いただきます！/itadakimasu/ Let’s eat

On the fourth episode of “You ate what?!” we visit a traditional Japanese breakfast food. As you can probably guess, I enjoy fermented and pickled foods. Gotta love that Bacillus subtilis! Aka good gut bacteria that help with…well, your gut.

This particular food gets one of two reactions. Either you enjoy it or you gag and want to spit it out. I’ve heard many people complain about the smell. Have you guessed what food I’m talking about? Take a look. There is rice, green onions, and Katsuobushi (bonito flakes) but can you guess what else is there? [I just realized that bonito flakes is dried fermented and smoked tuna. But that’s not what this post is about.]

It’s NATTO!

Natto is made from fermented soybeans.

I didn’t mind the smell. Personally, I think chitlins smell far worse than natto! Let’s just be real. It’s not pig intestines. I’d read that you should stir the natto about 200 times. I got to about 150 stirs before giving up. The natto, rice, green onion and bonito flake combo was ok. I thought it was bland outside of the green onions. So eventually, after I’d tried it in a traditional Japanese way, I doctored it up. I added my all time favorite spice, garlic salt. I also added some black pepper. Then I thought I needed a little bit of green and decided to make little natto burritos with tiny seaweed sheets. It was much better. I was full halfway through bowl and could already feel the goodness in my gut.

I will definitely try this again. I bought a three pack of natto for 73 yen (about 70 cents). Next time, I will be brave and try natto with a raw egg. I’ll keep you posted on that.

御馳走様(でした)!/Gochisou sama (deshita)/Thank you for the delicious meal!