Gingerbread meets Rotten Beans

While most homes are filled with scents of Christmas - warm butter, gingerbread and peppermint, cinnamon in cocoa and vanilla from fresh baked cookies - our homes are filled with the pungent aroma of fermenting beans.

This is the week for making natto, that love it or hate it kind of food so popular in Kumamoto (but eaten everywhere in Japan). Cooked soybeans will negate any buttery spicy smells that were in the house to begin with. Cooked soybeans are strong enough to even cancel out the wet dog aroma. After they are all cooked, they will be fermented overnight and the earthy smell will permeate every pore in the wooden walls. Thank you God for not giving me a sense of smell. Even the dog is begging to go outside.

How to make this noxious stuff? Next post. I like natto, don't get me wrong, I can eat it easily probably because I can't smell it. Packaged and in the refrigerator, it isn't offensive, but making it is a whole different experience.

If you have purchased natto in the little styrofoam boxes, you have not really enjoyed natto. For me, anything eaten out of a styrofoam box is going to be wicked. Homemade natto is not as sticky, the beans are soft and nothing is added to alter the flavor. If you are going to eat natto, it is totally worth stinking up the house.