No.2 Taiyaki
About Japanese sweets-fish shaped pancake filled with bean jam
Taiyaki is a flour-based Japanese confectionery made by baking with a metal mold in the shape of bream. A Japanese confectionery that has been eaten since the Meiji era and is sold almost nationwide from Hokkaido to Okinawa . Recently, as inner sweet jam, not only basic red bean paste but also custard cream is often found. Taiyaki is basically sold at taiyaki shops. The sweets are made using special molds, so the taiyaki shops are very often specialized for it. Even if taiyaki is cold, it can be eaten and cold taiyaki is used as a gift. But the hot ones, which seems burn your mouth, are more delicious by far.(This is my personal opinion, though.)
There are some silly but serious discussions about taiyaki. The argument is whether the inner jam must be contained in the tail or not, and the other is whether taiyaki should be eaten from the head or the tail. Of course, this is good either way. However, people who eat from taiyaki’s heads have the opinion that it is better not to have anything in the tail because the mouth is refreshing if there is no sweet jam on the tail.
(Swim! Taiyaki-kun)
Many Japanese people over a certain age remember a song when they hear the word taiyaki.
that is the song “Swim! Taiyaki-kun”, which began with the lyrics “Mai-nichi-mai-nichi (everyday, everyday), which became a huge hit in Japan in 1975.
This song was used in a children’s TV program, and the content was that “Taiyaki”, which is baked on an iron plate every day, escaped to the sea and was eventually caught and eaten.
At the time, the sorrow of the office worker was felt in the song, and it became very popular with adults, and the record eventually sold over 4.5 million copies. According to the Oricon survey, it has not yet been broken as a single record in Japan
Of course, taiyaki has long been a popular Japanese confectionery, but it is likely that it was this “Swim! Taiyaki-kun” hit that made its popularity so decisive.
Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEJG6nMDjsg
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