Congrats to UM for being around for five years! I still remember my first post on Peking duck back in 2007 (after constant harassment from Kayoko to write for her), and over the past five years, I’ve written over 200 posts. When we started, it was a fun, jokey, let’s-talk-about-food-in-a-very-funny-way kind of activity. But 5 years later, we now have 15,000 visitors a month and we are becoming more and more of a legit food blog site!

Given the level of professionalism at Umamimart, I have to make some adjustments, and I have to make an announcement.

Yamahomo no longer exists, and from now on, Moto will be writing this ReCPY column. I am starting to plan my future in various ways, and I am starting the Moto empire, very slowly. Please join me thanking Yamahomo for his five years of crazy posts, and welcome Moto.

As a part of my empire, I’ve started a short cooking video series Nihon in the Kitchen (Nihon = Japan) with my very talented colleague Ben. I do the cooking, he films, edits, and does all the animation. In these short segments, I introduce Japanese ingredients (sort of like Yoko’s Japanify), and make something easy, fun and out of ordinary.

In this above episode, I made Natto Nuts, and this is the easiest way to introduce the benefits of natto without the slime.

Enjoy!

I have missed writing this column, so I’m bringing it back! I can not pretend that I have abandoned my lazy ways, or that I’ve stopped cutting corners when cooking. My kitchen may be much bigger than what I had in Brooklyn, but this only means that I can spread out my laziness over more counterspace.

Today, I bring to you a lovely lazyass recipe given to me by my sweet friend Moet, in LA. It consists of natto, an egg, and some scallions. That’s it! It doesn’t get any better than this, my friends, as these three ingredients are some of my favorite foods, hands down. It is a dream to be able to combine them into one simple, lazyass dish.

INGREDIENTS
1 pack of natto
1 tbsp oil
1 egg
1 spring onion (optional)

QUICK RECIPE

1. Chop scallions.

2. Mix natto in a bowl.

3. Crack an egg into the bowl and mix with natto.

4. Heat oil in frying pan.

5. Add natto/egg mixture to the frying pan

6. Meanwhile, thaw your frozen, pre-steamed package of rice in the microwave.

7. Carefully flip your natto omelette in the frying pan.

8. Put rice in bowl. Place the omelette over the rice.

9. Eat standing up in your spacious California kitchen, with chopsticks and various condiment crack.

From prep to completion, this dish takes about 10 minutes. LAZY!

+++

PHOTOS

Mix natto, chop scallions

Add egg to natto 

Scramble egg with natto really well.

Add scallions

Heat oil

Add natto mixture into hot pan

Try your best to flip the omelette. This part is very difficult as the natto/egg mixture easily breaks apart.

Cry when you fail

Thaw your frozen pre-steamed rice in the microwave. This is lazyass, remember? Don’t bother steaming a new pot of rice for this. 

Place your janky-looking omelette over the rice

Eat with some other rice condiment crack, like kimchi, and Yoko’s nametake (I actually made this last night! Mine is too salty though)

Slice avocado cause you’re in California and nothing else matters. Meshiagare (go ahead and eat)

To add to this lazyass meal, I made an equally lazyass miso soup with wilting vegetables I found in the fridge.

Boil water (homemade dashi? Psssh, not in this lazyass kitchen). Add sliced daikon, bok choy, scallions and broccoli (or anything you want). Add miso and sprinkle in some ajinomoto (MSG baby).

All this must be consumed while standing in your kitchen. Long live Lazyass Cookin’!

I’m going through Yoko withdrawl. We were literally joined at the hip for the last month, gearing up for our GIFT OF FOOD benefit: chatting, Skyping, meeting with each other, organizing, coordinating, planning with our other awesome collaborators. It was definitely a huge team effort to put on THE GIFT OF FOOD, and without Yoko, it would not have even happened. She created the website in less than 24 hours! Whoa.

