What We Talk About When We Talk About Dumplings

Karon Liu has been a staff food reporter for the Toronto Star since 2015 and aims to link food with culture, history, identity, politics – anything you can imagine. He's also an avid home cook, and his favourite utensil is a pair of wooden chopsticks his grandma used to use.John Lorinc is a journalist and editor. He reports on urban affairs, politics, business, technology, and local history for a range of media, including The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, Corporate Knights and Spacing, where he is senior editor. John is the author of five books, including No Jews Live Here: A Memoir (Coach House Books, 2024), and has co-edited eight anthologies for Coach House, including The Ward (2015), Any Other Way (2017), and Messy Cities (2025). John is the recipient of the 2019/2020 Atkinson Fellowship in Public Policy and was the winner of the Writers' Trust Balsillie Prize for Public Policy, for Dream States: Smart Cities, Technology and the Pursuit of Urban Utopias (2022). He lives in Toronto.

“Some essays are terrifically informative…But the most moving are deeply personal…With laughter, tears, and an occasional recipe that feels like part of an oral tradition, this collection speaks to the heart of all who grew up eating dumplings at their grandmother's table.” – Heather Booth, Booklist"Toronto journalist and urbanist John Lorinc collects stories, histories, family traditions (and even some recipes from food historians, chefs, and other prominent Canadians) about perhaps the most universal food phenomenon the world over: the dumpling!" – Andrew Woodrow-Butcher, Quill & Quire"What We Talk About When We Talk About Dumplings is a collection of essays from journalists, food historians, and other writers for whom dumplings are a vessel for understanding global and personal histories that include a number of dumpling-related debates." – Alexandra Trnka, Quill & Quire "What We Talk about When We Talk about Dumplings will leave you hungry. And it will leave you wanting, because it turns out that a dumpling can be the perfect introduction to a different culture and to the human condition itself." – Hattie Klotz, Literary Review of Canada"A drool-worthy publication and fun-tastic read, What We Talk About When We Talk About Dumplings is a compendium of some of the most engaging stories centered on dumplings." – Cynthia Rekdal, International Examiner"Whether the believe calzone, pierogi, or even Scotch eggs count as dumplings, all of the authors share a sense of joy and community when it comes to these flavourful, starchy delights." – Kris Rothstein, Geist"A fun look at the history and stories behind dumplings the world over. The immigrant experience is at the heart of many of these touching essays. Great for a food focused book club!" – Katrina Mendrey, Chapter One Bookstore