101 uses for the soy bean

the soy bean is used almost as much as rice in japanese cooking, from the bean itself (edamame) to tofu, soy milk, soy sauce, miso paste, natto (fermented beans - see june), and of course, soy sauce.
if you are allergic to milk - Japan is a great place to be.

it's an amazingly versatile thing and fermenting it allows for longer life expectancy for human and bean. allegedly miso paste evolved from battle: when a clan was under seige a tactic used by attackers was to starve them out - until someone spotted a horse eating fermenting beans and the original natto or miso was born.

I've included the picture above to prove the point as well as show that some stereotypes are kinda true. of course most japanese, especially young things, eat a french breakfast consisting of a coffee and a 2 inch, or 50mm wedge of pan (yes, the japanese decided to use the french word for bread) slathered with butter. Actually we generally only get around to having a traditional breakfast if we have the day off - just like we'd only have a 'full' breakfast in scotland at the weekend.

here we have then, 4 types of soy in a traditional breakfast - luxurious rice with wheat/whole beans topped with fermented natto and a bowl of miso shiru with spinach and tofu pieces.

it almost rivals porridge as a start to the day.