after a year, i'm now fed up of the poor dim sum situation and will make my own supply and freeze them (after gorging myself).
Ok seriously: Starch is "Stärke", so you can find Maisstärke (corn starch), Weizenstärke (wheat starch) and so on probably even in a normal supermarket. Rice starch and Tapioca starch is something you will only find in Asian food stores as the one on Birmensdorfer Strasse or close to Kalkbreite. (and I honestly do not know what flour you are looking for...)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flour
You can find the ash content etc on the side of the packet. You're probably looking for T55/550 flour. If you can't find what you want in a supermarket, some of the health food (reformhaus) shops have a good selection (there's a good one on Rennweg). Also Schwarzenbach has a very good range of flour.
I have seen rice flour and tapioca in one of our local Indian stores, so it can be found.
in CH, i use Denner's all-purpose flour. I also got this "dumpling" flour but i haven't tried it yet, available from Lian HUa
strong flour for bread: there is no good substitute for strong flour (or, even better, Canadian strong flour), but it depends on what bread you want to make... if you are looking for soft, "burger style" baps, plain flour actually works better, gives a softer texture and crust.
Dumpling: if you mean savoury, "english style" dumplings you need self-raising flour, suet and water. you can get suet (the layer of fat around the kidneys) from a butcher if you ask him in advance (or use the good old Atora suet, you can buy it online I think..), and you can make your own self-raising flour with 250gr of plain flour, 2 tsp of baking powder and a pinch of salt
Do you know wher you can find 00?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jiaozi
I'm afraid I have no experience of making those . . . but I know people that have and I'll try and find out from them.
Strike up a rapport with the cashier and you get 15% discount off every item on the list. Woot!
As Gastronome has hinted, Tipo 00 is the best. However, ever since doing Jack's "Pasta by Hand" class I have used white spelt (Helles Urdinkel) which results in a quite elastic dough. Dinkel is also good for pizza bases I find.
Cheers,
Nick