Miso on toast

I had always thought of miso as a salty, savory ingredient for making soup or flavoring beans and rice. Then a friend gave me a tub of creamy white miso that had a sweet taste with just a hint of salt and I discovered I could spread it on toast with peanut butter. It’s the best thing to happen to breakfast since Vegemite.

While miso is usually produced using soy beans, you can make many different kinds with varying tastes using other ingredients, from buckwheat to garbazno beans. On top of that, its flavor changes depending on how many weeks, months, or years(!) you ferment it. White miso only takes a few weeks, which I suspect is why it’s still sweet; the microorganisms don’t have enough time to eat all the sugars. You can order some from South River Miso in Conway, Massachusetts.

My Japanese is only as good as a Google translation, but I understand pictures and I think this is what I have been spreading on my bread. Here it is in English translation.

My friend offered to send me some more, but I think I should try to make my own. A few weeks is not too long to wait.