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What We Talk About When We Talk About Dumplings
If the world's cuisines share one common food, it might be the dumpling, a dish that can be found on every continent and in every culinary tradition, from Asia to Central Europe to Latin America. Originally from China, they evolved into ravioli, samosas, momos, gyozas, tamales, pierogies, matzo balls, wontons, empanadas, potato chops, and many more.
In this unique anthology, food writers, journalists, culinary historians, and musicians share histories of their culture's version of the dumpling, family dumpling lore, interesting encounters with these little delights, and even recipes to unwrap the magic of the world's favourite dish.
In this unique anthology, food writers, journalists, culinary historians, and musicians share histories of their culture's version of the dumpling, family dumpling lore, interesting encounters with these little delights, and even recipes to unwrap the magic of the world's favourite dish.
232 pages, Paperback
Published November 1, 2022
19 people are currently reading
258 people want to read
About the author
John Lorinc
17 books14 followersJohn Lorinc is an award-winning journalist who has contributed to Toronto Life, The Globe and Mail, National Post, Saturday Night, Report on Business, and Quill & Quire, among other publications, and was the editor of The Ward Uncovered: The Archaeology of Everyday Life (Coach House Books, 2018) and The Ward: The Life and Loss of Toronto's First Immigrant Neighbourhood (Coach House Books, 2015). He has written extensively on amalgamation, education, sprawl, and other city issues. He is the recipient of two National Magazine Awards for his coverage of urban affairs.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
February 27, 2023
Interesting mix of memoir and history. My favourite was “Métis-Style Drop Dumpling Duck Soup.”
May 16, 2024
I was hoping that there would be a recipe at the end of each essay, but only a handful of writers chose to include one. I would have also liked to have seen more images or illustrations of the types or dumpings covered in the book.
I enjoyed reading histories and thoughts around what dumplings represent, but I wanted more.
I enjoyed reading histories and thoughts around what dumplings represent, but I wanted more.
January 30, 2024
Interesting enough, especially since I've now moved to Toronto where many of these stories are focused. But I've also read other food literature that is much better than this in terms of prose and articulation of themes/thoughts.
April 17, 2023
A tasty exploration of the variety, history and politics of dumplings.
April 28, 2025
Esse li durante o mês todinho - gostei muito das historias principalmente a abertura do livro, traz um quentinho do coração a dedicação feita pra a amiga.
dito isso, acho que dumplings rendem um debate eterno e meu favorito é pastel e guioza. 🥟 (leitura do clube do livro)
dito isso, acho que dumplings rendem um debate eterno e meu favorito é pastel e guioza. 🥟 (leitura do clube do livro)
February 25, 2023
“Dumplings are a delicious excuse to while away the afternoon with friends - trying something new, savouring an old favourite, and cherishing hours well-spent sharing food around a table. To gather for dumplings is to celebrate our earthly senses with all their smells, flavours, and textures. But combined with people you love? That's a taste of something truly divine.”
🌟🌟🌟🌟
Is there any food more ubiquitous than a dumpling? I had never considered it fully, even after living in China for four years. But this collection of food essays serves as a love letter to them—and the role they play in our lives and relationships.
Because when we talk about dumplings, we’re talking about more than just a meal. We’re talking about stumbling into a hole-in-the-wall shop during your first week in a new country with new people who will later become your friends. We’re talking about receiving an unexpected invitation for a dinner to celebrate the Lunar New Year. We’re talking about a warm, cheap meal after traveling for hours in complete exhaustion. We’re talking about something that reminds you so much of another chapter in your life that you crave them all the time despite the lack of affordable (and authentic) options, even though you used to pass by them on the street without a thought because they were always available.
Some essays I enjoyed more than others, but the standouts for me were Around the World and Technically, It’s a Ravioli. But the collection as a whole is very fun as it’s separated into three sections (the wrapper, the filling, and the sauce) and punctuated by recipes and illustrations. Mostly I just enjoyed learning about how many kinds of dumplings exist across different cultures, and the different sentiments they inspire.
All in all, a perfect book for any dumpling fanatic 🥟
🌟🌟🌟🌟
Is there any food more ubiquitous than a dumpling? I had never considered it fully, even after living in China for four years. But this collection of food essays serves as a love letter to them—and the role they play in our lives and relationships.
Because when we talk about dumplings, we’re talking about more than just a meal. We’re talking about stumbling into a hole-in-the-wall shop during your first week in a new country with new people who will later become your friends. We’re talking about receiving an unexpected invitation for a dinner to celebrate the Lunar New Year. We’re talking about a warm, cheap meal after traveling for hours in complete exhaustion. We’re talking about something that reminds you so much of another chapter in your life that you crave them all the time despite the lack of affordable (and authentic) options, even though you used to pass by them on the street without a thought because they were always available.
