twice as much natto in them
as we do now, and they smelled so bad they were almost impossible to eat."

Coming up with the perfect blend took some time.

"Cutting down too much on the natto weakens the positive impact they have on
the taste, and thinning the bread by even a single millimeter makes the
sandwich into a real mess. Increasing the amount of fresh cream we use wipes
out the natto flavor," Suzumura tells Spa! "It took us three years of trial
and error before we finally came up with the ideal sandwich. You can't
imagine the relief we felt when we finally had the perfect recipe for
fermented soybean-coffee jelly-fresh cream sandwiches." (By Ryann Connell)

Mainichi Japan November 30, 2007