Dumpling on the Steamer Floor of the Kitchen

A pleated dumpling sits on a round carved wooden base in the middle of a kitchen, its dough washed in coral, yellow, teal and violet with a green twist at the top. Little cooks in white caps work all over it. Two stand on a scaffold at the twist, two roll out dough at a table on the upper right slope, and more arrange fillings at a table at the front. A rip in the lower right shows carrots, greens and beans, and a ramp leads up to it. Star flowers, blue fronds and lavender grow out of the pleats. All around it are tall stacks of bamboo steamers, steel boiling vats, pipes, water basins holding baskets and ladles, and long counters where more cooks shape dough on a patterned tile floor. The pleats fan out like spokes, so the dumpling falls into tidy sections.