'Crazy dumplings' get Americanized

Amanda Roberts and her daughter make dumplings at home in Shenzhen. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY

Every time Amanda Roberts comes across a delicious dish, the first thing she thinks is "How can I turn this into a dumpling?"

From bacon-cheeseburger to bleu-cheese ribeye steak fillings, the American author of two cookbooks — Crazy Dumplings and Crazy Dumplings II — has been on a quest to put the tastes of home in classic Chinese dough wrappers.

Roberts, 35, and her husband Seth Anderson moved to China in 2010 to seek a new lifestyle and adopt a Chinese girl.

They first lived in Hunan, one of two provinces in China known for their spicy cuisines — the other being Sichuan. Roberts soon started spending a lot of time in the kitchen after constantly telling restaurants "bu yao la" (no spicy) and then watching the dishes come out drowned in peppers.

She even learned how to deal with a whole chicken with the head still on.

The idea of making her own American dumplings came to her during a Chinese New Year. She was on the bus back to Changsha after spending a whole week eating New Year foods, "but also missing foods from home," she said.

Recipes started popping into her head, and she made a list of possible fillings. She had at least 20 by the time she got to Changsha and started experimenting the next day.

Aside from the burger and steak fillings, she created dumplings with America's favorite Chinese dishes, such as Peking duck and General Tsao's chicken dumplings. She also gave dumplings a new nickname: the perfect vehicles for leftovers.

When she put her first cookbook Crazy Dumplings on Kickstarter in 2014, she had slim hopes.

Maybe there were some brave chefs on the fundraising platform who'd want to try her pizza or S'more dumpling recipes, the author thought.

"We ended up reaching our goal in about a week," Roberts said. "It was a huge surprise. I was so thrilled."

By the end of the campaign, she had raised $8,936, almost 300 percent of her original $3,000 goal.

Roberts said the backers come from all over the world with the same kind of love for Chinese food. There are also some expats like herself.

With the success of the first book, she couldn't get dumplings off her mind, but coming up with new ideas for fillings got more difficult.

Luckily, her fans came to her with ideas. By pledging $40 or more, a backer could submit an idea.

Backer Jason Tubbs requested something with duck and pears, so Roberts created honey pear duck dumplings. "I hope he also likes honey," said Roberts.

Kathleen Doerr likes Thai yum muah salad, so Roberts created Thai yum muah beef dumplings by finely chopping the salad and stuffing it into a dumpling.

The second campaign, which finished last year, did even better, raising 400 percent of its goal. If there's one thing Roberts has learned, it's that nothing brings people together like food.

She and Anderson and their daughter — she arrived home last December — now live in Shenzhen. What started as a two-year expat trip turned into a seven-years-and-counting stay with many more to come, and of course, more crazy dumplings.