Across nations and classes, there is one thing we can all agree on – that putting delicious things inside dough is a good idea

On a recent Saturday morning in Paris, I made a life-changing discovery. It came in the frozen aisle of an Asian supermarket: you can buy premade dumpling wrappers. Take a moment to think about the implications of this. Chinese shrimp wontons? Ukrainian potato varenyky? Italian veal ravioli? You’re halfway there before you’ve even chopped an onion (as long as you’re not precious about using exactly the right dough for each recipe).

Since then, I’ve fallen into a full-blown dumpling rabbit hole, my nights spent on YouTube, watching grandmothers sitting in circles, pinching dough. So many shapes. So many techniques. Team inward pleats or outward?

Joseph de Weck is an associate fellow with the German Council on Foreign Relations and writes for Guardian Europe from Zürich and Paris