Naruto Taiyaki Honpo Asakusa Shin-Nakami (Tokyo 2016): Baked Sea Bream

One of the desserts that we wanted to try during our visit to Japan was taiyaki (literally “baked sea bream”). Now, I know what you’re thinking… baked sea bream doesn’t sound like a dessert (actually, it sounds like a pretty good main course). No, Taiyaki is a fish-shaped dessert that’s usually filled with a sweet red bean paste.

Naruto Taiyaki Honpo is a large chain that specializes in making taiyaki and we came across 鳴門鯛焼本舗 浅草新仲見世店 (Naruto Taiyaki Honpo Asakusa Shin-Nakami) while strolling through the new section of the Nakamise shopping street in Asakusa. The “ten-nen” concept of making taiyaki (natural method) means that they take their time making taiyaki in individual molds.

While they do have some other filling options, we stuck with the classic sweetened azuki red bean paste. In that way, this pastry item is similar to imagawayaki which are thick round cakes also filled with red bean paste (and which you can often find at the Powell Street Festival in Vancouver).

There’s a few places in Vancouver where you can find taiyaki but I’ve never had it until this day. The taiyaki here was piping hot and we had to be careful when we cracked the fish open because the red bean filling was hot enough to burn your mouth. Still, I thought this turned out very well because the batter wasn’t too thick and the filling had the perfect amount of sweetness to it.

At a paltry ¥160, this worked out to under $2 CAD so it makes for a nice snack while shopping. Naruto Taiyaki has a number of other stalls scattered around the city but this location was conveniently located in the Asakusa shopping area.

1-28-1 Asakusa Shin-Nakamise
Taitō-ku, Tōkyō-to 111-0032

www.taiyaki.co.jp