Taiyaki and Imagawayaki

Taiyaki (たい焼き , literally "baked sea bream"^?) is a Japanese fish-shaped cake.

The most common filling is red bean paste that is made from sweetened azuki beans. Other common fillings may be custard, chocolate, or cheese. Some shops even sell taiyaki with okonomiyaki, gyoza filling, or a sausage inside.

Taiyaki is made using regular pancake or waffle 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.

Taiyaki was first baked by a sweet shop Naniwaya in Azabu, Tokyo in 1909, and now can be found all over Japan, especially at food courts of supermarkets and Japanese festivals (祭 matsuri^?).

They are similar to imagawayaki (今川焼き^?), which are thick round cakes also filled with sweet azuki bean paste or custard.

Imagawayaki (今川焼き^?) is a Japanese dessert often found at festivals, also eaten in Taiwan (where it is called chēlún bǐng 車輪餅 or hóngdòu bǐng 紅豆餅).

It is made of batter in a special pan (similar to a waffle iron but without the honeycomb pattern), and filled with sweet azuki bean paste, although it is becoming increasingly popular to use a wider variety of fillings such as vanilla custard, different fruit custards and preserves, curry, different meat and vegetable fillings, potato and mayonnaise.^[1][2]

Imagawayaki are similar to Dorayaki, but the latter are two separate pancakes sandwiched around the filling after cooking, and are often served cold.

Imagawayaki began to be sold near the Kanda Imagawabashi bridge during An'ei years (1772 - 1781) in the Edo period. The name of Imagawayaki originates from this time.

Imagawayaki has various names by areas and eras.