How Many Folds Could A Dumpling Fold If A Dumpling Could Have Folds
The Slow Press is an independent zine from Singapore dedicated to uncovering stories about food. The team approached me to illustrate a surprise insert for the zine's 2nd anniversary. Given free rein on the subject, I took the opportunity to declare my love for dumplings with a 10 page spread on dumpling folds.
It has always fascinated me that dumplings can have so many different folds - for aesthetic reasons and to differentiate flavours. But I suppose it is a bit like the modern markings on bread.
I designed this project with the intention of educating readers about the proper names of the different folds, in the hope that it could appear as a conversation piece. To take it a step further, I included a recipe for those (& myself) who are unfamiliar with making the dumpling skin.
I was inspired by Taiwanese-American cook called Frankie (@littlefatboyfrankie), who was able to modernise traditional dumplings. In my mind, dumplings were white dough with a meat filling. For Frankie, dumplings were a canvas for colours, flavours and textures. Like him, I wanted to use colour to enhance the visual appeal of a typically traditional dish.
A happy challenge to this was sieving through the varieties of folds, choosing only the ones which were most common to us. The next challenge being how to best showcase the intricacies of the folds, textures and shadows. For this, I utilised a play on blending modes and textures.
The end result was a 12 page editorial on some of the common dumpling folds.
