Hello, and welcome to Savor Prediction of iHeartRadio. I'm Annie Ream and I'm.
Lauren bubble Bum and today we have an episode for you about Tai Yuki.
Yes, and it's going to be fun with pronunciation or at least.
And y'all get to hear my slightly hilarious Japanese accents.
So here we go. Yep, it's going to be fun. Yeah. Yes. Was there any reason this was on your mind? Lauren?
Ah, it had been on my list for a while. I think, you know, maybe I just had one and I was like, why don't we do that as an episode. I have no idea why I originally added it to our list. Maybe I was avoiding doing a red bean paste or a zookie bean episode in general. Anyway, they're delightful. Here we are.
They are delightful, and yes, here we are. I did encounter some recently at a festival, and my friends all got some. I definitely have had them in the past, but it's been a minute. I did not partake in this thing.
You're not usually a sweet human, so yeah, yeah, And it.
Was a fest. It was like a food festival, so I had to pick and choose my battles, but I did have them and they are delightful. I do love red bean paste, oh yeah, meaning of red bean paste. And they're just kind of fun.
They are, I know, right. Yeah. A shout out to friend of the show Brandy, who recently gave me a little like wafer and chocolate taiyaki for my birthday.
So it was really nice.
I was just like, oh, this is this is so nice, just cute, just cute and nice. Yeah yeah, nice little bite and it's it feels very it feels very fustive.
It does it does? You can see, perhaps weirdly, our Pizel episode for more on like this type of treat.
Yeah, you never know how things will connect in the food Savor universe.
Yeah, if you're talking about like waffle iron desserts, then here we are.
Here we are. But I guess that does really to our question. Taiyaki what is it?
Well, taiyaki are fish shaped pastries that are made with a light, slightly sweet wheat flower batter encasing some kind of sweet filling like sweet red bean jam or maybe like a milk based custard, something like that. The fish shape is specifically this kind of cartoony version of a red sea breeze, which are these flat but tall fish taiyaki do not contain any fish or fish flavoring, it's
just the shape. They are cooked quickly until golden brown in molds that are heated on a burner or over a flame, or in an electric mold, and served hot as a snack or dessert, often on the go from street venders and especially at festivals. There are also iterations like frozen treats made out of like a thin wafer shell containing ice cream, and packaged treats of a wafer containing chocolate filling. The shape and just simple delight really
are the main points here. In those traditional fresh ones, you get this crisp outer layer giving way to maybe a little soft inner dough and then even softer filling, not too sweet, and they're so cute. They're just they are a fish shaped waffle with a sweet filling. Like eating taiyaki is a direct portal to feeling the uncomplicated joy of being five years old and getting a nice treat, just pure childlike whimsy.
Yes, I agree on they're just fun.
They are, right, Okay, So why a fish shaped treat? Well in Japan, where taiyaki are from. The red sea bream is like a special occasion protein and a symbol of good fortune. It features in a bunch of like idioms about luck. The red seabream is sometimes called tai in Japanese, and the association with good luck is possibly because of a pun involving like the fish tie and
the word metatai, which means auspicious or joyous puns. Yeah, the word taiyaki comes from the fish tie plus yaki, which is a word for cooked, like cooked with heat, like on a grill or in a pan, and taiyaki get their shape from specialty pans. They're basically waffle irons in the shape of a fish, with like scales and fins and tails the whole thing, and they can come
in either individual or multi fish pan sizes. It's a two sided, three dimensional mold with some kind of handle, So like you heat the mold, you pour in the batter, close it up, and then place it over a heat source and flip it to get even coverage. Oh yeah, there are electric models these days that you can use at home the or I mean you can use the regular ones at home too, depending on your level of
bravery here we are. The traditional batter can be anything from like basically just like a thin cracker batter to a puffy waffle batter right meant to get crispy on the outside but stay soft and fluffy on the inside, And it can range from like super thin to fairly thick and chewy, depending on how you like them. The traditional filling is a zuki bean paste, also called uncle
or on. Azuki beans are a typically like deep brownish red colored type of mung bean that have a thick and slightly creamy consistency when they're boiled and mashed, and are usually cooked down with a little bit of sugar into a variably thick paste or jam, either smooth or
a little bit chunky, depending. It always reminds me of if peanut, butter and jelly were a single product, like slightly savory, kind of toothsome soft and nicely sweet, and the layer I know, right, so good, and the layer of filling inside the pastry can range from kind of minimal to like super thick, like bursting at the seams. Other fillings like flavored custards or chocolate are also common, but people do all kinds of things with the concept.
