puerco

i've heard that people either love natto or hate it, but does anyone else find it boring? sure it's gooey and smells a little funky, but it's got nothing on some of the stinkier french washed-rind cheeses, and the taste, well, it tastes like, um, soybeans. i'm really surprised that anyone would have strong reaction one way or the other to it, miso and shoyu are both stronger flavors by miles.

the first one looks pretty close to what i remember. still doesn't look like something i would want to bite the head off of . how exactly are these prepared? are they any good? i've always kind of regretted not trying it. thanks to you both for solving that mystery.

it may have been ayu. it was late september. on one part of the trip they took us to the mountains to catch some little fish with our bare hands and grill them by a fire. i think those were ayu, the fish i'm thinking about was about the same size. nobody ate the head and bones from the ones we caught in the stream though.

hmm, i remember it being bigger than that. about the same length, but fatter. and much less appetizing to my eyes. the ones in your picture look small enough to eat whole, but the one i remember was big enough that eating it whole did not seem to be a reasonable thing to do. it was big enough that only one was served as the main portion of the lunch. maybe my memory is just not that good. maybe i have a picture of it somewhere, if i can find it i will post it. thanks for your response.

It was much bigger than the little fish in Torakris's picture. If it had been little sardines like that, I don't think i would have had a problem trying it. It was closer in size to Hiroyuki's, but different looking, a bit rounder, and it was eaten whole. It took the guy sitting across from me 3 or 4 big bites to eat it, starting with the head, and everyone who ate it ate it the same way, so it wasn't just that guy's peculiar taste. I think the best answer I got to what it was was "fish". I speak no Japanese and the Japanese kids spoke very little English. There are a few foods that I really liked that i still have no idea what they were , for that same reason.

Hello, this is my first post to eGullet, and I hope this thread is an appropriate place for this question. Quite some time ago, I visited Kanazawa on a school trip, and among the many interesting dishes we were served was a cold lunch that included a small whole fish (about 15 cm or so, if I remember correctly) that appeared to have been cooked or pickled in a brown sauce. I'm not sure whether it was gutted or not, it didn't look like it to me. The Japanese kids ate it whole, head first. I don't think any of us Americans even tasted it, it didn't look the least bit appetizing to me. Sorry if it's anyone's favorite dish or anything like that. Can someone tell me what this is called? Is it a common way of preparing fish, and is it common to eat fish bones and all like that? It was the only thing I couldn't bring myself to try, most everything else I had while I was there was crazy delicious, even the not-quite-dead-yet sashimi, but after 19 years, I can still see that shriveled brown fish looking up at me from the bento box and it still doesn't look good at all. Did I miss out on a tasty treat?