Ying Compestine's green tea-steamed shrimp dumplings. Lucy Schaeffer/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt hide caption
dumplings
Kreplach, a special Jewish holiday dish that can be made essentially out of leftovers. Courtesy of Caren Alpert hide caption
A Flock of Dumpling Ducklings: What's inside? Roasted Beijing duck, of course. Anthony Kuhn/NPR hide caption
Even in Sandro Botticelli's painting The Birth of Venus, the goddess's belly resembles a plump, firm tortellino. Wikimedia.org hide caption
A potsticker prepared by Chef Scott Drewno at the Washington, D.C., restaurant The Source. Heather Rousseau for NPR hide caption
The finished dumplings, properly fried to a light crisp. The half-moon shape was meant to resemble ancient Chinese currency. Eating the dumplings was believed to bring fortune and prosperity. Daniel M.N. Turner/NPR hide caption
Year cakes made of sticky rice are among the traditional Chinese New Year foods. Ju-x/Flickr.com hide caption