Then, after the night of the benefit, we went our separate ways. I flew down to San Diego for my best friend’s wedding (I was the best Maid of Honor of ALL TIME!) and Yoko went off to Las Vegas to prance around the MGM for a job. I doubt she has left the sleazy indoors since she landed, and I haven’t talked to her–even chatted with her, ALL WEEK.

I don’t know what to do with myself. WHERE IS YOKO???

So, in ode to Yoko, I give you the breakfast of champions: NATTO. Yes, it sure is gross, stinky, slimy. We love natto here at Umamimart, and will keep putting it in your face until you realize its awesomeness. It’s so damn good for you, what are you waiting for? Yoko even makes her own! She has mastered it, I’m so proud of her.

But I’m not that crafty, so I just buy the styro packs at the Japanese market. My favorite brand is “Okame”.

I think it tastes great, and pretty cheap at around $3 for a pack of three. Trust me, I’ve tried every brand of natto out on the shelves at this point, and this is still my favorite, even though there are cheaper or more fancier versions these days.

I try to eat natto at least a few days a week–my freezer overflows with packs and packs of natto. It’s the perfect power food for a lazyass like me cause it is such minimal prep work. I don’t eat much in the morning, but if I wake up slightly hungry, I’ll have a pack of natto. Scallions are mandatory.

Empty the natto pack, MSG soy sauce and mustard into a bowl, together with sliced scallions.

Mix vigorously.

There was this “scientific study” that came out in Japan about ten years ago that said that the more of the white slime you can create while stirring means more nutrients you are extracting from the soy beans. So it became a huge fad to get your crazy slime on, and they even designed all these specialized natto-stirring gadgets (like this one) that supposedly helped to produce more of the slime. Oy. Those Japanese scientists and their crazy studies! (And the Japanese mass public that hang onto every word).

Anyhow, for more tactile texture, I will usually add something to my natto. Avocado, cucumbers, wakame, whatever. Today, I had some spicy, fresh arugula. A natto salad, hooray!

Vegetarians! Vegans! Eaters! Yah, I’m talking to you. Get with the program, people! Natto a day, keeps the doctor away.

Come home soon, Yoko!

*More awe-inspiring natto recipes on Umamimart here. Natto MOffins, holla!

There are quite a few breakfast sandwich recipes in Japan that uses natto. The natto & cheese on toast sounded pretty good. Put natto and cheese on bread or an English muffin and toast it, I guess. But it is too straightforward and not my style. I wanted to push natto’s culinary limit.

When I was researching around  for what I could do with natto, I found this horrifying sandwich in Tokyo. The place is called Kurama, and they are pretty crazy/awesome. I’ve never been there, but their signature sandwich is a natto/coffee jello/whipped cream sandwich. Sounds disgusting, right?  To those who tried my Natto MOffin, you should have found it surprisingly mild, as mixing natto with strong flavored ingredients, such as red bean paste or coffee removes the distinct smell of natto. So mixing natto with coffee jello is a smart idea.

So I finally went to a Japanese grocery store, and found coffee jello, and made them, to see if it’s edible. Since Kurama is a legit sandwich shop, and their most popular item is this very natto/coffee/whipped cream sandwich, it must be good. I am sure there are a lot of people who buy the sandwich out of curiosity or a dare, but every business is conscious about what they sell, and no one wants a bad reputation, right?

The recipe is pretty simple.

Heavy cream (200ml)
White bread (14 slices)
Coffee jello (3 packs)
Natto (2 packs)
4 tbsp sugar

Whip cream with sugar, break down coffee jello into small pieces.

Cut crusts off the bread, and spread about 1tbsp of whipped cream on each slice of bread (about seven slices). Don’t worry about being precise, since it will spread out nicely when you press the sandwich together.

Put about 1tbsp of coffee jello on top.

And then, put about 1tsp (you want to divide one package of natto into 5 sandwiches).  By the way, don’t mix natto beforehand in this recipe. You should just take it out of the container and slather it on top of the cream/coffee jello.  Try to spread it as best you can, even though it’s pretty slimy.

