nattoNatto, if you haven’t heard, is a popular food item in Japan. It’s basically fermented soybeans, and has been around for over 1000 years.  Most westerners don’t care for it, and not all Japanese do either. But it is a uniquely Japanese food that I knew that I would be sampling eventually, and today was that day.

We were at the Asian market a couple of days ago, and I had mentioned I’d like to try it sometime, so we picked some up.  It was sold in a three pack of little styrofoam containers.

Not knowing anything about how natto is served, I was quite surprised to see her bring it out with a big yellow glob on top of it. I asked her what it was, and she said it was an egg yolk.

Now, I have this thing about raw eggs… I just have issues with that…and seeing it made me feel sick. But I’d made the commitment to try it, so I was going to have to push that mentally aside, I just needed to work up the nerve first.

Her oldest daughter loves natto, and she was getting quire excited as it was getting stirred up, with the long yellow sticky strands stretching out like melted cheese and the brown beans suspended in it like flies in a spider’s web.

I can do this… I think…

My girlfriend took a spoonful of it and I watched it slide slowly off the spoon, onto my plate. I’m not sure if I can describe what it looked like, but it wasn’t appetizing in the least, and my instincts were telling me to keep it as far away from my mouth as possible.

But, I can do this…I just need some more time…

I watched her oldest daughter happily put a large spoonful in her mouth, and she was smiling from ear to ear. “See!” I told myself, “She’s not disgusted, she really likes it! It’s not poisoning her, or making her sick, or taking over her brain and turning her into some kind of natto-zombie!”

I can do this.. I must…or I’ll never hear the end of it, this was MY idea, after all…

The natto sat on my plate, mocking me while I ate.  I looked at it occasionally, hoping that at some point it might start looking good. About halfway through the meal, I decided that I had to take the leap, and I pulled a single small bean out of the morass with my chopsticks. long strings of …well whatever it was… extended from the mass to the end of my chopsticks, and didn’t want to let go.  I had to pull it away about a foot before the lifeline finally snapped. I took a deep breath, and popped it in my mouth.

I first tasted the egg yolk, and it had a regular bean consistency as I chewed it, waiting for the unique flavor to finally hit. To me it had a taste like… well, coffee…

My girlfriend said that my taste buds didn’t work right. and she wanted me to try it again, because she didn’t get a picture of me trying it. So I had another one, and she got her picture (no, I’m not posting it.) She said I looked like I was going to cry, but I don’t think it was that bad.

It still tasted like coffee to me. Egg yolk and coffee. I can see why it’s often eaten at breakfast.

It wasn’t nearly as disgusting as I thought it would be, but I didn’t care for it either, and I can’t imagine wanting to eat it again.

I’m sure in the world of Japanese foods I’ve yet to try, something will make me truly sorry I tasted it, but this time it wasn’t as bad as I feared.