Natto for everybody
Even though I've been in Tokyo for over three years now, I only just got around to eating the popular Japanese food known as natto a month or so ago.
Natto (rhymes with "lotto") is, essentially, fermented soybeans. It has a distinctive and pungent aroma, which is not made any less threatening by its tendency to produce sticky tendrils of goop when you stir it up with your chopsticks. Yet mixed with a small bowl of rice, a nice piece of nori (dried seaweed) and perhaps a raw egg, it makes for a tasty breakfast.
Of course, some people beg to differ.
Natto (rhymes with "lotto") is, essentially, fermented soybeans. It has a distinctive and pungent aroma, which is not made any less threatening by its tendency to produce sticky tendrils of goop when you stir it up with your chopsticks. Yet mixed with a small bowl of rice, a nice piece of nori (dried seaweed) and perhaps a raw egg, it makes for a tasty breakfast.
Of course, some people beg to differ.
posted by GaijinBiker at 4/06/2005 06:48:00 PM
5 Comments:
Oh ... My ... God ...! That stuff looks completely disgusting, kind of like vegemite. To each their own, but Steve at The Sneeze has forever extinguished whatever willingness I may have had to give Natto a try with this pithy witticism (among many others):
"The entire experience is difficult to describe, but if you can remember back to the very first time you made out with a hobo's ass, it's a lot like that."
Posted by Langtry
I am fairly disgusted myself. Thanks for that wonderful post.
At least I'm not hungry anymore...
Posted by Dave Justus
I actually ordered natto makizushi at a Japanese restaurant once. I knew what natto was, and just had to try it. Then I conned my college roommate into trying a piece. He really didn't like it.
It wasn't the worst thing I've ever eaten, but I probably won't eat it again.
Posted by Greg
Huh! It rhymes with "lotto" in your English accent, eh?
I like the taste and smell of natto OK.. I just can't get down with the gooey texture.
Posted by Matt
Hmm... I thought I was on pretty firm linguistic ground there. In my Noo Yawk accent, natto rhymes with lotto just fine.
I wanted to emphasize that the first syllable of natto has the same vowel sound as "pot" or "hot", not "pat" or "hat".
Otherwise, the amazingly brilliant pun in my post title ("Not for everybody") would have been lost.
Posted by GaijinBiker