Day 25: Not Soy Sauce; Return of Crazy Cartoon Natto Chef

Yesterday I went to the Jas Mart on the Upper West Side and bought a pack of the infamous "Crazy-Cartoon-Natto-Chef" natto. Last time we had this it started to go bad, so I wanted to try it again. This time it wasn't rotten, but I found it really, really bland. I guess that's a good thing, since I take it as a sign that I've developed some natto resistance and the ability to distinguish between nattos to some extent. It still tasted like natto, but didn't have the rich nuttiness or gooey neba neba. Avoid this brand, I say.

Also, it came with a thick paste (packet at left). This follows on an interesting thread started by Morgan, in which she informed us that the packets in most natto boxes are not soy sauce, as we had believed, but rather tsuyu. I have no idea what the packet in this box was -- it tasted a little bit like the bad "duck sauce" you get with cheap Chinese take out, and had little flakes of something (fish?) in it. At any rate, it didn't do much to enhance the flavor, and I definitely prefer the tsuyu and mustard packets in most natto boxes.