People come from far and wide to eat at Brno’s Bango bistro. Customers are attracted here by Japanese flavors, which are made special by using Czech ingredients. Recently, they also go to Botanicka Street for Japanese sweets, especially mochi rice buns, but also cakes, fondos and wreaths, which are colored green with “Asian banilla”.
Natálie Benk, who now appears in the cooking reality show Hell’s Kitchen, started out as a chef in a Japanese restaurant. Two years ago, she went to Singapore, which, according to her, made a fundamental impact on her. “A friend was doing an internship there at the time, and I planned to go with him and work. But it was impossible to find work for administrative reasons, so I had nothing to do for two and a half months. I spent every day she went eating and tasting at local establishments.
“Then I went to it often. We also make it here in Bang and it tastes the same. Now we put it off for two weeks because it is difficult to prepare and we needed to focus put on other things. But the customers like it, so they asked for it back,” said the chef.
Among the regulars on the menu is also the katsu sando, a traditional Japanese sandwich. The customer gets a very fair piece of meat on the menu here. This is not the only reason it is written about in the reviews. “We cook all the meat and fish we serve on the fire,” explained the co-owner of the bistro, which is jointly owned by Josef Janeček and Anna Holešinská.
Ramen and the intestines
Belly roll is also prepared in the same way, which is added to the ramen. In the soup, there are grouse intestines, fried sauerkraut and marjoram oil with garlic – in short, killing in a bowl. Bango, described in the Brno gastro guide as a “punk bistro”, combines Japanese cuisine with Czech domestic cuisine.
“We’re all about using seasonal Czech ingredients. We cook according to Japanese recipes with ingredients from local suppliers,” explains Natálie Benk, adding that, for example, they now vary borscht to wonton dumplings – i.e. filling on made of cabbage, beets and turnips.
Together with his partner in the kitchen, Josef Janečka, they created oysters again in a pack of three. “We call it carp because it tastes like carp with potato salad. We serve it with a night of Japanese tartare, which is similar to our potato salad. We will return it to the menu,” a ‘promise to the chef, depending on who the Christmas oysters are suitable for. for the winter. Like miso zelňačka – a combination of Czech soup with an Asian flavor.
Mochi and Bobik
Bango also prepares brunches, where, among other things, they serve popular crispy waffles made with rice flour, which can be prepared both salty and sweet. In Botanická Street, where the company moved this year, the owners had the opportunity to open a Japanese pastry shop. It is located right next to the bistro. Bango has already caused a stir on social media with its first venture, Bobíka – a flaky coconut dessert in the form of a cute hybrid between a cat and a rabbit, sitting on a plate and leaving behind tapioca berries.
Rumík had the same success, a teddy bear – vanilla pudding with saikyo bowl and sweet potato, palm sugar syrup and orange creme
fraiche But the most popular Japanese sweets are mochi – Japanese cakes made from rice paste. It is said that it took Natalya a year and a half to find the right texture of the different colored buns.
“Those were the worst months of my life because it didn’t work. The dough cracks quickly and turns sour in the air. Sometimes it only took ten minutes and there was already a crack. The problem was in the dough and the cream. , but in the end it’s stuck and it’s perfect. Our mochi can last up to three days.
“Asian Vanilla”
Mochi with different flavors – in summer even with ice cream from Ješjejdnu – is loved by everyone in Bang. But Natálie likes the specialty of the biggest pastry shop – the Coconut Pandan Chiffon Cake. “It’s an Asian type of cake, something between a sponge cake and a cheesecake. Personally, I’m not a big fan of sweets, but I eat it every day.
Pandan is an Asian plant that looks like banana leaves, but when pressed it releases a natural green color and tastes like vanilla and nuts. In Asia, pandan is widely used to flavor and color sweet dishes. It is nicknamed “Asian Bilene”. .
In addition to other sweets, it is worth noting the fondos, which are filled with seasonal cream. “We play and do what we want. We try things that no one does, with ingredients that no one has,” Natálie Benk concludes with a smile. Bango, which means numbers in Japanese, is remembered by everyone who wants to go to the center of Brno in general. But you need a reservation, it’s usually very full.
