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Traditional Asian gastronomy offers us an infinite number of dishes that make up a buffet of desire for the West. One of them would undoubtedly be the dumpling: a kind of dumpling belonging to the ‘dim sum‘ family, which was eaten with tea for breakfast as an ancient ritual that was reinvented over time.
The dumplings in question differ in that they are made with a rice or tapioca dough, filled with different ingredients such as vegetables, seafood or pork, as well as being steamed or grilled.
In order to pay tribute to the heritage and evolution of this Asian dish, we present some specialized restaurants in the Madrid scene where you can taste -and celebrate- their gourmet interpretations.
LE PETIT DIM SUM
This restaurant, which is part of the luxury constellation of the Galerías Canalejas Food Hall, teleports us to the center of the Canton region to display an extensive menu with more than 20 types of dumplings handcrafted by chef Felipe Bao and his team.
From its space dressed in absolute sophistication, diners can explore the vast world of dumpling through different doughs, sauces, fillings and cooking techniques, such as the ‘Xiao Long Bao’, which stand out for their rounded shape, as well as the ‘Hakao’, stuffed with prawns.
PEI HOUSE
This minimalist ‘dumpling café‘, run by Pei and his mother, opened the doors of its temple in 2022, in response to the great demand for its first business model based on home delivery.
At Casa Pei, they serve dishes based on homemade Chinese-Korean cuisine, following the traditional recipe of both countries to elaborate gastronomic hits such as their steamed or grilled dumplings in six different versions that vary depending on the ingredient: such as pork and Chinese cabbage, vegetables and tofu or shrimp and pork, which can be deliciously -and surprisingly- fused with one of their specialty coffees that make up the two pillars of their culinary proposal.
CHINA CROWN
This Asian kingdom founded in 1981 has become a reference restaurant in the capital where you can taste the authentic imperial Chinese cuisine under the gastronomic vision of its owners Maria Li Bao and Felipe Bao.
Within its original recipe book, products such as dim sum or dumplings prepared in full view of the diner stand out, especially those of truffle and txangurro, as well as those of shark’s fin made from a centuries-old formula.
DON LAY
This informal and relaxed restaurant specializing in Cantonese haute cuisine, reinterprets tradition through the avant-garde with dishes such as its iconic dumplings.
Steamed dumplings occupy a large part of the menu, elaborated in different shapes and recipes, among which the version with morels, crispy prawns or marinated pork stands out.
EL BUND
Founded in 2010 by Julia Zhou, The Bund mixes Cantonese, Shanghainese and Sichuanese specialties, among which its dim sum, acclaimed over the years by critics and diners alike, shines.
Among its twenty interpretations, you can taste its steamed ‘Jiaozi’, its ‘Xiaolongbao’ with broth filling, its ‘Xiaojiao’ with starch, as well as the ‘Shaomei’ topped with orange roe.
RAVIOXO
Dabiz Muñoz‘s version of dumpling should also have a place in this post. The renowned chef, from his haute cuisine space RavioXO, experiments with the ‘plated dumpling’ from exotic fillings fused with national ingredients.
Muñoz thus devises different signature pasties that adopt different shapes made in an artisanal way with dough ‘made in RavioXO’.
SOY KITCHEN
Julio Zhang‘s restaurant has evolved over the years to establish itself as an enclave of reference within the creative Chinese cuisine.
The total experience can be lived both with its tasting menus and through the selection of dishes from the menu in which there is a large space dedicated to dim sum. One that reflects the personality of its author and his cosmopolitan trajectory in outstanding versions such as beef with Sichuan pepper, pork stew, shrimp or oxtail with smoked eggplant.
