Bundles of absolute joy... the travelling Greater Manchester stall where you can find the perfect Chinese dumplings

When it comes to eating, there are moments that stay with you. Maybe it’s the smell of walking past the bakery on the way to school or your local chip shop growing up, or the first time you tried hot, sticky sweet and sour with egg fried rice.

Mei Pang’s food is full of memories, of her mum crimping dumplings in their dozens and dozens as cousins, uncles and aunts would descend on them for family get-togethers. She grew up with food all around her, and that instinct for feeding people flows through to her fingertips, as she pinches and twists her own perfect parcels on the kitchen counter at her home in Edgeley.

Tasting one of these bundles of absolute joy, fresh from the steamer, handmade just a few minutes before, was a revelation. Something I’ll always remember; the day I found and ate the perfect dumpling.

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Mei makes it look effortless, of course. She can produce 6000 of these in a week, for her business Oh Mei Dumpling, set up in 2016, sometimes nailing Netflix series as she goes. It’s mindful work, methodical and skilful, but also calming and meditative too.

Her previous life was not like this. She was a teacher in prison for young offenders and then, flipping to the other end of the scale, a careers specialist at an ‘outstanding’ all girls school in East Manchester. “It was challenging, but rewarding,” she says. It was also stressful.

Though hugely different, both environments