What is Taiyaki?

Taiyaki a fish-shape cake/snack filled with azuki sweet red bean paste. During the street fair and festivals, you’ll see it being cooked on a fish-shaped iron mold. Why fish? The original taiyaki iron mold was round and the mold was for (still is) making Imagawayaki, which is the same as Taiyaki but with a circular shape.

It was considered a very expensive fish and only eaten for special celebrations. Though unclear which sweet shops actually started the trend, they decided to change the snack from its circular shape mold to the sea bream shape mold, and the sea-bream-shaped cake was born and became a huge hit.

Tai means “sea bream” and yaki means “grilled/baked”, hence that’s the origin of taiyaki.

When it’s freshly made, the crispy exterior surrounding the warm soft cake with anko filling is simply delectable. I would toss the taiyaki between my hands to avoid getting burnt and slowly bite into the steaming hot cake. I usually start eating from the head side and the tail last .