You can use like a flaky croissant dough instead of waffle type batter. Yes, In fact, there are magic harp taiyaki molds. Why wouldn't there be. They can come in other shapes as well, like Sega recently did Demon Slayer anime taiyaki that were shaped like the character's faces. There are molds made that are basically for making like taiyaki ice cream cones. Like the waffle fish has a big open mouth, that's a deep pocket that you can fill up with soft serve, ice cream or whatever. The filling
can be anything you want. You can put mochi or fruit compote, or ntella or cookie butter in there. I don't know. I've seen fusion takes like tayaki filled with guava paste and cream cheese, or like trist late chase macha soft serve in American Japanese restaurants. They're often served with a side of like ice cream or whipped cream.
You can put savory batter and ingredients in there, like basically make like a tai shaped okamiyaki, or maybe a taiyaki filled with sausage or curry or ham and cheese. There are street vendors serving tayaki everywhere from like Rhode Island to Switzerland.
So yes, there are so many iterations. Look it up. Oh yeah, I.
Recommend, And I do want to specify here that I didn't make any of those things up. Everything that I just said to you is something that I personally saw or read about on the internet today, So these are all real world examples. I do also understand that there's like a playful debate about how to eat taiyaki headfirst or tail first, and like what that says about you. Apparently if you go headfirst, you you're like a very
like seize the day kind of person. And if you go tail first, you might be a little bit more cautious. But maybe you just like the crunchy of the tail better. I don't know. I don't know, man, you do you anyway?
See I thought about this because I saw this too, and I feel like I'd be worried about the filling coming out, so I would go for the head.
Yeah that's how I feel, because the filling tends to concentrate towards the head.
Yeah.
Well, listeners, please let us know. I love these kinds of things. Well, what about the nutrition.
Treats are nice.
Treats are nice. Treats are nice, and people love them. They do. We do have some numbers for you.
Yeah, this one was difficult to find numbers four because taiyaki are largely made and sold by individual vendors. But I did find a report on the larger industry of both traditional and electric taiyaki irons, and as of twenty twenty four, the global market for those was worth nearly twenty two million dollars.
Wow.
And I did read that in traditional shops the bean paste can take eight hours to cook and the taiyaki themselves take thirty seconds.
Wow. I did find a lot of videos about people going to visit shops where taiyaki are made, and I was looking for pronunciations. I enjoyed the watching of them get made, but it was fast. I was like, whoall, all right, Well, we've got a very interesting history for you.
I have to say, oh yeah, yeah, and we are going to get into that as soon as we get back from a quick break. For a word from our sponsors. Error back, thank you sponsor, Yes, thank you.
Okay. So researchers think that tayaki originated in Japan during the Meiji period, which was a period of modernization from eighteen sixty eight to nineteen twelve, and that it was an evolution of pastries that came before it. Anytime we do these pastry episodes, it's sort of hard to hard to really pin down exacts, but there is a very specific story about how this pastry was invented. It credits
a tokyo shop called Naniwaya Sohonten. The owner said Jiro Kobe was trying to come up with a way to use up any unsold imagawayaki, which is another similar pastry traditionally filled with sweet azuki bean paste, and he got the idea to use this mold of a seabream fish, which symbolized good luck in Japan and is associated with celebration, to make a novel, festive pastry product that quickly became popular.
It was fun, it was an accessible way for people who couldn't afford seabream, which was expensive at the time, to celebrate. However, there really isn't anything concrete backing this up. From what I can tell, It is possible that I couldn't get sources from Japan, but I tried to get like, where's the specific thing?
