Taiyaki in London Chinatown made a memorable sweet stop on this visit. I went looking for the little fish-shaped cakes, watched the machines at work and bought a freshly made batch from Chinatown Bakery. The attraction was partly the spectacle in the window, but mostly the hot cake and warm custard waiting inside.
From the Roberts London archive: this short edit was published on 30 September 2016. It uses footage from my earlier Chinatown and Chinese New Year film; the bakery openings and service described below belong to that visit.
Watching the taiyaki machines
There was a large crowd watching the machine make the cakes. Before buying mine, I showed a second bakery at the other end of Chinatown, opposite the W hotel. It was so new that it did not yet have a sign, and I was not initially sure whether it was open.
Inside the window, the machine was already running. Rows of fish-shaped moulds opened up as cakes moved through the process, with finished cakes collected beside them. It was easy to see why people stopped to watch: the equipment was almost a display in its own right.
The new bakery was not yet open for normal service, although samples were being handed out. I did not try those samples. Instead, I headed back to Chinatown Bakery for the cakes I had come to buy.
Fresh cakes from Chinatown Bakery
At Chinatown Bakery, I got my taiyaki fresh from the machine and took them outside. The illuminated window behind me made filming a little awkward, but I held one up to show its fish shape before taking a bite.
The filling was warm custard, surrounded by a hot little cake. My verdict was enthusiastic: delicious. This was a quick street-side taste test, with customers moving around the bakery entrance and the cakes still warm from being made.
More than pressing a button
Watching the operator gave me a different impression of the machine. While I was inside, she was adjusting nuts, screws and bolts as it worked. From outside, the process could look automatic, but someone still had to stand over it and keep everything running.
That was part of the pleasure of the stop: seeing the work behind something that arrived in such a neat, recognisable shape. I left pleased with the cakes I had bought, while reserving judgement on the new bakery until I had actually tried it.
For another Chinatown food stop from the archive, see my Baozi Inn skewers visit.
