Konpe #1: Taiyaki [Philippine Version]

Important: The Konpe Channel is a series of blogs comparing Japanese products in Japan to Japanese products in the Philippines (or vice versa). It consists of two partner posts, one from a writer in the Philippines, and another from a writer in Japan. For example, after “Konpe #1: Taiyaki [Philippine Version], you’ll soon see a “Konpe #1: Taiyaki [Japan Version]” post. We highly recommend that you read both.

Taiyaki is a traditional Japanese cake. It is usually fish-shaped, has red bean paste for its filling, and is peddled on the street warm. I’m really, really stressing the word “usually”, for as you continue reading this post, you’ll ask yourselves several times if I’m really reviewing a Taiyaki or something else.

For those of you who followed my advise and watched the anime series Kanon, Taiyaki is Ayu Tsukimiya’s favorite food.

Back to my experience.

I did find a Taiyaki stand near where I live, and as proof for those soon-to-be-doubters, I’ve taken a quick, hidden-camera-style snapshot of the stand’s front.

Yup, it says in big, bold, capital roman letters, “Taiyaki”.

As I approached the vendor, I was initially disappointed at seeing that the Taiyaki they were selling we not fish-shaped. They were tiny circular muffins. They also had different flavors. The store calls the flavors “toppings”, when in fact, they’re fillings.

Among the flavors that were available when I went there were Chocolate, Vanilla, Cheese, Strawberry, Pineapple, Ube, and Mongo. They were being sold at 6 or 8 pesos a piece, with the fruity fillings being more expensive. I bought two pieces of Cheese and one piece Chocolate, thinking they couldn’t possibly go wrong with these flavors.

The packaging was vintage Filipino, as you can see in the picture to the left. The thing on the upper left side of the picture is my arm. –_-‘

Although each “Taiyaki” piece smelled good, its taste was a whole new story.

It was sweeter than what I would have expected, and I like sweets. The fillings, as expected, were minimal, and although the cheese (filling) itself was yummy, it failed to bring up the level of the cake. The batter tasted like instant home-cooked pancakes (with extra sugar). The chocolate flavored one tasted much like the cheap choco cake us Filipinos can buy at our neighborhood panaderia.

The Taiyakis were also pre-baked, so when I received my bag of pastries, the Taiyakis were cold. But it’s only me, I mean, some people might like it. Which is why I saved the other piece of cheese Taiyaki and asked my girlfriend to taste it.

She didn’t like it either. She says it was too oily for her taste.

Here are a few more pictures of our local Pinoy Taiyakis:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The picture to the right is where the Taiyaki is cooked. Soooo different.

Here are my final ratings:

• Taste: 2 of 5
• Value: 4 of 5 (hey, it’s heavy in your belly. You’re full at 18 pesos)
• Patronage: 2 of 5 (this is the characteristic of the product that might urge one to keep coming back and purchasing said product)
• Overall: 3/5

Don’t worry, my dear Pinoy patriots, next time, we’ll compare a Filipino product on both worlds.

For now, make sure you read “Konpe #1: Taiyaki [Japan Version]”, which will be coming very soon.