There’s no greater satisfaction in this world than a perfectly griddled hotel waffle. Do you trust the timer, or do you make the flip by your own judgment? Do you overfill the iron to make sure no square goes unfilled, and watch the batter brown and fry along its crease? Take the dreamiest hotel waffle you’ve ever made, rapturously golden and soft, and turn it into a fish—a Japanese red sea bream, to be precise, a symbol of prosperity and good fortune. Then stuff it with earthy-sweet red bean paste, or Nutella, or an especially melty combination of Spam and cheese.
These snacky little fishes, called taiyaki, originated in Tokyo, Japan, in 1909, when a university student named Seijiro Kobe reimagined imagawayaki—round pancakes stuffed with red bean paste, a popular sweet at the time—by creating fish-shaped molds. (His shop, Naniwaya Souhonten, is still open in Tokyo today.) Hide Tozawa, the chef behind south Minneapolis’s Okome House (and an alum of Origami, Fuji Ya, and Kyatchi), recently opened Taizo, a “Japanese sweets and bites” shop just next door to Nokko, the hand roll and chirashi restaurant he opened on Nicollet Avenue in fall of last year. If you can’t afford a ticket to Tokyo but are on the hunt for taiyaki, this is the spot.
Tozawa spent a few years living in Tokyo in his late teens and early 20s. I asked him if he had any noteworthy taiyaki memories from that time—since Kobe’s invention more than 100 years ago, taiyaki has become one of the city’s most popular street foods, and specialty shops and stalls have proliferated across the city. But Tozawa says he remembers taiyaki most vividly from his childhood in Akita, Japan, a city on the island’s far northwestern coast. Taiyaki is served hot, so he’d eat it most often in the autumn or winter at shops in town, or even at the local grocery stores’ hot bars, where there was almost always a tray of fresh, sweet taiyaki to warm his stomach.
Tozawa’s taiyaki isn’t strictly traditional: He’s using a rice flour blend for the batter that’s gluten-free (as are all of the fillings). He and Taizo’s general manager, Alek McMullen Cheng, also began to experiment with flavor as they developed the restaurant’s menu. “Back in old days, like in the ’80s, taiyaki was only made with red bean paste,” Tozawa says. “Later on, people started to be a little more adventurous, and used chocolate or custard. When I was trying to prepare Taizo, I realized it doesn’t have to all be sweet—we can do savory taiyaki as well.” Thus you’ll find the traditional red bean option on Taizo’s menu, plus Oreo, Nutella, Nutella and banana, and vanilla and chocolate custard, but also Spam and cheddar, cheese pizza, tuna mayo, and just plain cheese. (Or get a taiyaki ice cream cone with a swirl of soft serve.)
Tozawa’s onigiri rice rolls are especially popular at Okome House. At Taizo, he’s serving an “Ishigaki Island-style” that comes with fried fillings, like tonkatsu (pork cutlets) or curry croquettes. And remember, if you haven’t been yet, Nokko is just next door—head over for specialty hand rolls, bowls of the silkiest miso soup, and chirashi rice bowls topped with bits of gem-like sashimi, paper-thin radish slices, avocado, and roe. 4743 Nicollet Ave., Mpls.