Some essays I enjoyed more than others, but the standouts for me were Around the World and Technically, It’s a Ravioli. But the collection as a whole is very fun as it’s separated into three sections (the wrapper, the filling, and the sauce) and punctuated by recipes and illustrations. Mostly I just enjoyed learning about how many kinds of dumplings exist across different cultures, and the different sentiments they inspire.
All in all, a perfect book for any dumpling fanatic 🥟
July 18, 2024
...the dumpling, like all food, is simultaneously just sustenance - a mere snack - but also history, culture, creativity, and the terrain upon which mixture and the impossibility of a single narrative of authenticity play out. There is, to be trite, no one true dumpling, but there are multiple, competing narratives about what the one true dumpling actually is - including the idea that it doesn't matter at all. - Navneet Alang
This collection of dumpling ruminations by various writers was charming, but I loved the idea of it a bit more than I loved its execution. 'Around the World' by Michal Stein set the bar so high for me with its emotional storytelling, but I found my attention wavering in later pieces that had disproportionate focus on historical overviews. I think I would have also appreciated if the contributor bios were included with the essays themselves, rather than clumped at the very end of the book, as I wasn't familiar with all of the writers and having a sense of who they were would have given many of the essays helpful context. The illustrations and the inclusion of recipes was delightful though, and I enjoyed the many Toronto references. As someone who loves making dumplings (potstickers, specifically!) with and for the people I care most about, I appreciated reading about how this is a shared experience for so many others, in so many different ways.
(Thanks to the folks at Coach House Books for the copy of this book!)
This collection of dumpling ruminations by various writers was charming, but I loved the idea of it a bit more than I loved its execution. 'Around the World' by Michal Stein set the bar so high for me with its emotional storytelling, but I found my attention wavering in later pieces that had disproportionate focus on historical overviews. I think I would have also appreciated if the contributor bios were included with the essays themselves, rather than clumped at the very end of the book, as I wasn't familiar with all of the writers and having a sense of who they were would have given many of the essays helpful context. The illustrations and the inclusion of recipes was delightful though, and I enjoyed the many Toronto references. As someone who loves making dumplings (potstickers, specifically!) with and for the people I care most about, I appreciated reading about how this is a shared experience for so many others, in so many different ways.
(Thanks to the folks at Coach House Books for the copy of this book!)
May 15, 2023
This was a totally random "off-the-shelf" read, but who doesn't like dumplings? I was thinking it would be more of a food history book, but it's actually a collection of personal essays about various types of dumplings. Many of which, or so it felt, predictably featured memories of eating and/or learning to make dumplings from parents and grandparents. It would probably have helped if I knew who any of the essay authors were or was someone who already enjoyed food writing, but as neither of the above were true I found myself skimming through this at times. I'm guessing it also would have helped if I were reading the paper version of this which might have more colors and pictures. There was an amateurish feel to this book that unfortunately reminded me of the time my high school English classmates all had to read their college application essays aloud. But all that said, I was behind the concept of the book and it was perhaps uniquely Canadian in showing the diversity of immigrants in Toronto and other cities and provinces via dumplings. I think it would take some work to hunt down all those types of dumplings here, but I got the impression it would be much easier in Toronto. As the title suggests, this book has also broadened my interpretation of what might be considered a dumpling, though it's all debatable (and perhaps everything is a dumpling). 2.5.
March 13, 2023
there were a few duds here, but i enjoyed most of this book. it was really cool to read about all the ways people experience life—history, politics, family, and community—through dumplings.
my favorite essays in this collection were around the world (michal stein), métis-style drop dumpling duck soup (miles morrisseau), on modaks: offerings of little bliss (mekhala chaubal), new year's luck (tatum taylor chaubal), red wine and empanadas (john lorinc), and dumplingware: the allure of porcelain (marie campbell).
i checked this book out from my local library!
my favorite essays in this collection were around the world (michal stein), métis-style drop dumpling duck soup (miles morrisseau), on modaks: offerings of little bliss (mekhala chaubal), new year's luck (tatum taylor chaubal), red wine and empanadas (john lorinc), and dumplingware: the allure of porcelain (marie campbell).
i checked this book out from my local library!
November 17, 2023
This book was delightful. Quite broad (since my family is Czech I of course love the essays that mention Czech and Eastern European dumplings) and varied in coverage, I was really pleased at how little the same ground seemed to be covered. They did a great job of making sure there's great variety in topics and writing. Very fun and light and highly recommended.
February 23, 2024
Some great ones, some bad ones, but mostly "meh" ones. Overall, a nice bedtime read but I'm not sure I'll remember I read it in 5 years. Enjoyed my time, and that's good enough for me.