Yeah, and I couldn't most in English, this is the story that is repeated.
That it was at this shop by this guy. Yes, and some specifically cite a nineteen oh nine recipe from this shop as the first known recipe for tayaki.
The story also goes that that Kobe was looking like he tried a few different shapes for this pastry before he landed on the fish shape. I don't know, you know here we are, yes.
And kind of expounding on that. There's another story, and this is stepping back a bit and varied briefly because we can only do so many pastries in one episode. Everyone. Historians think that imaga wayaki was invented in seventeen hundreds and it was pretty popular. They were coin shaped pancakes made in special irons sort of like a waffle iron without the grid pattern, usually filled with sweet azuki bean paste, but could be a bunch of other things in there too.
I actually am really interested to come back and talk about them, because I was. I got fascinated by all the different iterations of bost and the irons specifically, but anyway, different time for that. By the nineteen hundreds. These pastries were sort of old news, though, so vendors got the idea to mold them into animal shapes and it was mildly successful at first, but it didn't really take off
until someone used the seabream shape. Again, evidence is sparse, but this is the generally accepted history and it makes sense to me personally. Sure. Yeah, stepping back way way, further evidence suggests that azuki beans for domesticated in Japan for over ten thousand years. They have a long long history as an important food stuff there that we're going to have to tackle in another future episode.
Oh yeah, yeah again. Super Briefly, red bean paste was originally like a salted savory filling that was used as a vegetarian protein source, but morphed into the sweetened product we know today as sugar became more available, and it was also going into other treats like a pun which are like soft bread buns filled with red bean paste, and doriyuki, which are pancakes sandwiching red bean paste around
the same time that Taiyaki developed. But yeah, other episodes episode or episodes, Yeah, anyway, so.
Many episodes were giving ourselves so much homework. But whatever, the case at the pastry. Taiaki in question was available across the country by the early nineteen hundreds, thinks in part to railroads, mass production, and department stores offering them for sale. Naniwaya itself franchised, setting up locations across the country.
I read that at its height there were one hundred and fifty locations. Today there are about ten, so.
Here we are one hundred and fifty, I know.
Right.
During the Japanese occupation and colonization of Korea in the nineteen thirties, tayaki was introduced there, leading to the Korean version called Bounepong or carpret another separate episode, but from what I read, they were popular during tough times, and many specifically associate them with winter.
Yeah in general, but both of these treats that the Japanese version and the Korean version were probably originally cold weather treats because they were served hot, like piping hot out of the mold, which would be nice if you were walking or working outdoors.
Does sound lovely, But speaking of tough times, in the utter devastation of the aftermath of World War Two, tayaki was an affordable source of comfort for many in Japan. In the post war period, taiyaki spread to other Asian countries and then around the globe. I couldn't find an exact date, but sometime in the ensuing decades, grocery stores started offering frozen tayaki. This brings us to something I had no knowledge of me neither, but very excited to talk about. Yeah.
Super producer Android was like, oh, yeah, of course.
Knew immediately and new a facts about it. Okay. So this brings us to the popular children's song oh Yoka Taiyaki kun, sung by Masato Shiman, which debuted in nineteen seventy five, and it really boosted taiyaki's profile in a way I feel like I can't even accurately encompass for you, and perhaps specifically the profile of Naniwaya Sohonten, the then owner, served as the model for the old man owner of
the shop, which is in the lyrics and in the video. Yeah, and it's about a taiyaki coming to life and swimming away to avoid being cooked. He gets in a fight with the old man.
Yeah.
He's like, I don't want to be put to the fire. I'm leaving, So he goes out into the ocean and swims away.
He does, but Taiyaki kun is caught by a fisherman at sea, so you can never truly escape, and he's eaten. Yeah.
Yeah. He goes on all kinds of adventures, he makes friends, he makes enemies, but eventually is caught eaten.
Yeah. Yep. It sold four point five million copies. It was the first single to debut, is number one on the Oricon Singles chart in Japan, and it held the top spot for eleven weeks, and it holds the Guinness World Record for best selling physical single in Japan to this day and yeah, to this day, and it just had a resurgence recently. It's huge.
