[breakingnews]

If you have a chinese grocery store nearby, dumplings make the ultimate party food, I've found. You can buy bags of 25 or so at the store; easiest is to boil them, but I prefer fried (which takes a bit more effort - I can instruct if that might actually happen for you).

If no access to an ethnic store, many supermarkets carry commercial brands of shui mai (that's how they sometimes spell it; it's actually 'xiao mai,' pronounced 'shao my'), those little round shrimp and pork dumplings served at dim sum. Those should be steamed.

And if you can't find any of that - time to roll up the sleeves and make 'em! I do a dumpling party every year or so, but only once have I actually tried making the skins. Easiest to buy them pre-packaged, but when you're short on resources, you must go to extremes.

The kicker is the dipping sauce. I use:
Chopped garlic
Crushed red pepper (or chili oil)
Chopped scallions
Soy sauce (straight up kikoman, none of that low sodium nonsense)
Rice vinegar
Sesame oil

[2 cents]