In her first book, Into the Vietnamese Kitchen, author Andrea Nguyen demystified authentic Vietnamese cuisine.

With her new book, Asian Dumplings (order it here), Nguyen tackles the dish and its many forms in the cuisines of India, China, Singapore, the Philippines and, of course, Vietnam.

As Nguyen defines them, "Asian dumplings include savory and sweet dishes that are made from balls of dough, or are small parcels of food encased in pastry, dough, batter, or leaves." The book includes painstaking recipes for curry puffs, tapioca water dumplings, samosas--and both Chinese- and Japanese-style pot stickers.

Nguyen's attention to detail is heartening, and her passion for her subject is contagious. She provides a visual guide to the six master shapes, comprehensive tutorials about the basic doughs and manages to convince even the most skeptical home cook that not only are homemade dumplings better than those from restaurants or stores, but they're also easy to execute.