Add a dollop of cream on top of the natto, and cover it with other piece of bread.

Wrap each sandwich individually and put in fridge for at least an hour.  Apparently this process will “marinate” all the flavors together.

I brought these to a party, so no final pictures, but it looks just as you imagine in your head.  Yes it is sticky and cutting it in half was hard. Eating it was even harder since it’s very sticky. The taste? I am not surprised it is the most popular item at Kurama. You don’t taste the natto, other than the fact that you taste soy beans. The coffee totally hides natto flavor, and the whole mixture tasted oddly familiar. I can’t tell exactly what it is, but it is like something we ate when we were kids.  Maybe cheap cream and coffee mixture reminded all of us of something from childhood.

Having written all this, I feel it’s a bit too unrealistic of a recipe.  I don’t see any Umamimart readers willing to try this. But if you are going to a potluck party, and wanted to impress/gross out/being talked about throughout the evening, this is something you might consider. It looks just like a tea sandwich since I cut them up into fourth, and the only difference is that: 1. It’s dessert; 2. It’s sticky; 3. It has natto inside. The rest is nothing out of the ordinary.

I dare Yoko to try this with your homegrown natto.

I think I am over my natto exploration with this post.

The idea of a salad at many Japanese restaurants in America is some iceberg lettuce, julliened carrots and a cherry tomato (if your lucky) – topped with a creamy, sesame dressing. I can say that I am sometimes a fan of this combination, but it’s really not the kind of salad you will ever see in Tokyo. Iceberg lettuce with sesame dressing is basically an American salad with “Japanese” dressing.

Izakaya’s in Tokyo serve a plethora of salads – from daikon salads, to cucumber sunomono to shrimp salads. But the thing that was so obviously Japanese (wafu) about salads in Tokyo were that most, if not all, the ingredients were derived from the Japanese cuisine ingredient list. We are talking tofu, seafood and seaweed, not cheese, bacon bits and lettuce.

The best part about concocting a Japanese salad is that it can be way less time-consuming to make than an American or leaf-based salad that requires rinsing, straining, spinning and tearing or cutting. In fact, this post could very well be fit into Kayoko’s beloved Lazyass Cookin’ series, so I decided to throw “Lazyass” into the title of this post.

The second best part about Japanese salads is that they are most likely protein-heavy and pack plenty of flavor. See for yourself. Here are the ingredients for my salad.

For the salad:
1/2 a block of tofu, cubed
2 tbs of dried wakame (rehydrated)
a handful of cherry tomatoes
2 tbs of natto (optional – you can also substitute with boiled shrimp or sesame seeds)

For the dressing:
1/2 tsp of Wasabi
Pinch of sugar
2 tsp of Yuzu Passion ponzu* (or other varieties of Ponzu)
1 1/2 tsp rice vinegar
3 tsp EVOO

Mix together all the ingredients for the dressing. Mix them together in a measuring cup for an even pour onto the salad later.

* Mainstream ponzu such as Mizkan’s Ajipon or Kikkoman’s Ponzu can be used, but be aware that these varieties have MSG in them, and in a salad dressing the MSG taste can be very obvious. I have been using Yuzu Passion‘s Yuzu Soy Sauce which contains no MSG and makes a huge difference especially in a salad where nothing is cooked and every ingredient is tasted. Also, yuzu really adds a curiously good kick of freshness that lemons can’t (which is what the mainstream folks use).

For the salad, cube up the tofu, rehydrate the wakame (10-20 minutes), wash the cherry tomatoes and reserve about 2 tbs of natto. The concept is similar to a caprese salad, except the tofu replaces the mozerella, and the wakame replaces the basil leaves.

Wakame rehydration:

For an aesthetically pleasing salad, its best to stack the ingredients from largest to smallest. So I layered them on the plate in the following order: tofu, cherry tomatoes, wakame and natto.

