The world's best dumplings | CNN Travel

[ad_1]

(CNN) — How to define a dumpling? In its most basic sense, it’s a pocket of dough filled with some form of savory or sweet stuffing.

And the easy ideas are surely the best, because dumplings are a popular food across the globe: both simple and complex, local and global, adaptable yet fixed in their home regions as cheap, tasty staples to snack on.

CNN’s Pauline Chiou looks at Taiwan’s Din Tai Fung, a family-run restaurant that’s turned into a global dumpling icon.

Here are no fewer than 35 of our favorites around the world to get your taste buds flowing.

Contents

Xiaolongbao
Ravioli
Sichuan spicy wonton

Xiaolongbao

Xiaolongbao dumplings contain aspic, and are pinched, instead of folded.

K.Y. Cheng/South China Morning Post/Getty Images

Served steamed in bamboo baskets, xiaolongbao look different from other types of Chinese dumplings, as the skin is gathered and pinched at the top instead of folded in half.

Xiaolongbao are also unique in that aside from the traditional pork filling, a small piece of aspic is folded into the dumpling, which melts when steamed.

Thanks to the broth, the filling stays moist and flavorful.

Ravioli

Ravioli: Far from a predictable pocket.

svariophoto/Shutterstock

Italy is, of course, the global home of filled pasta, and ravioli is one of its most famous offerings — so famous that it has been exported across the world.

Ravioli — as well as other Italian filled pastas — can be packed with anything from meat to cheese to vegetables, or any combination thereof.

If the processed canned or bagged varieties familiar to lazy college students makes up your only impression of ravioli, rectify that as soon as possible. Preferably with a trip to Rome.