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for the natto-licious lovers on this thread

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MUTANT NINJA SOYBEANS!
More than you'll ever need to know* about NATTO!!!
*or wanted to know
by MARK SCHREIBER

Amazing natto facts
* Natto is the third most common form of soybean consumption by humans in this country, following tofu and miso. Japan, by the way, is the world's largest importer of soybeans, buying up about 17 percent of the world's exports.

* Consumption of natto tends to be regional, centered around Ibaraki Prefecture and points north and east. It is least favored in Kansai and Shikoku. (The top three: Ibaraki, Tochigi and Fukushima; the bottom three: Tokushima, Ehime and Nara.) Ibaraki households, with outlays of more than \7,000 per year, consumed nearly eight times the volume of Tokushima.

* The Japan Federation of Natto Cooperatives, located in the Natto Kaikan Building near Asakusa, was founded in 1954 and serves as the central organization for some 500 manufacturers nationwide.
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* The U.S. state of Arkansas, on about the same latitude as Ibaraki, is a major supplier of soybeans to Japan. (Beans are grown there according to the specifications of Japanese customers.)

* Researchers continue their efforts to provide the benefits of natto in a more palatable form. A front-page article in the Nikkei Industrial News (June 24) noted that Yamada Foods, a natto manufacturer based in Akita Prefecture, was planning to launch a natto-based health drink sometime in 1997. President Kiyoshige Yamada noted his new beverage "tastes faintly of natto," but lacks its slimy consistency, adding that at a tasting session held recently in Sendai City, lemon- and other fruit-flavored versions of the beverage received rave reviews. Who knows? Some day diners may imbibe Chateau de Nateau.

Mass production
Of course, no article would be complete without a visit to see how natto are produced.. Through the kind cooperation of the Federation of Natto Cooperatives, man-about-town Bryan Harrell and yours truly took the Odakyu Line due west to Kaji No Ya, a natto producer located in Machida City.

There, Mr. Toshio Kaji, son of the founder, kindly invited us on a tour of his factory. After viewing a 20-minute video on the craft of natto-making, we donned sanitary garb for a stroll along the production line.

Natto, I was relieved to see, are produced under meticulous standards of cleanliness. The soybeans are first passed through a metal detector to weed out staples and any other inedible particles. They are washed and strained, to remove fragments. Water is then added and the beans are boiled in a huge pressure cooker. Moving along a conveyor belt, the still-hot beans pass beneath four nozzles that spray them with "natto kin," a solution containing the beneficial bacteria that causes the beans to ferment. A dispenser then apportions them in pre-measured amounts into their square Styrofoam containers or paper cups, which electronically measure to ensure uniform weight.

Note that natto are one of the few types of foods that are packaged before they assume their final form-at which time they would probably gum up the works.

The packs of beans are loaded onto large racks and sent to heating chambers where they undergo several days of fermentation. They are then trucked to supermarkets and other retailers for sale to happy customers.

This factory visit put me onto something I was previously unaware of: the growing popularity of gourmet natto. Using a smaller variety of organically grown domestic soy beans, Mr. Kaji's factory produces natto by traditional methods in a charcoal-heated chamber. A taste of these was a real revelation: They had a smoky flavor and rich texture that were definitely a cut above the ordinary supermarket variety.

Several weeks following our factory tour, Bryan and I sat in on a full-day seminar on natto-ology, the first of its kind ever held, organized by the Japan Federation of Natto Cooperatives. After spending the good part of a day fidgeting as we listened to Japanese experts extol the virtues of natto for several hours, the two of us were rewarded with a 12-course banquet of dishes prepared with natto. These included canapés, a salad, hamburgers, natto on baked chicken, deep-fried natto and natto cookies.

I particularly enjoyed the mapo natto (natto in a spicy Chinese-style sauce over tofu), natto fried rice and natto and potato croquettes.

The only real problem with this stand-up feast, if there was one at all, was that while eating, conversations tended to be constantly interrupted as diners were forced to contend with the sticky threads which floated about the room like feathers at a pillow fight.

