Our daughters were born along the dumpling road and spent their younger years eating khinkali, khanom jeeb, samsa and manti. We’ve lived and reported there for years. Now we’re taking them back to meet the people behind those dumplings and see where it all started.
Born in Tokyo, the land of gyoza, Nina is a writer and editor whose work has appeared in National Geographic, the BBC and The Wall Street Journal. She has reported on sumo champions in Mongolia, stinkbug invasions in Georgia, and sea nomads in Thailand. She co-founded the Vanishing Cultures Project with Taylor, wrote three of its books on indigenous traditions, and has taught English in Bishkek.
The only one of us not born on the dumpling road, Taylor has spent much of the last 20 years photographing it. He’s worked on assignment in more than 40 countries for National Geographic, The Wall Street Journal, the BBC and CNN. As a Fulbright Scholar he focused on shooting Tibetan communities in Upper Mustang, Nepal, and a Pulitzer Center grant took him to the Aral Sea in winter. He later taught in Bishkek, where his students started Central Asia’s first English-language student newspaper.
They ask the questions, taste-test everything, name the characters and decide which dumpling wins. They’re credited authors of the book. You’ll hear their voices and see their hands, but never their faces.
“Dumplings are cute little pouches of endless joy.”
“I love dumplings!!! My favourite one is gyoza.”
Food is how we’ve always got to know a new place. Eat the Map is our series of family projects about how dishes travel, some for kids and some for grown-ups. The Dumpling Road is the first.