It all started

with the Bar.

Well, that’s just how half the story started. I believe that we express ourselves the best with food, not words. Oddly enough, I’m a lawyer so my livelihood is based on expressing myself with words. However, when we’re talking about emotions, those are best left to food.

I learned at a very young age that feeding people is a form of expressing love. Dumplings, specifically, symbolize community as we traditionally gather around a table to catch up on each others’ lives while we fold dumplings. A special connection is forged when you make something with your hands for the purpose of providing sustenance, literally nurturing the recipient of the food. When we’re happy, we cook. When we love someone, we cook. When we want to console someone, we cook. When we want to console ourselves, we cook. Cooking food for others is a universal language that we all understand as the ultimate form of love, regardless of our backgrounds.

For years, my friends had been telling me to sell these dumplings that I brought to potlucks. I kept dismissing their pleas, but I finally appeased them and tested the “market” by selling the one flavor dumpling I had on a handful (like if a hand had three fingers) of occasions. Shortly before the COVID pandemic hit, I decided to sell dumplings again. Making dumplings is my happy place as it reminds me of family and I felt compelled to share my nostalgia with this larger community that was suddenly forced into isolation.

Before I knew it, this hobby of mine turned into a passion project and then it turned into a small business; the dumpLins customer base expanded from friends and colleagues to new friends whom I may have never otherwise met; dumpLin drops turned into catering events and popups at coffee shops, night markets, and breweries; folding by myself turned into dumpLin camps at schools; one flavor turned into over twenty-seven flavors; dumpLins started to get written up and even got featured on Tastemade’s The Curious Chef with Stephanie Izard; and “dumplings” officially became “dumpLins”.

It’s been one hell of a ride and I’m just the kid who’s remaining seated, holding down the buzz bar and screaming “again!” each time we approach the end of the ride. I hope to welcome you to the dumpLins community soon and hope dumpLins give you that feeling of home!

💛💙💛 jodi lin, aka “dumpLin”