I have a poorly kept secret to share with you. I love dumplings. Dumplings, by my broad definition, are protein-y type things wrapped in starch-y type things. Those protein-y, starch-y things on things are then cooked somehow… boiled, steamed, fried, baked. There is probably a more technical explanation, but for my purposes this definition is just about perfect. And by “my purposes” I of course mean the express purpose of eating dumplings and trying to figure out how to make them myself.

Take for instance these dumplings here. They have a few names: gyoza, pot stickers, pork dumplings. I’m not sure about the first time I had them, but I’m pretty sure they are what started me on this path of finding/making/eating this type of food. I was so set on finding the perfect recipe and making these dumplings, that my friends hosted a dumpling making party. We probably assembled a couple hundred. We were quite proud of ourselves. After I felt like I’d perfected those, I moved on to:

• apple dumplings
• chicken and dumplings
• samosas (is this a dumpling?)
• char siu bao (I’m bad at those)
• xiao long bao (I’m really bad at those)
• pelmeni
• empanadas (again, is this really a dumpling?)
• tamales (def not a dumpling, but also don’t you touch my tamale)

So in the end what I’m wondering is this: What sort of dumpling do I need to tackle next? I know there are many many out there I haven’t heard of, but since I haven’t heard of them how can I possibly ever expect to find/eat/make them?