One of my many favorite food scenes in Dumpling Days by Grace Lin (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2012): "Careful when you eat these," Auntie Jin said. "They're special." I'd had dumplings lots of times. How special could these be? But as I took a bite, I almost stopped in amazement. "There's soup in these dumplings!" I said. All the adults at the table laughed. "I told you they were special!" Auntie Jin said. "They are called xiaolongbao . They have soup inside of them. They're good, aren't they?" I took another bite. The hot soup filled my mouth, and the mixture of soup and meat and dumpling skin seemed to melt into a warm, rich flavor. They were good. Very, very good. I began to realize why Uncle Flower said Taiwan had the best dumplings in the world. They were so good that I didn't even notice that I had soup dribbling down my chin. I quickly wiped it away. "They say if you can eat these dump...