Taiyaki Japanese Fish-Shaped Hot Cake Maker

I searched online for quite a while before finding this taiyaki-ki (taiyaki cooker). All the others I found were either in Japanese-only site or much too expensive. I stumbled across this one by accident, and a happy accident it was!Taiyaki are tasty little fish-shaped cakes with red beans in the center. That doesn\’t sound that good, but Japanese red beans – anko, or adzuki – are sweet and quite suitable for snacks and desserts. Taiyaki are easy to make, which is good considering that the packaging and documentation for this cooker is all in Japanese.Basically, you heat this over your stove. I tried using it on an electric burner, and believe it or not it works just fine that way. Heat the taiyaki-ki up on both sides until water sizzles on the cooking surface, then give it a light dash of cooking spray and spoon in a thin layer of batter, working from the tail to the body. (You can Google up a recipe, but I\’m lazy and use pancake mix.) Add some red beans to the body area, then more batter to cover, and then close the mold. Cook for a few minutes on each side until golden brown. Voila, tasty sweet fish-shaped snack cakes!You can vary the recipe by using chocolate, shrimp paste, peanut butter, or whatever you like as fillings.

I live in Japan and my kids love these \’cookies\’. The item did seem a little flimsy because the hinges are loose; but as I\’ve used it I understand now that it has to be that way to accommodate the rising batter that is cooking inside. There are no directions in English on the box, but a Korean friend of mine translated for me, and everything is as you would expect (not too high of heat, don\’t heat the handle, don\’t let children use it, etc.) All in all, it is exactly what I paid for and it works great!