A submission to the August 2011 J-Festa with the theme “Food in Japan“.

Nattō is a Japanese superfood that is centuries old. It is long recognized as one of Japan’s most unique traditional health foods and has been a staple source of Japanese nutrition since feudal Japan. Nattō is a powerful smelling, strong flavoured, sticky web of fermented soybeans that is highly nutritious and rich in protein and typically served with a Japanese breakfast over rice.

Image source: Flickr

Historically nattō was made by packing steamed soybeans in a bed of rice straw and leaving it in a warm place to ferment. A bacteria in the straw, bacillus subtilis natto, feeds off the beans, and turns them into a slimy stinking goop held together by sticky spider-webish strands with a pungent odor. Nowadays the specialized fermentation process that enhances the nutrition of the soybeans and develops the unique flavor and glutinous texture is triggered in commercial factories using sterile conditions and clean cultures.

There are many stories that claim the origin of nattō, legend has it that the process was discovered by accident when a group of soldiers who fell under attack quickly packed up their cooked soybeans in straw and carried them into battle as rations. When the hungry warriors finally sat down to eat, the beans had rotted. Having no other food to consume and being famished from battle they ate the rancid beans and the rest, they say, is history.

Opinion on the palatability of nattō is split. You either love it or hate it. It’s appearance and taste is sometimes compared to Vegemite in Australia, blue cheese in France, surströmming in Sweden, lutefisk in Norway and Sweden, mämmi in Finland and Marmite in New Zealand, South Africa and the UK.

If you think that this is weird then check out 10 Weird Japanese Foods for more bizarre morsels of Japanese culinary strangeness such as raw horse meat, aquatic insects, grasshoppers, bee larvae and more. If you are not that adventurous, then check out 10 Cool Japanese Foods for a delicious selection of Japanese fare.

1. Shirako 「白子」(Fish Sperm)

Shirako is the male genitalia of fish, a sack that contains its seminal fluid. A popular dish at most izakaya (Japanese pubs) and sushi bars. A few years back I had my own encounter with fish ejaculate that didn’t end too well.

2. Inago no Tsukudani 「いなごの佃煮」 (Grasshoppers)

“Inago no Tsukudani” is a traditional Japanese insect cuisine popular in the inland rural communities of Yamagata, Nagano and Gunma prefectures.

“Inago” is Japanese for “grasshopper” and when you stew your mouth-watering locust with “tsukudani”, a sweetened soy sauce simmered with mirin, you get the delectable bug banquet – “Inago no Tsukudani”.

3. Basashi 「馬刺し」(Raw Horse Meat)

Due to its deep pink color raw horse meat is called “sakura” or “sakuraniku”. “Sakura” means cherry blossom, “niku” means meat. However, when your equine is ponied up raw in thin sashimi slices it is called “basashi”. The prefectures of Kumamoto, Nagano and Ōita are famous for basashi, and it is common in the Tohoku region as well. Nice with some ranch dressing.

Straight from the horses mouth, there is also a dessert made from horse meat called basashi ice cream. Check out weird Japanese ice cream flavours for more of the craziness.

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