August 31, 2024
Mixed feelings about this book. Overall, it was fine.
A cookbook this is definitely not. And if you go into this book thinking you'll come out a dumpling expert, you will be disappointed. This isn't so much a book about dumplings, but a book that using "dumpling" as an initializing seed. When a writer takes that seed in an interesting direction, it's great! When they don't, it's not so great.
It feels like the contributors were all given the same assignment, and many of them responded in basically the same way - a couple of pages gliding over a core memory from childhood. Which is okay at first, but then it gets pretty tiresome.
A handful of writers actually did do something interesting in their entries, and there are a couple of stand-outs:
-Michal Stein's Dumplings Around the World
-Miles Morriseau's Metis-Style Drop Dumpling Duck Soup
-Julie Van Rosendaal's The Perogy Bee of the Prairies
-Cheryl Thompson's What's in a Name? The Jamaican Patty Controversy
-Jennifer Jordan's The Round Ambassador: a great philosophizing/sociological examination.
-John Lorinc's Red Wine and Empanadas (esp. "reverse salami tactics", "dumpling deployments")
-Navneet Alang's The One True Dumpling: a very nice summarizing commentary on diversity, authenticity, and mixing among dumplings, cuisines, and cultures.
There isn't really any clear organization to the book, and the three sections (The Wrapper, The Filling, The Sauce) didn't seem to mean anything. That said, most of my favorite entries came in the The Sauce section, so maybe there's a conceptual organization that I'm feeling but just not seeing.
So all in all, kind of scattershot and hit-and/or-miss, but I'm generally glad I read it.
A cookbook this is definitely not. And if you go into this book thinking you'll come out a dumpling expert, you will be disappointed. This isn't so much a book about dumplings, but a book that using "dumpling" as an initializing seed. When a writer takes that seed in an interesting direction, it's great! When they don't, it's not so great.
It feels like the contributors were all given the same assignment, and many of them responded in basically the same way - a couple of pages gliding over a core memory from childhood. Which is okay at first, but then it gets pretty tiresome.
A handful of writers actually did do something interesting in their entries, and there are a couple of stand-outs:
-Michal Stein's Dumplings Around the World
-Miles Morriseau's Metis-Style Drop Dumpling Duck Soup
-Julie Van Rosendaal's The Perogy Bee of the Prairies
-Cheryl Thompson's What's in a Name? The Jamaican Patty Controversy
-Jennifer Jordan's The Round Ambassador: a great philosophizing/sociological examination.
-John Lorinc's Red Wine and Empanadas (esp. "reverse salami tactics", "dumpling deployments")
-Navneet Alang's The One True Dumpling: a very nice summarizing commentary on diversity, authenticity, and mixing among dumplings, cuisines, and cultures.
There isn't really any clear organization to the book, and the three sections (The Wrapper, The Filling, The Sauce) didn't seem to mean anything. That said, most of my favorite entries came in the The Sauce section, so maybe there's a conceptual organization that I'm feeling but just not seeing.
So all in all, kind of scattershot and hit-and/or-miss, but I'm generally glad I read it.
April 29, 2025
I loved this. It is absolutely eclectic and it is absolutely imperfect. If you don’t think a book of essays about dumplings sounds interesting, then you probably won’t like this. But if you do, you probably will!
The essays are all over the place, but I can truly say I liked each one for what it brought to the table. Some are written better than others. Some talk about actual cooking and ingredients and others talk about family or culture. One was even about the history of the porcelain that dumplings can be served in. I wish there had been an essay on apple dumplings, but there wasn’t. There was a very disproportionate number of writers from Canada and specifically Toronto. That wasn’t bad, but it seemed “lazy” since part of the point of dumplings is that they cover so many countries and cultures. (This gets back to my note about excluding apple dumplings/PA Dutch.)
My favorite essays were:
* Sink or Swim: A Riff on the Essence of the Matzo Ball (memories about making dumplings)
* Solid, Glutinous, and Toothsome (humorous essay by a man from Trinidad)
* Métis-Style Drop Dumpling Duck Soup (stories about native family in rural Canada)
* The Knedlik, Warts and All (a year in Czechoslovakia)
* I Pinch, Therefore I Am (a person who started a dumpling business)
* New Year’s Luck (New Year’s meal)
I suggested this for one of my book clubs, and somewhat to my surprise, people voted for it.
The essays are all over the place, but I can truly say I liked each one for what it brought to the table. Some are written better than others. Some talk about actual cooking and ingredients and others talk about family or culture. One was even about the history of the porcelain that dumplings can be served in. I wish there had been an essay on apple dumplings, but there wasn’t. There was a very disproportionate number of writers from Canada and specifically Toronto. That wasn’t bad, but it seemed “lazy” since part of the point of dumplings is that they cover so many countries and cultures. (This gets back to my note about excluding apple dumplings/PA Dutch.)
