Jason is back in town on a return trip from Japan, and he decided to bring along a box of delicious treats. This included several packages of natto. Natto is a Japanese food made from fermented soy beans, and it has a very stringy and slimy texture.

The first step in the preparation is to mix up the natto with some chopsticks, and add in some soy sauce and hot mustard. This mixing process makes the natto very sticky and stringy, and as Jason kept saying “the stringier, the better.” We then put in on some rice and ate it with some seaweed. Not a bad flavor, just a very interesting texture.

Mixing up the natto.

Demonstrating some stringiness.

Natto on rice with seaweed.

I am back home in Seattle for a little while hanging out. Nate and I decided to cook up some squash and zucchini blossoms. Nate stuffed them with a mix of cream cheese, parmesan, onion, zucchini, basil, parsley, and salt and pepper. Then we breaded them with a simple batter of milk and flour. We also fried a couple that were plain. They made a nice complement to our meal of salad, broccoli from my mom’s garden and fresh liver.

Fried Squash Blossoms

Liver, Broccoli and Salad