2024-02-14 07:08:59
Already in his childhood, Milan Tarabík burned with love for the land of the rising sun. From karate and Zen philosophy, he gradually worked his way up to a hearty ramen soup, and because he wanted to cook it really honestly, he and his chef started an apprenticeship with a Japanese master. It took several months before he gave them the go-ahead. At the end of January, they finally opened the Ramencraft bistro near Prague’s Old Town Square.
Until recently, tourist traps prevailed among the restaurants in Prague’s Old Town, where foreigners tried to catch overpriced Czech cuisine. However, the newly opened Ramencraft bistro in Veleslavínova street is beyond them. When guests visit it, they will see a tattooed chef behind the counter with a Japanese scarf on his forehead. Instead of martial arts, however, he is currently engaged in another sport – the preparation of a hearty soup, which has penetrated from Southeast Asia to Europe and is enjoying increasing popularity in recent years.
“I only have forty seconds left,” reports 38-year-old Jiří Masluk, while he is cooking wheat noodles that don’t need more than a minute and fifteen seconds in hot water. In order not to waste time, he pours a bowl of creamy pork broth. A moment later, he mixes it with the drained noodles and takes off into the sky. It consists of slices of pork belly, marinated ginger, a mushroom called Judas’s ear, seaweed nori, leeks and, of course, pickled eggs. Top with sesame, ginger-garlic paste and tonkotsu ramen is ready to be served.
The basis of ramen is a strong broth – whether pork, poultry or vegetable. It can be served with slices of pork belly or minced meat, pickled eggs and other garnishes. | Photo: Jakub Plíhal
Fifty-three-year-old Milan Tarabík, who runs the Japanese-scented business, considers the mentioned soup to be the king of ramen. But it has eight different variants on offer. “We use three types of broths – chicken and vegetable broths are made for eight to ten hours, pork fourteen to sixteen hours. We boil the egg for six and a half minutes until it is soft and then put it whole in a marinade of soy sauce, mirin rice wine, sugar and other spices, ” describes the stout man in his fifties. As for the meat, we work with boneless pork belly or chicken, which we make into a roulade. We then bake the meat for a long time, or confit it, and finally marinate it. In some ramen, we also add ground pork or tofu, if it is vegetarian,” lists Tarabík.
From karate and Zen philosophy to ramen
He became enthusiastic about Japanese culture already in the times of socialism, when no one cooked ramen in the local areas, but you could come across the mentioned martial arts here. “Even as a small boy, I used to be close to my body, and because I needed to release my weight somewhere, I signed up for the karate club at the age of twelve. At first I took it mainly as a sport, but at the same time I met a Japanese master there, who in me awakened an interest in the entire oriental philosophy. I gradually tried judo, aikido and kendo. I liked the mild and calm Japanese nature, and I also wanted to be ‘honored’ like that,” explains Tarabík.
When he was studying at the hotel school, the only whiff of Asian cuisine was the first domestic Chinese restaurant, which was located in Vodičková Street. After the revolution, it was first absorbed by enterprises of a Central European style. For example, he led a network of traditional Czech Kolkoven for several years, and one of the branches of The Pub franchise, which specializes in burgers, steaks and tank Pilsen beer, also bears his name. It wasn’t until 2022 that Tarabík was approached by an investor who knew about his passion for Japan and suggested that he would like to open a new business focused on sushi.
“However, sushi is challenging in terms of food sustainability and the price of ingredients. I like making it for myself or for my family, but I wouldn’t dare to do it in business. However, I noticed that people are becoming more and more attracted to the dense Japanese ramen soup,” he says and he recalls how he bought several books to study as he prepared. “And I also started looking for someone who could show me. After a few meetings, I realized that if we want to do ramen honestly, we need to find a native Japanese. Not everyone is welcoming to Europeans, so I’m glad we came across Mr. Shoga, who is a clear exception in this regard,” Tarabík highlights his qualities.
Chef Jiří Masluk thinks that “chefs are a rather specific type of people, butchers and pastry chefs are the only ones who are more skilled.” But the Japanese champion surprised him. | Photo: Jakub Plíhal
The Japanese are polite, they don’t show their emotions
Mr. Shogo is a Japanese who has lived in Prague for a long time and was behind the creation of most of the local ramen restaurants. During last year, Tarabík and chef Masluk fired up the stove and started learning from the master. At the same time, the hard school was complicated by the language barrier. Although Mr. Shogo has a Czech wife, he does not speak her mother tongue very well and speaks much better in Japanese or English. The apprentices to whom he passed on his experience were the exact opposite. “If someone had looked at us through the window and seen us gesticulating furiously at each other, they would have thought we were disabled,” laughs Tarabík.
