Dumplings and Wontons: Siblings or Cousins?

There are hundreds of poems and idioms that write about food. For instance, "Food is the paramount necessity of the people." More literally, "Food is sky." Moreover, children, starting from kindergarten, are taught not to leave a single grain of rice in the bowl, as each grain represents the sweat of the workers in the field, which is described in the poem, "How many of you realize that each grain in your dish is a fruit of arduous labor?" .
             Ironically, it is because Chinese have to utilize resources as well as possible that they have created one of the greatest cuisines in the world. Chinese food is inventively refined and sophisticated. People can always be surprised by the number of the dishes and amazed by their own distinguishing flavor, texture, color and fragrance. However, dumplings, something only about wrappers and fillings which have few tangent flavors, become the most popular Chinese food here in the United States. Out of so many complicated and breathtaking Chinese dishes, why dumplings?.
             Why Dumplings?.
             It is easy to understand why Chinese food has swept the United States. Firstly, there are so many Chinese people in America, students, employees, visitors and immigrants. Secondly, compared to easily cooked and simply made American dishes, sophisticated Chinese dishes provide people with much more options. Although we can choose different toppings or fillings for pizzas and hamburgers, but after all, they are pizzas and hamburgers. On the contrary, Chinese not only use a large variety of ingredients (as I mentioned before, Chinese people eat a lot of things), but also have more than a handful of ways to cook them. Moreover, different ingredients in one dish may be cooked in different ways separately, brought together and then cooked in a third way together. .
             When I first got to America, my friends and I always liked to go to Chinese restaurants during weekends because we were sick of pizzas and burgers in dining halls and wanted delicious Chinese dishes back.