🍱 Soboro Natto/Shoboro Natto (Natto mixed with Dried strips of Daikon radish)

In Mito City, making natto was popular to enjoy early small soybeans harvested before typhoon season. 'Shoboro' is a dialect of ‘Soboro' meaning ‘powdered' or ‘minced'. People made natto with soybeans harvested in the autumn, and made efforts to keep natto longer when they provided natto to their neighbors or temples. 'Soboro natto' is a traditional dish in Mito City prepared by marinating natto and dried strips of daikon radish with salt and soy sauce. Dried strips of daikon radish were exposed to the sun and cold wind for 3days, then frozen by night wind on the last day. The texture is crispy. Natto is well-known product in Mito City. Yoshiie Minamoto, a samurai in the late Heian Period (about 11th century) loved natto when he ate simmered soybeans wrapped with straws in Mito City. Natto had offered to Samurai ‘Shogun' General since then, and both soybeans and straws were easy to obtain for ordinary people, natto has been popular since then. Small soybean is grown in the city to survive flood from the Naka River, and it distinguishes natto in Mito from other natto. Natto is still prepared in some homes in Ibaragi Prefecture. Home-made natto has strong smell and unique flavor. That makes people who get used to eat natto commercially sold surprised. There is a traditional natto dish you can't find anywhere other than Mito City and the central region of the prefecture; that's ‘Soboro/Shoboro Natto'. Daikon radish is also harvested a lot in Ibaragi Prefecture, and every home prepared dried strip daikon radish as a preservative food. When they get not-stringy natto, they mixed it with dried strips and marinated them together. It's a common ordinally dish because it's easy to prepare. We can say it is created to keep natto longer by adding not only dried strips but also soy sauce and mirin (sweet rice wine).