Where the Hell is the Dumpling Emoji?

Courtesy of the dumpling emoji project
Courtesy of the dumpling emoji project

Texting became a zillion times better when your iPhone was finally blessed with long-awaited emoji characters like the taco, burrito, and more than 150 others. And while there's obviously no such thing as having too many food-related emoji, a group of concerned hungry people has launched a campaign for a specific emoji that has sadly been excluded so far: the dumpling.

Sure, a buttery lobster roll emoji might be on the top of your wish list, but the campaign makes a damn good case for adding the dumpling: "Dumplings are one of the most universal cross-cultural foods in the world. Poland has pierogi. Nepal has momos. Russia has pelmeni. Japan has gyoza. Italy has ravioli. Georgia has khinkali. Korea has mandoo. Argentina has empanadas. Jews have kreplach. China has potstickers. Yet, there is no dumpling emoji."

As reported by Eater, the effort is being led by Jennifer 8. Lee, a former New York Times journalist and cookbook author. Not only are Lee and other supporters petitioning the Unicode Consortium (the small group of tech overlords that decides on emoji characters) for a dumpling emoji, they're also hoping to raise enough money to become a voting member of the mysterious organization, which costs $7,500 per year.

"While we are pushing for Dumpling Emoji representation, we hope that this campaign catalyzes a discussion onto how we can open up the emoji deliberation process," the campaign stated on its website. "We are creating an organization to give a structured voice to the people on issues of emoji: Emojination. Our motto is 'Emoji by the People. For the People.'"

Hell yeah, we can get behind that. Oh, and about that lobster roll emoji -- let's make that happen, too.

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Tony Merevick is Cities News Editor at Thrillist and, personally, is looking forward to a lobster roll emoji. Send news tips to news@thrillist.com and follow him on Twitter @tonymerevick.