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It’s a superfood but natto as we know it. Japan’s slimy fermented beans are coming your way
Category
Lifestyle
Published
Monday, September 14, 2026 at 11:54 PM
Publisher
The Guardian Lifestyle
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The Guardian Lifestyle 9 hours ago

It’s a superfood but natto as we know it. Japan’s slimy fermented beans are coming your way

Quick Summary

Comprised of smelly soya beans held together by strands of mucus, the ancient dish is appearing in health food shops across the world It is smelly, slimy and contains bacteria – and a sizeable number of Japanese wouldn’t touch it with a pair of barge pole-length chopsticks. But after centuries as a breakfast food for Japanese diners with nerves of steel, natto is emerging as a global superfood to rival kimchi , kombucha and kefir . Its exact origins are unknown. Some believe it was introduced to Japan from China by Buddhist monks during the Yayoi period (300BC-AD300), before becoming a staple among rural communities during the Edo period (1603-1868). Continue reading...

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Solo autumn walks for women in the UK and Europe: ‘it should be fun, not daunting’
Solo autumn walks for women in the UK and Europe: ‘it should be fun, not daunting’

Hiking alone in the countryside can be joyous, but for women it can sometimes feel unnerving. Here’s how to enjoy it safely, plus four stunning routes to walk solo I did my first solo hike during a sunny September, seven years ago. After a summer of feeding and ferrying four noisy teenagers (and their friends) around, I was exhausted. But despite being bone tired, I had barely moved. I yearned, above all, for time on my own, for the chance to walk without interruption (and at the pace I chose), and for the silence of some empty wilderness. But I was nervous. Not of being on my own, but of what might happen to me with no one around to help (breaking a bone, encountering a psychopath, being chased by a bull, getting fatally lost). I could have found a companion or joined a group, but my need for silence and solitude outweighed my fears. Continue reading...

The Guardian Lifestyle 3 hours ago
Rukmiini Iyer’s recipe for mozzarella in carozza – and the leftover crusts | Cook once, eat twice
Rukmiini Iyer’s recipe for mozzarella in carozza – and the leftover crusts | Cook once, eat twice

The love child of a cheese toastie and eggy bread, this fried sandwich makes for an elevated snack or kids’ tea – and the leftover crusts give you ‘bread rosti’ the next day For an exceptionally luxe snack or kids’ tea, mozzarella in carrozza is your girl. It’s the love child of a cheese toastie and eggy bread – instead of toasting it, you dip the cheese sandwich in egg and fry it. In other words, it’s mozzarella in a fancy carriage. I like to use a combination of mozzarella and mature cheddar for flavour, and while it’s best eaten piping hot from the pan, it’s a good (and filling) lunchbox option for children, too. Continue reading...

The Guardian Lifestyle 4 hours ago
The pirates arrived with AK-47s. They took us hostage – then the torture began
The pirates arrived with AK-47s. They took us hostage – then the torture began

Chirag Bahri was working on board a tanker when six men seized it. For almost eight months, he and his colleagues were held captive, an experience that would change his life for ever It was at noon on 8 May 2010 when the pirates came. Chirag Bahri remembers the exact time and date because it marked the start of the seven months and 20 days he was held hostage by a gang of Somali pirates. Bahri was 28 at the time, and working as second engineer on a chemical tanker, Marida Marguerite. It was his 12th journey through the Gulf of Aden in the Indian Ocean. It had been a good job for a young man from landlocked Uttar Pradesh in India, and Bahri was about to be promoted. “But then, piracy,” he says. The ship had been 120 miles off the coast of Oman, partway through a run taking benzene – a raw material used in petrochemicals – from Kandla Port in India to Antwerp in Belgium. The piracy problem in the Indian Ocean was well known; Somalis armed with AK-47s were setting out in fast skiffs and taking ships hostage. Yet commercial vessels, including the Marida Marguerite, remained undefended. Continue reading...

The Guardian Lifestyle 5 hours ago

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