The dumpling files, volume 1

What: Mei Sum's Sui Lung Pao Main ingredients: Pork and cabbage in wheat flour wrappers Flavour and texture: Very smooth and gently flavourful filling, with a soft, tender wrapper. Reminds me of a chicken bun, despite the main ingredient being pork. A bit juicy.

Best served with: Either a mild dipping sauce (soy and vinegar, perhaps), or something with just a little kick (sweet chilli sauce?) Marks out of 10: 8. A good, steamed dumpling. Also available in packs of assorted dim sum, like this one: Also included in the pack: Beef siu mai Pork siu mai Prawn har gow Main ingredients: Prawns, fish, waterchestnut, bamboo, in a semi-translucent rice flour wrapper. Flavour and texture: Very soft filling, gentle taste, not a lot of flavour. The wrapper is soft and slightly chewy. Best served with: Definitely something with kick, like sweet chilli sauce or a vinegar dipping sauce with chili Marks out of 10: 7. Texture's lovely, but I personally prefer bolder flavours.

Persian Gingerbread (nan-e qandi)

	Sweet and spicy, with a hint of chilli kick... the perfect biscuit with a mid-afternoon cup of tea.

Okonomiyake

Okonomiyaki is sometimes called the Japanese version of pizza. Presumably by people who've never eaten pizza. Okonomiyaki bears no resemblance to pizza in my mind, but what it is, is a rib-sticking, satisfying, calorific fast food that you can make in a jiffy, using a few staples and whatever's lurking in the back of the fridge. Essentially, it's a savoury pancake, packed with leftover vegetables and any scraps of meat you've got hanging around.

Popiah

Popiah are the Nonya equivalent of a spring roll - lots of fresh ingredients stuffed into a very thin wrapper, and eaten with sauces. The easiest option is to buy ready-made popiah wrappers, but I've also included alternate options of making your own crepes, or using tortillas. Without specialist materials, you won't be able to make them as tissue-paper-thin as the professional ones, but they'll still taste good.

This makes a great assemble-yourself party food, and is also a popular hawker dish across large parts of Asia (the Malaysian / Singapore versions evolved out of Chinese / Taiwanese versions, and you'll also find spring-roll inspired dishes in Thailand and Vietnam). In some areas, the rolls are likely to come sealed and deep-fried. Here in Singapore, they're stuffed with warm minced radish or turnip, shredded lettuce or cabbage, peanut powder, and tiny prawns. There's no right or wrong way to make a popiah, as there are so many regional variations. Whichever way you go, it's bound to be yum, so I suggest you give them a try!

Unofficial goi cuon

I'm going slightly off-piste here. Goi cuon are small, Vietnamese rice paper rolls, often called summer rolls or salad rolls. They're most commonly served with a nuoc cham (fish sauce and vinegar) dipping sauce. Sometimes you find them with a salty peanut and hoisin dipping sauce instead. But over here at The Asian Street, we're wild and crazy gals, so when I make goi cuon, I add a spicy peanut sauce directly to the roll and serve with nuoc cham on the side.

I know, I know! That's not traditional. It's not even Vietnamese. But, y'know: live dangerously. Que sera sera. Living la vida loca. So here we are, scoffing these fresh rolls. And you know what? They taste pretty good! Here come the villagers with the pitchforks....

Pineapple bun

What: Chinese pineapple bun Source: Wonderful Patisserie 45 Gerard Street, London W1 (Chinatown) Appearance: Massive. The surface of the bun is covered in some kind of slightly crunchy-but-not-very-as-it-comes-wrapped-in-plastic sugar mixture. Inside the crumb is light and loose. Flavour: The first taste is firmly in sugar overload territory. It's sweet. It's very sweet. The inside tastes fairly briochey. Contains no pineapple whatsover (presumably someone thought the sugar-cracklelature on top looked kinda like a pineapple). Would go down well with a cup of thick coffee. Price: £0.80 Overall: 6/10 fills a hole, but nothing more.