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One afternoon, I invited a few Japanese friends over for a potluck lunch. We had been talking a lot about our favorite foods, but I had never tried most of their Japanese dishes and they had never tried my American favorites. It was time to introduce each other to our favorite foods! They would each bring one special dish to my house and I would cook something too.

That morning, I went to the store to pick up ground beef, tomatoes, lettuce, and cheese. Then I went over to the Sogo department store, which had a huge gourmet market in the basement. There I found my secret ingredients – Mexican seasoning, salsa, and tortilla shells. I was making tacos!

My dish was ready by the time my friends arrived. I couldn’t wait for them to try the tacos – and I couldn’t wait to try the food they had brought.

We arranged the dishes on the table and filled our plates. One girl had brought nikujaga, a beef, potato, and onion dish simmered in a sweet soy sauce. Another girl had made korokke, potato croquettes adapted to the Japanese palate. And someone else had prepared rare cheesecake, which I had only seen in Japan. Yum!

But then I saw the last dish. What the heck was that?

I looked carefully at the sticky brown concoction in a white foam container. But I couldn’t get too close – the smell was horrendous! It could only be one thing…

Natto.

I had heard of natto before. Fermented soybeans. It was supposed to be extremely healthy – but I didn’t care. How could anyone eat something that smelled so horrible?

My friends laughed at me as they helped themselves to the natto. They loved it! OK, if they could eat it, so could I. I decided to put my fears aside and give it a try.

Never again!

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