is a Japanese fish-shaped

cake Cake is a flour confection made from flour, sugar, and other ingredients, and is usually baked. In their oldest forms, cakes were modifications of bread, but cakes now cover a wide range of preparations that can be simple or elaborate, ...

, commonly sold as street food. It imitates the shape of , which it is named after. The most common

filling Filling may refer to: * a food mixture used for stuffing * Icing (food), Frosting used between layers of a cake * Dental restoration * Symplectic filling, a kind of cobordism in mathematics * Part of the leather crusting process See also

* Fi ...

red bean paste Red bean paste () or red bean jam, also called adzuki bean paste or ''anko'' (a Japanese word), is a paste made of red beans (also called "adzuki beans"), used in East Asian cuisine. The paste is prepared by boiling the beans, then mashing or g ...

that is made from sweetened

adzuki bean ''Vigna angularis'', also known as the adzuki bean , azuki bean, aduki bean, red bean, or red mung bean, is an Annual plant, annual vine widely cultivated throughout East Asia for its small (approximately long) bean. The cultivars most familiar ...

s. Other common fillings may be

custard Custard is a variety of culinary preparations based on sweetened milk, cheese, or cream cooked with egg or egg yolk to thicken it, and sometimes also flour, corn starch, or gelatin. Depending on the recipe, custard may vary in consistency fro ...

, chocolate,

cheese Cheese is a dairy product produced in wide ranges of flavors, textures, and forms by coagulation of the milk protein casein. It comprises proteins and fat from milk, usually the milk of cows, buffalo, goats, or sheep. During production, ...

, or

sweet potato The sweet potato or sweetpotato (''Ipomoea batatas'') is a dicotyledonous plant that belongs to the Convolvulus, bindweed or morning glory family (biology), family, Convolvulaceae. Its large, starchy, sweet-tasting tuberous roots are used as a r ...

. Some shops even sell with , gyoza filling, or a sausage inside. Smaller, differently shaped versions called are also available and often sold in bags of five, ten, or more. are similar to , which are thick round cakes also filled with sweet adzuki bean paste or custard.

Ingredients

is made using regular

pancake A pancake (or hotcake, griddlecake, or flapjack) is a flat cake, often thin and round, prepared from a Starch, starch-based batter (cooking), batter that may contain eggs, milk and butter and cooked on a hot surface such as a griddle or fryi ...

or waffle

batter Batter or batters may refer to: Common meanings * Batter (cooking), thin dough that can be easily poured into a pan * Batter (baseball), person whose turn it is to face the pitcher * Batter (cricket), a player who is currently batting * Batter ...

. The batter is poured into a fish-shaped mold for each side. The filling is then put on one side and the mold is closed. It is then cooked on both sides until golden brown.

History

was first sold in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

in 1909. It is essentially a reshaped form of , an already popular snack made by wrapping bean paste in flour skin. Seijirō Kobe, founder of the store , was having trouble selling his , so he decided to bake the cakes into fish shapes resembling , or red sea bream. are considered a symbol of luck and fortune in Japan, and were an expensive fish only affordable by the higher classes or on special occasions. Masamori Kobe, the fourth owner of the store, stated that Seijirō wanted to give the ordinary people a taste of the expensive fish at low prices. Since its creation, has evolved into many variations, with different ingredients being used for filling and batter, as well as variations in shapes and sizes. was introduced to Korea during the Japanese colonial period, where it is known as . During the postwar period, spread to other Asian countries, as well as to the United States.

Gallery

File:Taiyaki-Plate.JPG, being made File:Taiyaki 001.jpg, Standard File:Taiyaki - cut section.jpg, Cut , showing the adzuki bean filling File:3hiki sot.jpg, with

filling File:Square taiyaki in Ueno 2015.jpg, Square with uncut edges, being sold in Ueno File:Sakanotaiyaki.jpg, Round in the form of coiled fishes, being sold in Gunma File:Small taiyaki by yomi955.jpg, Mini File:Petit custa at shirokiya (2).jpg, Mini with pineapple filling, being sold in Hawaii File:Tobu train taiyaki.jpg, Train-shaped , being sold outside Narimasu Station File:Food 地瓜泥, 抹茶冰淇淋, 鯛魚燒聖代, Humpty Dumpty, 台北 (15057169750).jpg, used as an ice cream holder, being sold in Taipei File:Taiyaki (00228).jpg, with red bean and matcha-swirled ice cream, mochi, and a wafer cookie File:Ice Cream Taiyaki.jpg, filled with matcha ice cream

References

{{Japanese food and drink Cakes Wagashi