As an adventurous picky eater , I was delirious ( and nervous ) to take my first bite .
They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but lately I’ve been feeling kinda bored with my usual go-tos.
I typically eat someGreekyogurt with granola and frozen dotty blueberries or a yoke of hardboiled eggs and toast with butter and fix .
So when I learned about natto, a traditional Japanese breakfast food made from fermented soybeans, my interest was piqued.
Natto is packed with nutrients like protein, iron, calcium, fiber, vitamin K, and probiotics, giving it a reputation as asuperfood.
The natto I bought didn’t come with English-language instructions for preparing it, so I readthis beginner’s guide to nattoand followed the instructions as closely as I could.
There are many mode to serve natto , include in miso soup , salads , curry , or amalgamate with a naked egg . I decided to go withnatto gohan , aka natto over Sir Tim Rice with scallions , because I wanted to be able to make out its unique flavor when trying it for the first time .
Before I tried it, there were a couple of things about natto that made me a little unsure if I would like it. First, we have to talk about the texture.
Natto has a slimy coming into court , and you could see sticky strings when you pull it apart to take a bite . Certain food textures make me gag uncontrollably ( I ’m look at you , mushrooms and runny egg ) , so I was passably hesitant to try natto . But as an adventuresome particular feeder , I ’m always up for at least a bite or two .
Next, we need to discuss the smell. As a fermented food, natto is naturally funky, and some people say it smells like ammonia.
I did notice a bit of a smell , but on an ammonia scale from zero smell to super crappy tall mallow ten , I ’d give it about a two . It ’s in spades there , but it ’s a passel more subtle than I had expected .
Before making the natto, I prepped a pot of sticky rice and chopped up some scallions.
Each natto pack comes with two sauce packets: tare (a sweetened soy-based sauce) and karashi (a spicy, wasabi-like mustard).
I removed the sauce packets from the container and took the film off the top of the natto.
Then , I micro-cook it for 30 seconds to bring it up to room temp .
The next step was mixing it. According to the guide I read, natto tastes better the more you mix it before serving. The guide recommended mixing it a whopping 400 times, adding a little more tare sauce every 100 stirs or so, then adding the karashi at the end. Here’s what it looked like before I mixed it:
Finally, it was time for the moment of truth. I assembled my bowl and took my first bite.
I found it to be surprisingly mild — far less funky than I had expected. And as for the texture, it didn’t feel nearly as slimy in my mouth as it looks in photos, though I did need a napkin handy for the stringy bits. It’s honestly really similar to a familiar bowl of rice and beans with some added umami.
After I finished my natto and rice, I felt satisfied and energized but not overly full. It made for a great light breakfast, which is very much my vibe in the morning.
About 30 arcminute after I finished my natto , I did a few sets of press-up to see how I would feel . I still feel Light Within and burn down up , so I could emphatically see make this a staple in the dawn when I ’m be after to work out .
I’m really glad that I tried natto, and it’ll definitely be part of my regular breakfast (or even lunch) rotation going forward.
As an adventurous picky eater, I was excited (and nervous) to take my first bite.