My favorite essays were:
* Sink or Swim: A Riff on the Essence of the Matzo Ball (memories about making dumplings)
* Solid, Glutinous, and Toothsome (humorous essay by a man from Trinidad)
* Métis-Style Drop Dumpling Duck Soup (stories about native family in rural Canada)
* The Knedlik, Warts and All (a year in Czechoslovakia)
* I Pinch, Therefore I Am (a person who started a dumpling business)
* New Year’s Luck (New Year’s meal)
I suggested this for one of my book clubs, and somewhat to my surprise, people voted for it.
January 21, 2023
An interesting title, and a lovely little read - especially if you enjoy dumplings of any and all variety from anywhere around the world - but not for Evergreen I don’t think.
I had never conceptualised so many things that I enjoy as being ‘dumplings.’ I really did have a rather narrow world view about them prior to reading this.
All in all an interesting history of colonization through food… Give it to the foodie in your life.
3.5 rounded to 4
I had never conceptualised so many things that I enjoy as being ‘dumplings.’ I really did have a rather narrow world view about them prior to reading this.
All in all an interesting history of colonization through food… Give it to the foodie in your life.
3.5 rounded to 4
April 24, 2023
4.0.
A series of essays offering perspectives dumplings around the world coming together in Toronto, When We Talk About When We Talk About Dumplings combines recipes, debates about what a dumpling is exactly, and the historical conjectures of the dumpling diaspora.
Not usually a fan of essays as the culmination is disjointed, but any stories about food I'll take, especially before bedtime when I'm a little hungry anyways. A cute and easily digestible read (no pun intended HA).
A series of essays offering perspectives dumplings around the world coming together in Toronto, When We Talk About When We Talk About Dumplings combines recipes, debates about what a dumpling is exactly, and the historical conjectures of the dumpling diaspora.
Not usually a fan of essays as the culmination is disjointed, but any stories about food I'll take, especially before bedtime when I'm a little hungry anyways. A cute and easily digestible read (no pun intended HA).
September 18, 2023
Incredible!! Highly recommend!! This book of essays made me laugh, made me cry, made me feel like I could travel the world without leaving my kitchen (or at least my state) and made me very very hungry. My partner and I made bao buns at home because of this book and it was SO easy and SO fun. The writers are incredible. There are recipes, but this isn't a recipe book. I learned SO MUCH but it's not a textbook about food either. It's just wonderful.
October 25, 2022
Not exactly what I was expecting. Less recipes and more wordies. Some of the chapters and “spotlights” on various dumplings were interesting, others were forgettable. My favorite chapter was titled “Red Wine and Empanadas” which is my love language.
February 11, 2023
Favorites:
Around the World by Michal Stein
Technically, it’s a ravioli by Kristen Arnett
Sink or Swim by David Buchbinder
Ask no questions about samosas by Angela Misri
On Modaks by Mekhala Chaubal
If Life is a bowl of cherries by Amy Rosen
Around the World by Michal Stein
Technically, it’s a ravioli by Kristen Arnett
Sink or Swim by David Buchbinder
Ask no questions about samosas by Angela Misri
On Modaks by Mekhala Chaubal
If Life is a bowl of cherries by Amy Rosen
January 1, 2024
See my review at https://canadiancookbooks.ca/the-east...
November 1, 2024
3.5 stars as I don't know if I "really liked it". It's an anthology, so it's going to be mixed. Nothing was truly bad, so there's that
December 19, 2024
This was good, but it could have been so much better. Lots of the essays feel very quick and slapdash. At least one ended so abruptly I thought it was a mistake.
A few which managed to tie in memory, culture, and modern affects were really good and sometimes very moving. I think more than anything it made me think about how just about everyone has some kind of meaningful dumpling memory-connection. Mine was chicken and dumplings at a local restaurant with my grandmother, my dad's mother, who I wasn't allowed to see very often. The chicken and dumpling soup was our favorite and we would both be so excited when they had it that day. This brought me back to that pure joy of being with her and sharing that meal together and how meaningful it was. I'm grateful it underscored the significance of that memory for me!
A few which managed to tie in memory, culture, and modern affects were really good and sometimes very moving. I think more than anything it made me think about how just about everyone has some kind of meaningful dumpling memory-connection. Mine was chicken and dumplings at a local restaurant with my grandmother, my dad's mother, who I wasn't allowed to see very often. The chicken and dumpling soup was our favorite and we would both be so excited when they had it that day. This brought me back to that pure joy of being with her and sharing that meal together and how meaningful it was. I'm grateful it underscored the significance of that memory for me!
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews