The wonder that is Natto.....the Japanese marmite

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So one of the questions that westerners often get asked (and I've been asked on a few occasions by the school kids) is whether you like natto. Natto is, rather unappealingly, fermented soybeans. Like marmite, it is one of those things you either love or hate. I had held off trying any, but last Friday evening my friend Jane came over to watch a DVD and we decided to give it a go.

Well, I can say I’m probably more of a hate camp, although it wasn't quite as grim as I’d expected. It does smell rank, a bit like a smelly cheese and probably the worst thing about it is the stringy consistency, a bit like melted cheese. It is, well, rotting beans, after all. They have whole rows of supermarket fridges devoted to this stuff, so there must be a lot of call for it.

Each to their own....

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