One of the traditional sweets of Japan is called Taiyaki, and it means “baked sea bream.”  No, it is not a real fish, it is just shaped like one. It is a cute little cake made with pancake or waffle batter, and has fillings inside. The most traditional filling is red bean paste, really awesome marriage of cake with creamy, sweet red bean paste…yum! Of course, nowadays, they have many more fillings like custard, chocolate, cheese, and so on. Lately, I have been seeing the ones that are filled with okonomiyaki and sausage, and some other interesting filling, and I am sure people will continue to come up with more kinds of fillings.

They are always the perfect little sweets for when you need a little snack, or when you are at Summer festival, or when you are just chilling out at home.

We found a cute little Taiyaki shop inside the shopping mall, LaLaport in Kashiwa. Here, they offered all the traditional kinds, and some nontraditional kinds like okonomiyaki, green tea (cream), and blue berry filling. The taiyaki is traditionally warm sweets, but they are coming up with the kinds that are served chilled, like the one with blueberry cream filling.

The young girl who were working there was polite, friendly, and efficient. You can always (well, almost always) expect a good/great service in Japan anywhere you go. She was eager to learn English, really adorable!

Ok, back to the food part… Since we wanted to try a few different ones, but we were not hungry, we decided to get some mini taiyaki. These are super cute, little fish-shaped taiyaki with small amount of fillings, but if you just want a little taste of something, they are just the right size! One thing is that the filling for the mini are limited, so we couldn’t get any of the interesting flavors like the blueberry or okonomiyaki. I know,  I was sad, but you can still get the traditional red bean, chocolate, custard, and plain. They were 5 for 150 yen (roughly about $1.50), how crazy is that??? Super cheap! We got one of each kind plus extra custard one. They were fluffy, warm, spongy, light, sweet… really great! And look how cute they are!

We were planning to go back to try the normal size ones with interesting filling on some other days, but we didn’t have enough time… But we will certainly go back the next time we are there. And if you are near Omedetaiyaki (they have several locations), you should try one (or two or five)!

Omedetaiyaki – 175 Wakashiba, Kashiwa, Chiba Japan

おめで鯛焼き – 千葉県柏市若柴175ららぽーと柏の葉店1Ｆ