{"id":15956,"date":"2021-11-10T07:47:22","date_gmt":"2021-11-10T12:47:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ethnojunkie.com\/?p=15956"},"modified":"2021-11-10T07:47:22","modified_gmt":"2021-11-10T12:47:22","slug":"kuromame-natto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ethnojunkie.com\/?p=15956","title":{"rendered":"Kuromame Natto"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Click on any image to view it in high resolution.)<\/em>
\n\"\"<\/a>\u201cDo you eat natto?\u201d asked my friend. She had some extra and generously offered to share with me. I answered in the affirmative and the next time I saw her she handed me a little bag containing black natto from NYrture, a New York based company. (Note: this is not a sponsored post.)<\/p>\n

For those of you who are unfamiliar with natto, it\u2019s a traditional Japanese food made from fermented soybeans and eaten for breakfast, a side dish or a snack, often with rice. Aside from its health benefits, its claim to fame (or perhaps infamy) is its potent aroma and flavor along with its notoriously slimy consistency. (Look up \u201cacquired taste\u201d in the encyclopedia and you\u2019ll see a dish of natto.)<\/p>\n

From NYrture\u2019s website:<\/a> \u201cNo description of natto would be complete without mentioning its uniquely sticky texture. Neba-neba <\/em>is a Japanese word to describe the sticky, stringy, wispy film that coats natto beans. In Japan, the more \u201cneba-neba\u201d, the better the natto. In fact, standard practice is to vigorously stir natto before eating to increase neba-neba!\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed. Natto has been known to give okra an inferiority complex. <\/p>\n

But the company described this kuromame (black soybean) natto as \u201cgateway natto\u201d and I couldn\u2019t have said it better. For starters, its flavor is significantly milder and slightly beany with, believe it or not, notes of chocolate. And although turbulent natto is soybean\u2019s answer to an Instagram cheese pull, in defiance of \u201cstandard practice\u201d I decided to forego whipping it into an unphotogenic web of sticky threads: personally, I don\u2019t find it to be particularly appetizing and if your mission is gateway natto, you want appetizing.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nIn Japan, it\u2019s served in numerous ways; I decided to go simple and put the artsy effort into the pickled ginger rose.<\/p>\n

So I put it to you: Do you eat natto?
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