Kyoto’s only natto specialty restaurant, Natto Sosaku Cuisine Natsumame (納豆創作料理 夏豆) offers Japanese comfort food ingeniously concocted with natto.
What is natto? Imagine a cup of beans that has been left in an abandoned house for like 10 years. It should be sticky and smells. Natto is almost it. The good news is, natto only smells like 10-day socks, could be 3-day in summer. Not lethal anyway.
Natto is edible, fermented soybeans. It is one of the most disgusting Japanese food that always entertains non-Japanese people. Meanwhile, natto can be a no-no for some Japanese too. But in the big picture, natto is still widely accepted and loved in Japanese society.
The facade of Natsumame (夏豆).
Natsumame (Natto Sosaku Cuisine Natsumame / 納豆創作料理 夏豆) is considered Kyoto’s only natto specialty restaurant that is 100% betting on natto. In a cozy-yet-refined koryoriya (小料理屋) accommodation, Natsumame offers Japanese comfort food concocted with natto. Dishes at Natsumame are essentially sosaku cuisine (創作料理) as its name “Natto Sosaku Cuisine Natsumame” explains.
Sosaku cuisine (創作料理) means any cuisine that is creative, innovative, inventive, or experimental. “A chef’s original recipes with a twist” might convey what sosaku cuisine purports to be.
Natsumame’s food menu. 1/2
Natsumame’s food menu. 2/2
Natsumame’s 2-page food menu read a concise report of natto’s capabilities. The items on the menu were sorted by categories such as vegetable dish, egg dish, soybean dish, appetizers, rice dish, noodle dish, and dessert. Each category had a prefix “for natto lovers.”
Tsukidashi natto sampler.
Tsukidashi (突き出し/free appetizer) came with two types of natto: mass-produced natto with American soybeans (left) and Shiraito Natto from Niigata, Japan (right). “Feel the difference,” the chef said. The Japanese natto didn’t smell as socks as the American’s. What just happened?
Potato salad with natto dressing
The presentation of potato salad with the vivid ajitama (味玉) on top spoke of Natsumame’s nowness as an up-to-date Japanese eatery. The umami-rich natto dressing with a complex natto bitterness functioned as a successful kick.
Nattohan.
Nattohan (natto rice) is Natsumame’s specialty that represents “Natto Sosaku Cuisine” well.
Nattohan is essentially a natto on rice with five condiments that can demonstrate how the Japanese consume natto in a bougie way. The natto is mixed with ground meat which supplemented the overall satisfaction as a main dish.
The five condiments are Kujo green onions (九条葱), Japanese myoga gingers (茗荷), oba perilla (大葉), Kyoto shibazuke pickles (柴漬), and kaiware radish sprouts (かいわれ大根). These are the complete sample of Kyoto’s herbs and spices.
Nebabonara.
The word “Nebabonara” is Natsumame’s coinage that is the combination of two words “sticky (nebaneba / ねばねば)” and “carbonara.”
The bitterness and stickiness of natto were transformed into the richness and creaminess of carbonara. With its Japanese sukiyaki flavor, Nebabonara expelled Romans and other foreign powers from the dish. I smelled the future of Japanese natto taking over the global dairy products market.
Sipping Kyoto’s craft gin “KI NO BI (季の美).”
Natto icecream with a monaka (最中) wafer.
Japan’s sosaku cuisine nowadays can be anything. The term has been overused for so long that it starts to sound tasteless. But sosaku cuisine at Natsumame doesn’t. The dishes were the art based on research and study and tasted good (most importantly!). Natsumame has salvaged the Japanese cliché from the red ocean of sosaku Italiens and whatnot.
KEEP CALM AND TRY NATTO.
Natsumame (夏豆) | 561-17 Komatsucho, Higashiyama Ward, Kyoto, 〒605-0811, Japan
Potato salad: ¥750 / $5 / £4.40 / €5
Nattohan: ¥1,200 / $10 / £7 / €10
Nebabonara: ¥1,200 / $10 / £7 / €10
KI NO BI: ¥950 / $6.30 / £5.60 / €6.30
Natto icecream: ¥500 / $3.30 / £3.10 / €3.30
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Natsumame (夏豆) | 561-17 Komatsucho, Higashiyama Ward, Kyoto, 〒605-0811, Japan
