Victorians and South Australians for that matter love nothing better than good food. Farm gate stalls and gourmet food trails set their little hearts racing.
On the road our mob are forever debating the merits of their favourite dim sims. Be it the huge juicy dim sim from Tai Wah in Mentone, the peppery cabbage flavour of the South Melbourne Market dim sim, the delicate balance of the Jimmy Wong from Footscray or the tasty recipe from the sadly long defunct Tai Ping at St. Kilda Junction (a demise that still brings tears to my eyes) that is now served at Gao Feng in Caulfield North. Will we ever decide the best attribute, the pork, the cabbage, the skin, the spice or the balance? I doubt it, so we’ll just continue to have dim sim cook offs under the stars so that we can judge again and again.
Thus, life isn’t easy for us on the road as it’s hard to get a good dim sim just anywhere. At best we can set off with a good supply in the freezer and hope that by the time we reach Woody’s ex Vic brother in Queensland (that’s Woody the Elder to you) we’ll still have a dozen left for him. He will then ration himself to one a day, they’re that good.
‘What is a dim sim?’ you ask. Well the Aussie version of Chinese siu mai was developed by prominent restaurateur William Chen Wing Young of Wing Lee restaurant in Melbourne’s Chinatown in the 1940’s. William also developed the ‘chicken roll’ the forerunner to the famous Chiko Roll but more about that another day.
Footnote: Back in the 1970’s Woody the Elder lived a few blocks from the famous Tai Ping Restaurant and could happily consume half a dozen ‘dimmies’ on the way home from work before sitting down to a roast dinner. He’s a legend and if his ex wife is reading this, she’ll now know why he could never lose weight.
itchingforhitching 
Only ever steamed! As an ex-Melbourne girl I can vouch for them being the best hangover food ever! 😂
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Oh totally!
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One year, travelling in WA, the Driver found a new variation that he became rather addicted to: steamed dim sim dipped in batter, like fish, and fried.
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Good heavens it sounds like the sort of thing that killed Elvis.
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I loved Dimmies but haven’t found any GF ones I can eat now. Dimmie dipped in Sweet Chilli sauce. Yum!
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No doubt someone will create a GF version. I like to alternate between soy sauce and chilli garlic sauce.
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Another sauce I like to use is Vietnamese Dipping Sauce…… oh, for a Dimmie.
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I must try that.
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My early life was in Melbourne so I used to love steamed dim sims. In Brisbane they batter-fry them which I think is easier for the fish and chip shops but not as nice. Adore Chiko Rolls!!!
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Chiko Rolls were a Sunday treat on the way home from visiting relatives.
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I’ve never tried it. I wonder if we can get it here
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Probably the closest would be the siu mai, the little dim sum dumpling. Though the dim sim is much larger and more ‘blokey
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Thanks, Lindsey
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Probably the closest would be the siu mai type of dim sum dumpling. Though it is daintier.
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We’ll try our local takeaway. Thanks
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Looks tempting 🙂
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They really are good.
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