Imagawayaki.
Huh? Come again?
Say it slowly. I-ma-ga-wa-yaki.
Here in the US when we go to state fairs and carnivals, we eat funnel cakes and deep-fried Mars bars oreos cheesecake anything. However, in the Japanese culture, the "fun" fair-ish food is imagawayaki, a small, flat bun that is filled inside with "an," sweet red bean paste. Though it is a Japanese food, here in Los Angeles' Little Tokyo, there is a small cafe that is well-known for its imagawayaki, Mitsuru Cafe in the Japanese Village Plaza.
The imagawayaki are made with a batter this is similar to a waffle or pancake batter. The batter is poured into special cooking contraptions that are used especially for imagawayaki - a large "pan" made of cast iron or aluminum that has small molds for each imagawayaki that is placed over a direct heat source.
There are a few shots of imagawayaki being made after the jump.
The cafe has a large picture window that allows passers-by to see the imagawayaki being made. Talk about marketing!
The batter is poured in first on one side, then the bakers put a small dollop of the red bean paste in the center.
The other side of the bun is made to make the imagawayaki whole.
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