It’s spring of 2018, and Grace Tseng, a Taiwanese American, once again finds herself on mainland China, leading a group of American high school students on a tour. It’s dinnertime, and the kids are in a small restaurant in a provincial city south of Beijing, a truly authentic place, the kind that doesn’t get many foreigners. With her native Mandarin and fluent biculturalism, Grace gracefully guides her fellow Americans through some of the menu’s more exotic options — tripe? chicken feet? — ehm… perhaps the kids’ palates aren’t there yet. Still, Grace wants them to eat like a local, and, as it turns out, they will, but only by ordering the same thing each and every time. “Whenever I traveled with American students in China, their go-to comfort food was dumplings. Every kid, every time.”