Street Food: Imagawayaki

Originating from Japan these imagawayaki's can now be found all over. Delicious pancake/ waffle batter stuffed full of delicious fillings, there are few street food snacks I enjoy more whilst on the go.

Value for money these can go right at the top. 1 piece set me back $10 Taiwanese dollars which is roughly 25p or 32 cents. Can you even get a Freddo for that nowadays?!

How they're made.

Imagawayaki is made in a unique pan that's just for them which full of 2cm deep circles. Of course, they are now available in almost any shape. From Spongebob to Hello Kitty! 

The sweet batter is then poured into these moulds, brushed up the sides and left to start to cook. After around 30 seconds the filling of choice is added. With most sellers having huge pans they can have up to 60 halves on the go at any one time.

 After the fillings are heated through 2 halves are joined, more batter is used in a squeezy bottle to seal them together. A short sealing time later and they are ready to enjoy.

The flavours.

Predominantly you will find imagawayaki filled with red bean paste or a vanilla custard. Whether there are stools amongst the street markets, on a street corner or even at an event, these two flavours will certainly be there. Having only seen a limited selection you can only imagine my surprise when stumbling upon a stool with 3 extra flavours. Especially that they were savoury aswell! Having only seeing sweet it was time to give them a go. 

They are as follows.

Red bean imagawayaki.

The traditional flavour and one of my favourites in truth. The sweet red bean filling is perfect, there's enough flavour from the beans so it's not boring with the right amount of sweetness to wolf down a fair few. P.S, if you get too many this flavour is yummy cold as well. 

Vanilla custard imagawayaki.

No matter what culture vanilla custard is sure to crop up. Perfectly gooey with the right amount of "stodge", which coats your mouth perfectly with flavour. If you're lucky there are a few stools with chocolate sauce too, the addition to this flavour is superb. 

I'm well aware for the next three flavours my naming of them may not be entirely correct. I'm sure they will have a name for the flavour but I've named them based on flavour.

Spicy garlic chicken and spring onion imagawayaki.

From the first bite, you get this wonderful hit of garlic and fresh chilli. Followed swiftly by a touch of sweetness from the spring onion and fragrance from some ginger. Add that to the meatiness of the chicken and it was just right. The addition of cabbage to help bulk these out and keep them moist hit the spot.

Fragrant chilli chicken imagawayaki.

Next up was the fragrant chilli chicken. Instantly there's an aromatic bouquet of ingredients. Very clean on the palette with a light heat from some chilli flakes at the end. Quite possibly my favourite savoury imagawayaki.

Fish and tomato imagawayaki.

Possibly the biggest surprise. After munching down the four previous imagawayaki's I was certainly hitting a roll full of flavour. I was soon stopped in my tracks. Don't think I didn't like it, it was more of a shock, biting in and finding an intense fishy flavour. I must say the filling was incredibly flaky and moist which made it enjoyable. 

No matter what there is bound to be a flavour out there for you!