It's really yeah. I had no idea highly recommend looking at it up. It's really catchy. I'm gonna be singing it to myself all day, and the recent pop metal version is just adorable.
So yes, I was telling Lauren, I put off listening to it for as long as I could because I was worried I'd never get it out of my head. But I'm glad I listened to it. Yeah, this is pretty intense actually, yeah.
Thematically, thematically, yeah, it probably helps that it's in another language, and so like unlike something that you can really get the hook in your head for in English. Yeah, I know just enough Japanese to be in trouble there, so like welp here, I am.
Best of blok Lauren. But that was a really fun thing to learn. I had no idea about that. Something else I didn't know anything about. In twenty sixteen, New York's Tayaki NYC restaurant got all a lot of traction on social media by offering soft serve taiyaki. It was essentially the taiyaki serve doesn't cone, Yeah, the soft serve, and it was very pretty.
Yeah, yeah, no, it's super cute again, right, that just it's just the taiyaki has like a really big mouth and that's where you put the ice cream and they top it with other stuff and it's adorable.
Yeah, yes, And taiyaki innovation and experimentation continues. They are cute. Like we've we've talked a lot before about how social media can really move these trends or or make a food more popular in places where it wasn't as well known before, and they just are visually kind.
Of they're so adorable.
Yeah, eye catching, you're like, yeah, yeah, But as as you were saying at the top, lorn people all kinds of fillings. People are trying all kinds of things, and.
I want to try them all too.
Yes, I love a good stuffed dough product. I mean, I'm in that's.
Good, right, More animal shaped waffle treats please?
Is that too much to add?
Oh?
Animal crackers are kind of boring, but I think that we're onto something here.
Yes, I agree. Well, listeners, please write in, send photos if you have any, if you've made them, oh, yeah, let us know how that went.
Yeah, if you possess one of these irons, if you have a memory, or have been to any of the famous shops, yes, the festivals.
Please let us know. But I think that's what we have to say about Tayaki for now. It is.
We do already have some listener mail for you, though, and we are going to get into that as soon as we get back from one more quick break for a word from our sponsors, and we're back. Thank you, sponsor, Yes, thank you, And we're back with a listeners.
Now mom off of its head. I just feel like if I next time I have a Tayaki. I'm going to try to see what naturally I would do, but I just feel like I would go head first.
The tail is kind of easier to hold on to. Yeah, it seems like a natural handle, you know.
Yeah, that's what I think. And then I read some people go for the finn first. No, like the top fin. I see that. I see that. Yeah, that could be kind of an ease of operations thing.
It's kind of like, you know, like nibble around the edges kind of situation.
I get that. Yeah, well, listeners, let us know if you have thoughts about that as well. Okay, so listener, Ruth has once again really blessed us with an amazing song. Ruth was the one behind the Pumpkin smash. Oh yeah, yes, I will not be singing this, but I do think that if you hommet in your head.
Yeah, it scans really well.
That's good. Yeah, yeah, yes. So Ruth wrote a song about canon Bear to the Bear Necessities that I shall read for you now, with apologies to the mouse. It says the cam and Bare necessities a tasty cheese necessity. Who thought it caused such trouble and such strife? The camm bear Necessities one of Mother Nature's recipes to bring more cheesy goodness to your life. Now? Was it a monk's gift or just a gal from breed with a funky fungus brought it to be? Did Napoleon the one
give it its name? Or was Number two the one to blame? Well? Whoever gave it the name. It's a great cheesy treat, just the same. We all agree, it's true. The canon Bear Necessities of Life taste real good too. Yes, yes, I was so happy to see this. Oh my goodness, thank you for sharing your gift. You could be like the weird aw Yankovic of just Food covers y yeah food. Yeah, that's amazing. I love it. Yeah, yeah, it's it's fantastic. Nos.
Yeah.