Once the dressing has had time to sit for about 10 minutes (or roughly the time it takes to put together the salad) mix it up again so that the oil is evenly distributed with the other ingredients and slowly pour the dressing onto the salad. The great thing about wakame and tofu is that they will soak up the dressing and every bite will be delightfully saturated with dressing.

This is a perfect dish to whip up for an emergency dinner party. Except for the Yuzu soy sauce (which can be substituted for mainstream ponzu) and the dry wakame, all the items should be available at the corner store.

This is a whole new level of ReCPY, everyone. I’ve created many baked goods in the past, but nothing compares to this. I heard Iron Chef had an episode on natto, and Morimoto made some kind of dessert with natto soaked in Coca-Cola or something. The thought of natto mixed with something sweet made me gag, but I researched a bit more about the possibility.

Why the fuck did I want to find a recipe for natto being used in dessert? I have no idea, probably because I was salivating from Yoko’s natto post from the other day, with the picture of the natto/ume/shiso sushi.

During my research, I found some of the weirdest desserts with natto that are available in Japan. Natto crepes with whipped cream, and coffee jello. Apparently the strong coffee flavor kills the distinct natto flavor, so all you taste is soy, with the sticky texture. A lot of natto desserts I found were like this, mixing something with a strong a flavor to mask the natto taste, but keeping the texture of natto.

So I came across a site where this guy tried mixing natto with sugar, honey, and other sweet ingredients. I thought natto and red beans would be an interesting combination.

Though I thought about giving up on making MO-Desserts, sticky natto and sticky MOffins sounds like a great match, right? So I did it with a bit of skepticism and excitement.

There is something wrong this picture. Natto next to a can of sweet red bean paste.

I first added about 3 tblsp of red beans to three packs of natto (without the mustard and soy sauce that come with). These beans are already sweetened, by the way.

Mixing this was a lot different from mixing regular natto. Somehow when natto meets sugar, it gets very hard, making it very tough to mix them together. Maybe natto is a guy and he gets a hard-on when he encounters the red beans. After all, they are in the same bean family, so there might be a sexual attraction. Good sign, I guess.

Disgustingly sticky. I added a bit more red beans, so in the end, three packs of natto and a half of a can of red beans is about right.

Then I made my regular MOffin, this time half the batch. 2 eggs, 50ml oil, a cup of milk, half a box of mochi flour, and still 1 tblsp baking powder. I wasn’t sure what to do with the natto mixture. I could have put it in the middle, but the amount was a bit too much, so I decided to simply combine them together. NO smell of natto here. Just sticky.

If you didn’t know what was really inside, this just looks like regular muffins with red beans in it or something, right?

It rose very nicely.  Still looks like regular muffin, right?

Finally it cooled, and I split it in half. Though I couldn’t take pictures of it, it was definitely a bit sticky, as in natto sticky.

Close up of the inside. You can see the natto and red beans inside.

Verdict? This was very good. Also, for those natto-haters, you are eating natto without knowing it– unless you are told there’s natto in it, you would never know (other than the fact it’s a bit sticky-er than usual MOffin). If you like natto, it may be a bit disappointing, since there’s no natto flavor. The only distinctive natto part of this MOffin was you definitely have the typical sticky-and-itchy-around-your-mouth-post-natto-consumption effect.

Who knew natto can be used this way? I am a fucking genius.

I was greeted with a pleasant surprise on April 19 when I opened my Gmail account. There was to be a debut release party for an organic natto product the next day at San Francisco’s Ozumo. This almost felt like when I heard the news for the release date of the latest Pavement album in the 1994 (Wowee Zowee). I could already imagine being in a room full of natto-heads – obsessing over the stretchiness of the fermented soy bean strings instead of say, Steve Malkmus’ improvisational lyrics.

