AITaiyaki
たい焼き
“A golden fish-shaped cake with a belly full of sweet filling.”
A crispy, golden waffle-like cake shaped like a fish, filled with hot sweet bean paste or custard cream. Imagine a waffle cone stuffed with filling — but shaped like a lucky fish and eaten straight from the iron mold.
- Fish Shaped
- Freshly Baked
- Street Food Icon
- Sweetness
- 4 out of 5
- Spiciness
- 0 out of 5
- Richness
- 3 out of 5
- Adventure
- 1 out of 5
The Inside Scoop
Did you know?
The fish is a sea bream ('tai'), considered lucky because it sounds like 'medetai' (auspicious). There's a serious national debate: do you eat from the head or the tail first? The correct answer is whichever end has more filling.
How to eat
- 1Eat it hot if possible. Fresh-from-the-mold taiyaki with a crispy shell and molten filling is a totally different experience from a reheated one.
- 2Start from whichever end you like — but check where the filling starts. Nothing sadder than biting into a tail that's all shell.
- 3Konbini frozen taiyaki is decent microwaved, but for the real deal, look for street stalls with the fish-shaped iron molds out front.