13-03-2023
Har gau and Jiao zi, two types of traditional Chinese dumplings, reproduced by RavioXO, the restaurant that Dabiz Muñoz opened in May 2022. Before that, he was already the patron at DiverXO and StreetXO, also in Madrid (photo instagram/RavioXO)
With RavioXO, opened on the 16th May 2022, Dabiz Muñoz is back to breaking the rules. The impetus of his transgressive spirit is matched only by his creativity. Stimulated by an obsession for perfectionism, he ventures daily into the más difícil todavía (“even harder”) and always comes a winner.
At RavioXO the focus is pasta. Chinese or Italian? The question is to remove the context, depriving it of any cultural connection. Those who book a table thinking they’ll find a sophisticated version of Din Tai Fung (an emblem for Muñoz) are mistaken. Just like those who expect to relive the London experience at Hakkasan (where Dabiz worked before opening DiverXo), excessive, fun, surprising, clever, audacious, unique… and, as Muñoz likes to say, absolutamente hedonista. A complete fusion, where tortellini are camouflaged as wontons and vice versa. This is how the wontollini soup is born. It’s made of tortellini filled with mortadella floating in a sweet and sour chicken broth enriched with shiitake and alyssa flowers. Balance and harmony. Or Cannellone of rice silk, in which the delicate cheng fun rice dough is combined with the power of the cochinita pibil stew [traditional Yucatan roasted pig, from Mexico] with guinea fowl, bechamel (with notes of butter and nutmeg) and brine. A marvellous texture, and the same applies to the delicate and subtle combination of flavours.
At the restaurant, they make everything from scratch. From “chili garlic” (a hot sauce made with garlic) to sriracha (a hot Thai sauce). And the same applies to the drinks. A remarkable element in the cuisine of Muñoz, even when it doesn’t include alcohol.
Cannellone of silk rice and Pasta de la resaca (post-hungover) in a fine-dining version
Muñoz had been dreaming of a restaurant specialised in dumplings for a while, because these recipes are part of his cuisine since the first menu at DiverXO. By giving new takes to ancient dishes, in 2009 he invented Fried eggs with blood sausage, to which he’s now given a fresh take. The egg white is fried until it turns into a filagree that resembles a small comb, and the yolk is introduced in a mix of blood sausage (an open shumai empanadilla) with the base filled with blood sausage, and steamed. This is paired with a taco of sweet and sour pig ears. All the power of the pig in just a mouthful, sweetened by the best sauce in the world: egg yolk.
The variable menu of 14 savoury dishes includes 9 different dumplings and other types of pasta.
Dabiz Muñoz’s gastronomic research on dough (made only with flour and liquid) is accurate and unusual. He has analysed the behaviour of each type of dough in terms of fat, humidity, heat and so on. Some doughs are more elastic, others are fattier, doughier, or very, very thin. They are boiled, fried, and steamed… the fillings are not mixed with starch, hence they are technically much more complex. The result is a collection of elaborate textures for every filling and cooking technique.
Dabiz Muñoz, 43
Translated into English by Slawka G. Scarso
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Spanish food reporter for El Mundo and Gastroactitud. Her book, "100 Culinary experiences not to be missed", insipired a TV series on Tve