In a overexcited flurry, I contacted Kayoko to see if she could make it, then I called my sister. It seemed that I lacked a date to this “gig” but it did not hinder my enthusiasm when I thought of indulging in tasty natto bites over flasks of sake. In less than 24 hours I was riding the BART over to the Embarcadero. The entrance to Ozumo was just how I remembered it when I went for dinner nearly seven years ago – hip-snazziness circa 2000 for the dot-com singles scene. The event was held in the front bar area, and a big poster was placed at the entrance – Megumi Natto.

Ozumo, San Francisco entrance

Ozumo bar tabletops with organic Megumi Natto

Appetizer menu for the event. Sadly, I did not get to try all of them. Just the rolls.

Unfazed by my friendless state, I indulged in little rolls of natto-maki and sake. I had to say that I was impressed by the quality of the natto. Firm and really stretchy, these soy jewels tasted nutty and full of umami. Since they were not frozen, they exhibited the same “life” that my home made natto does, they were not mushy or mealy.

Natto with shiso and ume

I later talked to the founder of Japan Traditional Foods, Mr. Sato and his colleague “Dallas” who make the natto and found out that I was holding the first ever organic natto sold in America. They make one batch a week and deliver it to several West Coast locations including the Berkeley Bowl West, Nijiya Markets and UWAJIMAYA Seattle, just to name a few. Mr. Sato also advised me to smell the natto – he said that they are also sensitive to making the natto smell less pungent. I do not know whether this is a result of the organic process, but it was true – organic Megumi Natto smelled less strong than the varieties imported from Japan (although as a natto-head, I really love that smell).

“Dallas” and Sato-san

Organic Megumi Natto

By the end of the night, I was able to satisfy my urge to talk passionately about natto, make friends and have three glasses of sake. My BART ride home was a happy one and as soon as I got home, I went to the Megumi Natto website where I found a video of Mr. Sato demonstrating different natto recipes. I commend them for trying to break into the non-Japanese market, but the recipe for “Natto Bagel” is not one I am in a hurry to try. I still think that natto over rice is the best way to savor this food.

The release party for Megumi Natto signaled a new era for me. It’s time that natto enters the American vernacular – it may take a while, but it is happening thanks to people like Mr. Sato and the readers of Umamimart. If one does decide to plunge into the world of natto, I would say that the less pungent-smelling organic Megumi Natto might be a suitable choice.

A friend of mine who recently tried natto for the first time mentioned that he had it with shiso which kind of “canceled-out” the signature natto smell – therefore making it bearable for him to eat. Using foods such as shiso and mustard as “training-wheels” for natto seems like a pretty good idea. Although, I would say that in an ideal world, only people who love natto should eat it just as I see no need to force mashed peas down a crying baby’s throat. It’s an insult to the peas that enthusiastically grew under the sun and to the person who carefully mashed them.

One last roll for the road

Natto is the one of those foods that elicits strong reactions. I get overwhelmed with a sense of joy and excitement, but the response I hear from most people (who aren’t from or aren’t descendants of the eastern regions of Japan) is pure disgust.

I remember how clueless I was junior year in college when I stocked up on natto and brought it back to my fridge that I shared with four other UC Santa Cruzers. As I was innocently devouring a package of natto, my roommate barged in yelling “Oh my god! What is that smell?!” My answer to her was, “Are you talking about your pet rat?” as I gestured my chopsticks (all stringy with natto strands) to point at the corner of the room where her pet rat resided. She shook her head and inched in closer to me to inspect the contents of my bowl.

It never registered to me that cold food could smell — and up until that point, I never suspected that natto even had a smell.

That was my first lesson in how natto could offend people. From that day forward, I could not eat natto so long as I lived with roommates.

Natto is fermented soybeans that were traditionally made in kotatsus in Japanese homes in the Kanto (Tokyo) region. It’s like yogurt in the way that you start with a culture. In the case of natto, the culture used is bacillus subtilis and the medium is soybeans which are left in a humid, warm environment for 24 hours. The result is a mixture of stringy, luscious soybeans that are kind of like a soft cheese in texture with an aroma like no other. Some describe it like smelly French cheese… while my roommates told me it smelled like feet.