The Natto Museum
The latest blow in the natto wars is the opening of Japan's first Museum of Natto. Located in Ogawa-cho, a village in rural Ibaraki on the premises of Takano Foods' main natto plant, the museum and natto R&D center located upstairs encompass a total of 1,845 square meters. The new facilities, I was informed by Takano's engaging spokesperson, Ms. Miyoko Yoyogi, represent an investment of some \400 million.

The museum, the layout and design of which was undertaken by the Hakuhodo ad agency, features colorful exhibits and panel displays about natto, explaining its history, nutritional properties, different ways of consumption around Japan and similar foods eaten in Korea, Nepal, China and Indonesia. Somewhat more high-tech is the electronic "kami-shibai" puppet show about people consuming natto in the Edo period, and a touch-screen computer that quizzes visitors on their knowledge of natto.

For those wishing to make the journey to this new facility, which opened last June, hours are from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily, including weekends. Visitors are advised to telephone Takano's toll-free number in advance (0120-58-7010). Photography is not permitted.

Gaijin and Natto: never the twain?
From the viewpoint of many foreigners, natto represents the dark underside of Japanese food. If sushi and tempura are analogous to New York's silk-stocking district, natto would be the South Bronx. But with time, tastes and perceptions do change. The author can't remember the first time he flirted with natto, but it was not long thereafter before he came to love it.

Here are some suggestions on how to cultivate an appreciation for natto.

1. Try it at lunch or dinner. Although Japanese consume it at breakfast, the author finds that people all over the world tend to be least tolerant of new cultural experiences immediately after waking.

2. Consume natto within three or four days of purchase. Even though it is still edible, after the first week, beans start to give off an ammonia-like smell.

3. Try eating it mixed with other foods to reduce the stickiness and improve palatability. It can be mixed with sashimi such as maguro (tuna) or squid, in the form of natto tempura, over a bowl of soba; natto gyoza, or natto maki, inside rolls of seaweed.

4. Be sure and add mustard and tare (sauce) for taste. You can also add chopped onion greens, grated ginger, raw egg and katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes). Experiment with different brands and types of natto.

5. If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. It's probably been a long time since you discovered you didn't want anything to do with natto. There's a good chance your taste buds have become inured to other types of strange Japanese foods.

Gaijin response to exclusive natto survey

Survey group: 60 adult foreign residents of Japan
Response ratio: 100 percent

As a means of determining how foreigners feel about natto, the author contacted-and annoyed-some 60 friends and acquaintances to fill in a questionnaire and submit same by fax. Based on their responses, he arrived at the following conclusions:

1. Almost all foreigners tend to like Japanese food in general. (Only one out of the 60 claimed to eschew local dishes entirely.)

2. A significant percentage of foreigners do not (gasp!) like natto. In fact, this ratio amounted to a clear majority: 60 percent of all those polled. Some even appeared outraged at being asked.

3. Among those gaijin who say they dislike natto, one-fifth claimed they were actually physically unable to get it down. Others said they could ("but only when in peak mental and physical condition").

4. While perhaps the least preferred, natto was not by any means the only unpopular Japanese food. By 16 to 13, respondents who disliked natto were able to name other Japanese foods they detested even more. Some examples: red bean ice cream, "tiny wormlike fish," uni paste, kusaya, sea cucumber, shiokara (raw salted guts of squid), sembei (rice crackers), takuan (pickles) and even tonkatsu (pork cutlets).

5. The most common reasons given for natto's unpopularity included odor, texture and taste, in that order. After-effects (e.g., tooting) tended to be mentioned more by those who liked natto, which would indicate liking of a particular food outweighs concerns over possible generation of methane. (And, after all, the more you toot, the better you feel.)

6. About 10 percent of the foreigners polled were ambivalent toward natto, saying that he or she would consume it when served, but would not actively seek out the food while at a supermarket or restaurant.

7. The remaining 30 percent raved about it, even going so far as to writing in their favorite means of consuming natto (natto-maki sushi, natto hampen age, natto pizza, natto spaghetti and natto gyoza).

8. No clear correlation was established between affection or disdain for natto and the subject's gender, age, national origin, duration lived in Japan or the nationality of their spouse