What we talk about when we talk about dumplings By JohnLorinc (Ed.), Toronto: Coach House Books. 2022. 232 pages. $23.95 (paperback). ISBN: 9781552454527

This collection of 28 essays from an accomplished range of Canadian writers makes a useful contribution to food studies, and—with its focus on personal reflections—nicely complements the most recently available global history of dumplings (Gallani, 2015). While impossible to consider every essay, this review highlights a number that are of interest to geographers, and might provide excellent class readings for undergraduate courses in human geography, migration, or the world of food. But, first, what exactly is a dumpling? A useful definition is provided by Rachel Laudan (2013). Associating the diffusion of stuffed boiled dumplings (in the Old World, at least) with the spread of the Mongol Empire, she has argued that most types had in common a wheat dough wrapper, a filling of meat (usually lamb) and onions, and a pleated seal. Related, but through more uncertain ways, were the baked or fried forms (such as the samosa) and the ravioli—types that appeared on the fringes of the Pax Mongolica. The limitations of such a definition are ignored in this collection, however, and an approach that considers a wider range of dumpling-like recipes is promoted—a range that is, indeed, extensive as illustrated by Meegan Lim's drawings that are such a wonderful feature of the book (see Figure 1), or the “world listing” (pp. 11–13) which while only partial, still sums up to over 60 different types (a total that includes examples such as China's wonton dumplings, Ukrainian vareniki, Turkish manti, and siopao from the Philippines). The inclusion of unlikely examples, such as the Cornish pasty or the calzone, might raise questions about the value of such a broad-brush approach (both, by the way, excluded from Gallani's world list of dumplings), but it does provide an opportunity for authors to reflect on their reasoning. Thus, at one point we are told of a rare 17th-century adjective, “dump” (which apparently meant “of the consistency of dough”), to account for the “dumplingness of a matzo ball”—a rather tortuous exercise (and one that the lack of sources, either here or in Gallani, has prevented checking), but one that does lead contributor Michal Stein to the reasonable conclusion “that for the filled variety [of dumpling], it's the wrapper—not the filling—that makes it a dumpling” (p. 36). In any case, as the book's title suggests, this is not intended to be an academic treatise. Rather, as scholars of food studies have recognized, such reporting faces the challenge of examining a long under-regarded aspect of our lives: our food. To interpret the disparate set of sources involved, it is necessary to employ all of the talents of someone such as the creative non-fiction writer—the very set of skills that the collection of authors gathered in this collection showcase to excellent effect. Thus, from the first section, “the Wrapper,” Karon Liu considers mapping Toronto using the variety of dumplings as a key, Christina Gonzales builds on the theme of diffusion with her look at the development of siopao in the Philippines, while the related role of food in establishing cultural identity is aired in André Alexis's piece on growing up in Trinidad avoiding iguana stew and dumplings. Among the engaging memoirs that make up the second section (“The Filling”), Mekhala Chaubal captures the difficulty many have duplicating a grandmother's recipe, in this case for modak; Chantal Braganza recalls her father cooking the potato chops of “coastal Kenya's Goan expat community” in their Mississauga kitchen; and Miles Morrisseau lovingly recreates the Métis-style drop dumpling soup of his Manitoba childhood. A number of useful essays in the third section (“The Sauce”) and the “Conclusion” raise some important overall problems. Not least of these are those intertwined culinary issues of authenticity and cultural appropriation. As the essays in the second section show, family traditions are being continually refashioned, so “authenticity” here is clearly going to be a slippery concept, a point addressed by John Lorinc's observation that “dumplings exist in defiance of our era's obsession with lovely cookbooks and five-star online recipes that promise both gastronomical delights and authenticity” (p. 218; emphasis in the original). It seems that the dumpling's very malleability ensures its survival—as Lorinc suggests, “[s]witch up the recipe a bit from how you were taught, then pass along your own riff as it proceeds along its temporal journey into the future” (p. 219). But how far can this defiance of tradition go? Addressing this question, Navneet Alang remarks “while, obviously, no one is harmed when a mom-and-pop shop produces a dumpling that mixes Asian and Caribbean flavours, one can't exactly say the same thing when a chain restaurant does it … a way, of yet again, taking from racialized minorities with no recompense” (pp. 206–207). Important as this is, Alang extends his argument to suggest that for the “invested cultural critic” questions such as these indicate there can be no one way of approaching the dumpling—it may, after all, be simply “a small morsel of food” and not “the whole kaleidoscopic breadth of human experience”—in other words, “[w]hat fills the dumpling can be important, but it is the narrative around it that counts” (pp. 208–209). Whether it is the wrapper or the filling that ultimately provides the meaning, this is clearly a valuable and thought-provoking collection; one which the addition of a guide to further reading and reference to Gallani could make an invaluable introduction to the dumpling.

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