Natto is getting some attention because of its health benefits. Eastern regions of Japan have less incidence of osteoporosis. Plus, that sticky stuff apparently contains some enzymes that thin the blood, therefore, preventing heart attacks, strokes and certain types of cancers. I guess they even sell natto in pill form and call it “Nattokinase” here in the west.

My love for natto was evident from my early days — soon after I exited the womb. But our bond strengthened exponentially when I moved to Tokyo where I could indulge in my love for it with no shame or judgment from my peers. Plus they were regularly priced at a dirt-cheap 30-cents a serving. I would eat a package every morning before dashing off to work. It was like my daily cup of coffee.

So when I came back to the U.S. last month, I braced myself for an environment that would challenge my love affair with natto. It’s not that expensive here in California at about $2.00 for three servings, but that’s still about twice the amount I was used to in Tokyo. Plus, it’s not readily available, say at the local 7-11 or Safeway.

I concluded that the only way I could rely on a steady and affordable supply of natto was to make it myself. My experience with making yogurt for four years, gave me the confidence to try my hand at natto as well.

Here’s how I made it:

1) Gather together the following ingredients and supplies: 1 lb of soybeans, a store bought pack of natto, water, glass containers, foil

2) Soak soybeans overnight in plenty of water.

After one night:

3) Drain the soybeans.

4) Steam the soybeans until you can smush them between your thumb and pointer finger.

I used my rice cooker which also can act as a pressure cooker. I ended up steaming the soybeans for 40 minutes.

5) While the soybeans are steaming, sterilize the glass containers you will use to ferment the soybeans in. I set my oven to 250 degrees and placed my glass containers in there for about 30 minutes.

6) Break out the store-bought package of natto.

7) Once the soybeans are done steaming, combine them with the store-bought package of natto.

8) Mix well then place the beans into the sterilized jars. Cover the jars with aluminum foil. Poke holes in the foil so that the soybeans can “breathe” during the fermentation process.

9) Okay, the beans are now ready to ferment. The basic idea for creating an ideal environment is to keep the beans in a humid, warm climate at about 40 degrees celsius (think mid-August Tokyo in a small room on the fourth floor with no windows and air conditioning). So I decided to keep the jars in my Crock-pot filled with a little bit of water on the “warm” setting. People also seem to use ice boxes filled with hot water bottles.

10) Wait for 24 hours.

The suspense got the best of me and I took a peek inside after 12 hours:

And the next morning they really seemed all mature and grown up.

Look at the stringiness!!! I was a very proud parent.

11) But the wait was not over. These beads of joy must be aged for umami in air-tight containers for a few days to one week in the refrigerator.

12) I finally got to indulge today over rice and I experienced a deep sense of pride and accomplishment. With a dash of soy sauce and Japanese mustard mixed into my home-made natto, I knew I had achieved nirvana for my taste buds and wallet.

13) To complete the cycle, freeze a portion of the natto to use as the starter for the next batch of natto.

You read it right – 88 cents (or yen). I have mastered the art of cheap bastardism, and come up with a meal that could be the favorite for both my taste buds and my wallet. In a city like Tokyo, where you expect to spend $30-40 for a dinner out with friends, here’s a low-key and delicious alternative.

Here’s how to make 88 cent Natto-Negi-Shiso Soba:

1. Boil water in a medium pot and add soba noodles to it.

2. Meanwhile mix up your natto in the styrofoam container, cut shiso leaf and one green onion finely. Combine the greens with the natto.

3. Drain your noodles and put them in an attractive donburi bowl. Top with natto mixture and drizzle a tablespoon or two of soba dashi.

4. Sprinkle sesame seeds (optional).

Here’s the cost breakdown:

Natto 23 yen (3-pack at 68 yen)
Soba 45 yen (4 servings at 178 yen)
Green onion 13 yen (15 stalks at 198 yen)
Shiso leaf 7 yen (15 at 98 yen)
Total: 88 yen