Need help with today's NYT strand? Today's theme, “All wrapped up,” is a bit of a headache even if you know what you're talking about.

Below are some helpful hints for Strand #229 and the answer when you need it. First, a few hints will lead you to the complete answer to Strand #229.

WARNING: There are spoilers for Strand #229.

The official theme for NYT Strands #229 is... “All Wrapped Up.”

And here's an unofficial hint from me: “World Cuisine.”

If you're still in the dark, here are a few useful words that will give you valuable hint tokens:

Still struggling? Spangram gives you a hint on conjunctions. Today it starts with “D” and ends with “S.”

Scroll down to see what it is.

FANTASYLEAGUE.

Now, what's the answer to today's strand?

drumroll please.

... Spangram was DUMPLINGS.

Strands #229

“All wrapped up”

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Hello Strands fans! Once again, this is a tricky one, at least partly due to geography. In the UK, where I write, dumplings are a very specific suet-based addition to casseroles and stews. I had heard all the answers to the puzzle, but none of them looked like dumplings to my eyes!

Fortunately, my first answer was written at the bottom of the screen: GYOZA; to its left was SAMOSA and to its right was WONTON.

When I pieced together the DUMPLINGS, I knew this would also be the answer, not the spangram. This certainly confused me when looking for the remaining answers in the top half of the grid.

Next I found RAVIOLI in the upper left corner (definitely not a dumpling for me!)

I then looked for a PIEROGI in the upper left hand corner. This led me to PIEROGI, and all I had to decipher was the anagram for “ADNAEAPM.” After wrestling with it for a while, I realized it had to be EMPANADA.

Are you reading this late in the day? You can read the full article about Strand's solution to yesterday's 228th game here.