Sweet Rice and Pork Dumplings

Each winter around Chinese New Year, our neighbor Grace, who is from Taiwan, holds a large potluck party. The food is always great, ranging from Grace’s potluck standby, a slow-simmered braised beef dish, to Beijing-style pot stickers and red-cooked baby eggplant.

Not surprisingly, a lot of the conversation is about food—who contributed what, other versions of the same dish, and so forth. Last year we fell into conversation with two guests from China. When we asked them about their