"The first time Saki ate the fermented soybean dish called natto, she was 7 months old. She promptly vomited."
Yes, that sounds about right. Natto is the single most disgusting food I've ever eaten. It looks like snot and smells like some kind of animal vomit.
One nitpick with the article: I know that the food was put out to be photographed, but seriously - Oyku Ozarslan from Istanbul has eleven dishes put out before her on the table for breakfast? Are her parents doing anything else but preparing and then washing dishes?! If I did that in my house we would have FIFTY FIVE dishes to clean before 8:00am :-)
Thanks for reminding me of simit, used to be the thing I'd have between breakfast and lunch when I was working in Istanbul. The weird thing is I could probably get something very similiar in London but I never even bothered to, it just doesn't feel the same having it out of that context (of all different flavours). It's completely psychological (and wrong). I miss Istanbul.
Natto is indeeed disgusting on first experience, but my 2-year-old eats natto and rice for breakfast every morning (this is in Japan). We've tried to vary it up, but he insistently shouts natto!
I first experienced it at age 15 and it was revolting -- stinky slime with small soybeans in it. BUT I ate it to be polite to my Japanese hosts... and lo and behold after about 5 times I found myself wanting more. Now I eat it regularly, and find it delicious. :)
I keep trying to eat natto every time I go to Japan, but I just can't get over the sliminess. I don't find the smell or taste unpalatable -- it's the texture that does me in.
My only advice is try, try again. For me the magic number was 5 days in a row. I'm really glad I acquired the taste/slime-tolerance though, because now it is one of my favorite foods.
If you can already deal with the smell/taste, then you might like it better as in natto-maki form:
I used to have this issue with mushrooms. I mostly got over it by introducing a small amount of mushrooms (buried in other veggies) with my meal. First uncooked (because the texture is not as revolting uncooked) then cooked. Then I emphasized the mushrooms more and more in my meals. Very slowly. Now I mostly like them!
I'm guessing Natto has a similar smell/taste to Korean Cheonggukjang (청국장), which smells like an a pair of wet moldy socks or old shoes, but the moment you get it in your mouth and the flavor your tastebuds detect combines with the smell your nose is gettings, it suddenly makes "sense" and is absolutely delicious -- an incredible hearty flavor with all these wonderful subtle under and overtones (sometimes with a hint of of a kind of smokiness). It's the weirdest taste hack I've ever encountered in food and one of my favorite Korean dishes.
It's made out of a kind of fermented soybean as well.
Japanese food is the most disgusting I know of. Pick any random dish and there's a 50% chance it will be disgusting to me and untrained people in general. That said, it's supposed to be healthy - I would love to like it.
Most food is acquired taste, thabs to our evolved brains that instinctively avoid potential poisons. Eat it five times, don't die, and it becomes palatable
They could likely say the same thing about randomly-selected dishes from your cuisine. You drink milk, like a baby? And not even your own species, but out of the bottom of a cow? And sometimes you let it go bad to the point where it solidifies? And sometimes you take THAT and let it grow MOLD?!
And it's not just the Japanese... Ask a Southern European what they think of Wonder Bread, for example.
Yes, that sounds about right. Natto is the single most disgusting food I've ever eaten. It looks like snot and smells like some kind of animal vomit.
One nitpick with the article: I know that the food was put out to be photographed, but seriously - Oyku Ozarslan from Istanbul has eleven dishes put out before her on the table for breakfast? Are her parents doing anything else but preparing and then washing dishes?! If I did that in my house we would have FIFTY FIVE dishes to clean before 8:00am :-)