Roots and Grubs

Mmm (bibim) bop

Posted by mamster on Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Yesterday we took Iris to the bun bakery and the central library. As we entered the children’s section of the library, I spied a book that appeared to be a children’s book about bibimbap. On closer inspection, it turned out to be a children’s book about bibimbap.

Bibimbap, for the uninitiated, is a Korean dish consisting of a bowl of rice topped with assorted flavorful meats and vegetables and a fried egg. My favorite variation is dolsot bibimbap, where the rice is placed in a dangerously hot stone bowl and the egg is cracked over the top, raw. The bottom of the rice gets brown and crunchy, a condition I like to call “crunchy rice bottom” and which is also highly valued in certain Persian dishes.

I get dolsot bibimbap sometimes at my local Korean restaurant, and I had to develop an elaborate pantomime over the course of several visits to convince them that I actually wanted the raw egg. In retrospect, I should have just looked up the Korean for “I’d like a raw egg.” Bibimbap is not complete without a large dose of kochujang, Korean hot sauce.

The kid’s book is great, and Iris demanded it at bedtime, even though she has never tried bibimbap. As I read it, I had a sense of deja vu, and I remembered that the very first time we went to the central library, I spied what appeared to be a children’s book about natto. It turned out to be a children’s book about natto.

Natto, for the uninitiated, is a Japanese torture device consisting of soybeans fermented with an evil bacterium that turns them into a stringy and foul-smelling mass. There’s an Iron Chef episode devoted to natto, and it is ten times scarier than Shark Week.

A Japanese-speaking friend explained that the story is about a kid who asks his grandfather how natto is made, and his grandfather shows him. Probably the kid was looking for a ten-second answer, or perhaps his grandfather is hard of hearing, and what the kid actually asked was, “Why do I have to eat this?”

Perhaps you don’t believe me. Well, I have pictures.

• Front cover
• Confronting the demon
• Initiated into the cult

I told my friend Rob, who has lived in Japan, about the natto book. “Have you ever had natto?” I asked him.

“Sure, I have it for breakfast every day,” he replied. And he was serious. I guess that is one way to kick ass. If you wake up with natto, the rest of the day is going to be cake.

Okay, I realize natto is probably no more an acquired taste than Thai shrimp paste, which I like, but it’s not like you run into natto that often in Seattle, so it’s easier to just make fun of it.