In addition, buttermilk was initially disliked by Japanese cuisine. Previously, he worked for example in the steakhouse La Casa Argentina or the Italian restaurant Marina. For the last three years, he worked in the Old Town branch of The Pub, where he met Tarabík. In all previous seasons, he was used to a team in which emotions were openly vented. “When something didn’t work, people cried out. But no one took it personally. Cooks are a rather specific sort of people, the bigger fools are probably only butchers and confectioners,” thinks Masluk.
However, he soon discovered that Japanese chefs have a completely different mentality. “When something bothered Mr. Shogo, he preferred to suffocate it,” he recalls. “Japanese people are usually polite. Even Mr. Shogo is more of an introvert who doesn’t show his emotions at first, and in two days he comes to you to tell you that it wasn’t good. But it also happened that he started swearing at us in Japanese. How are we they didn’t understand him, we didn’t know what was going on at all. At one point we had already done thirty-three tastings, Jirka felt that we could finally go to the market with the leather, but we missed again and Mr. Shogo slammed the door on us. We almost broke up completely, but luckily we were so persistent that he gave us one more chance,” admits Tarabík.
Photo author: Jakub Plíhal
On Tomáš Maca’s fork
Tonkotsu ramen is based on pork broth and marinated slices of pork belly. It belongs to the milder, less hot variants. However, its sweet taste is a welcome caress in the winter months. In addition, from a European’s point of view, the word soup is not quite suitable for ramen, because the combination of noodles, meat and pickled egg can really fill you up. Marinated ginger, nori seaweed, leeks and Japanese mushrooms add lighter, oriental tones to the dish.
Local mentor Mr. Shogo boasts that Ramencraft is one of the few domestic establishments that uses pig heads. Ribs, but also knees and legs contain a lot of collagen, which makes the broth creamier. Just watch out for clothes, especially bright ones. Eating ramen without splattering yourself can be an almost impossible mission for inexperienced diners.
Fat Buddha, waving cats and cyberpunk
Finding a suitable place for a new business, on the other hand, was not that difficult. He managed to open in a lucrative neighborhood thanks to the owner of the house in which the related The Pub is located. The owner offered him another space right next door. Tarabík originally envisioned the interior in a somewhat more conservative style. “As a boy, I myself ran around the garden with a wooden sword and played samurai. That’s why I saw the company in a slightly more Zen form. But the investor is a generation younger, so he grew up more on Japanese video games and the old Atari console. That’s why he proposed that we could be inspired by cyberpunk,” says Tarabík.
On one wall, the guests of Ramencraft are attracted, for example, by mosaic tiles reminiscent of eight-bit game avatars. Elsewhere, a digital screen with a fat Buddha lights up, and a group of orange Maneki Neko cats wave at visitors from one shelf. A more traditional line of Japanese culture is represented by a decorative fabric with the mythical creature Shisa, which is supposed to protect against evil spirits. “Even though the era of video games has completely passed me by, I have to admit that it is finally sitting here like an ass on a pot,” boasts the head of the company. In addition, the digital screens in the bistro do not only fulfill an aesthetic function, interested parties can also order through them.
“I have to admit that the opener cut us apart. I was definitely not rewarded at that moment,” says manager Milan Tarabík. Behind him is the mythical creature Shisa. | Photo: Jakub Plíhal
When Ramencraft opened in late January, it faced an overwhelming influx of curious people on its first day thanks to an intense social media campaign. “From the shop window we saw maybe twenty-five people in line, but then we went outside the bistro and found out that they were standing all along the street. Perhaps the whole of Prague had arrived, which we were not prepared for. I have to admit that the opening lady cut us off. he certainly wasn’t for a while. In order to satisfy the crowds, I took orders faster than the guys in the kitchen could process them. I had to tie them with a chain so they wouldn’t run away,” jokes Tarabík. Fortunately, the next few days were much calmer, and the managers and chefs hope that the worst is behind them.