BIG IN JAPAN
Natto
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Illustration by Yukiko Leitch |
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They say it takes four times
to "get" natto. This is pure twaddle. Maybe it takes four exposures to get past
the furtively - glancing - around - the - room - for - the - source - of - the -
abominable - smell stage. After that, a few more tastings before you begin to buy the
assertion that appreciating natto is just like appreciating a fine, aromatic (read:
stinky) cheese. But to liken it to cheese does both a disservice; natto won' spread on
bread, nor does it pair well with a fine, tawny port. Cheese doesn't taste good in miso
soup.
So what then is natto? Natto is steamed soybeans that are fermented, sometimes in rice
straw, until the beans have acquired their notorious nutty flavor, disturbing aroma and
sticky slipperiness, held together like a spider web by gossamer-like threads.
How does it get this way? It's all in the secret sauce: the bacteria bacillus natto, which
activates the fermentation process. After carefully-selected soybeans have been steamed in
a steel vat, they are sprayed with this concoction, packed, then heated at 40-45°C and
100% humidity for up to 24 hours. The result is a highly digestible, unabashedly
nutritious super-food. Bean for bean, natto packs more nutritional wallop than even a pint
of Guinness: iron and vitamins B2 and B12, plus 16.5 percent protein. WWII POWs likened
the eating of these odoriferous soybeans to torture but natto probably saved many a man
from starvation. Interest in it and other soyfoods has increased recently as scientists
make the link between substances in soybeans that are thought to reduce the risk of
cancers such as colon, prostate and breast cancer, as well as lower cholesterol and
prevent osteoporosis.
Well and good, but we all know that being "good for you" is not enough, or else
we'd all live on natto alone. Why are some 50,000 tons of soybeans turned into natto each
year?
Natto is a fairly recent arrival on the Japanese food scene, having been around only since
the later part of the Edo Period (1600-1868). (Curiously, it's reviled by Kansai folk.) It
could be easily made at home; soybeans were packed in straw (which contained a natural
bacillus) then buried for a week or so, in the ground or even under the family kotatsu.
The modern method of making natto by injecting bacteria was first developed in Sendai.
Nowadays it's sold everywhere - even the local conbini - in easily portable
styrofoam containers.
Not just easy and good for you, natto is also versatile. Most often eaten for breakfast
with rice and a raw egg, natto also pops up in miso soup, salads, with tofu, stuffed in
omelets, served as a dip, even deep-fried as tempura, making it one of the most adaptable
foods on the planet. And once you get past the initial disgust and aversion and actually
(gulp!) acquire a taste for it, natto is delicious. If it only had better PR (and didn't
smell quite so, well, sock-like), people the world over would be singing its praises.
Happy and healthy natto fans, huddling around the kotatsu with their bowls of sticky
beans, already know the tune. It goes "Natto natto man, I wanna be...a natto
man...."
Aeve Baldwin |
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