Crazy Dumplings

Roberts’s eclectic dumpling cookbook covers a variety of fillings, from traditional pork to tacos and cheesecake. She is an American expatriate who has been living in China for four years; her recipe attempt to respect local traditions and the foods she has come to love while recreating her comfort foods from home. In this manner, she shows readers how she can turn almost anything into a dumpling filling and make a tasty meal for two. By providing a single dumpling wrapper recipe, she frees herself (and her readers) to consider non-traditional fillings, as well as a variety of sauces. Roberts makes readers think about the versatility of dumplings in a new way. However, readers are bombarded with so many different recipes, most of which are requests from Kickstarter backers, that they have no idea what is worth making and what is not; and the recipes all start to blend together, especially with her overly succinct directions. She provides good notes on metric conversions and some of her research around dumplings, but there is very little of the theory of what makes dumpling fillings work (or not), so readers will likely feel a little overwhelmed. Roberts covers a lot of ground, but she does it without much depth. (BookLife)