Taiyaki

The same wheat-flour-based batter as imagawayaki sandwiches sweet bean paste, baked in a metal mold shaped like a tai (sea bream). Filling the mold evenly from head to tail with batter and paste is said to be where a maker's skill shows. Some shops pack paste all the way to the tip of the tail, others concentrate it near the head — a difference said to fuel debate over which end to eat first. Baking the tail crisp all the way to its tip requires even heat across the whole mold, said to be where experience counts.

Batter is poured into a two-piece fish-shaped mold, topped with bean paste, closed with the other half, and baked on both sides. Some shops bake one fish at a time in a single mold; others use a chained mold that bakes several at once. The single-mold style, sometimes called "natural," takes longer to bake, said to give the batter a more pronounced toasted aroma — one reason it's favored over the chained-mold style. Some shops are said to keep repairing and using the same mold for decades, with the mold itself said to carry a memory of the flavor.

One account holds that in the late Meiji era, someone reworked imagawayaki's batter into the shape of the tai, a fish long considered auspicious in Japan. Turning a round baked cake into the form of a celebratory fish is said to have drawn attention, and the sweet spread as an affordable treat within reach of ordinary people. The lighthearted debate over whether to eat it head-first or tail-first is said to still be passed around as a topic of conversation.