If natto is a challenge to the average taste bud, tofu is a breeze -- so bland, some might say, that if humans lived on tofu alone they would long ago have dispensed with taste buds altogether.
Inclined, myself, to the view that neat tofu has almost no taste and little to commend it but its soft and watery texture, the thought of eating it without the help of soy sauce and spicy yakumi toppings such as shoga and negi is about as appealing as downing a bottle of alcohol-free wine. Sure, we all know how healthy it is, but that aside, how could anyone actually like the "taste" of unadorned tofu?
Searching for answers to this riddle, I found myself in Negishi last weekend, sitting seiza-style in a tatami room at the 310-year-old Sasa-no-yuki tofu restaurant in Tokyo's Taito Ward.