I also I have to say that The Bare Necessities is a is a song that I get in my head about like once a quarter, like once every couple of months or so apropos of nothing. M h, I just I watched too many Disney cartoons as a kid. But yeah, beautiful. Now, now I'm going to have this alternate version in my head.
I like how we have two different ear potential earworms. Yeah, in this episode. That's that's fantastic, beautiful, Thank you, thank you genuinely.
Melissa wrote, I've been meaning to write in for a while about strong tea opinions. I spent a year abroad in England during college and thought years of preferring tea to coffee would serve me well. I was there less than a month before shocking a British friend by putting milk in my earl gray. This is an insult to the tea. It should be drank black with sugar or lemon if you have to. I was taken aback. It's not that different than black tea right. Also, this wasn't
coming from some posh snob. My friend was a gutter punk with a foot high mohawk and he was being sincere. Strong food opinions come for us all, even the anarchists. A few random related asides. If you're ever in Montreal, there's a Japanese restaurant, Kazu, that's worth visiting for so many reasons, including their desserts, offering soft served ice cream dusted with earl gray tea ground to the consistency of
powdered sugar. It's incredible, but also bring flows related to other countries having better Dorito's flavors, at least when I was there fifteen years ago. England's chip or as they would say, crisps flavors are no joke. Look Walker's offerings. It felt like having a full synthetic meal, like roasted chicken and thyme, lamb and mint, et cetera. I recently started seeing ketchup doritos in Canada, and personally I find this horrifying, but they keep selling them, so I guess
someone likes them. Lastly, in response to the pasta salad episode, I recently came across a Martha Stewart tip to add Sauer kraut to potato salad. I tried it on a basic mayo potato, boiled egg and vinegar recipe and can concur the sauer kraut is pretty great as an add on. It worked especially well on leftovers. I'd imagine it'd work well on pasta salads as well. Hmm, that's blowing my mind a little bit, but sure, yeah, no, I can I can see the saur kraut thing. Yeah.
I think I'd have to experience it personally, but I can see it working. Yeah, certainly in potato salad. I still like, my brain still doesn't want pasta salad to really exist, so it's sort of resisting that concept. But yeah, someone try it. Let us know, yes, yes, please also please keep this chip information from other countries coming flavor information. I love hearing about this.
Oh yeah, And it is super fascinating to me that, like, we don't have meat flavored chips in the United States for some heck in reason because you would think with as like macho as we get about more streak or eating meat today, guys like you would think that this would be a flavoring for everything, but it's not. It's certainly not. No, And I'm jealous because it just sounds like good ramen powder, but you just have it on chips, and I'm like, yes, I want that.
Yeah exactly, and I do. I do kind of love that the the way you're framing it, as it feels like a full mill almost by the way, they're like, yeah.
It's kind of Wonka related, it's like Wonka adjacent.
Absolutely, ye. Yes, we have talked about ketchup doritos or ketchup chips, ketchup chips. Yeah, in Canada. Before I believe you've tried some on next stuff.
Yeah, that sounds right. Sure, I think someone someone brought them into the office back when we all went into the office more often. I think I ate a great deal of those. Yeah, mm hmm, I can see, I can see not being into it. Oh sure, especially on Durito's. I'm like, for some reason, it makes sense to me on potato chips, but on douritos I'm kind of like, yeah, I agree. However, thank you for the Montreal restaurant recommendation. And I love I love strong opinions about tea so much.
I love that that this anarchist was offended, offended by here use of milk and earl Gray, how dare you?
That's fantastic?
What are you doing, Epoxy American get out of here?
So so good? Oh you're right. Strong food opinions come for us all, and we love it. Yes, and we love that you all share it with us. So thank you. If you would like to email us, thanks to these two listeners for doing so already. But if you would like to email us, you can. Our email is Hello at sabrepod dot com.
Melissa might also be Canadian, I'm sorry to assume anyway, Yes, you can also find us on Instagram and Blue Sky at saberpod and we do hope to hear from you. Savor is production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, you can visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Thanks as always to our super producers and Andrew Howard. Thanks to you for listening, and we hope that lots of more good things are coming your way.