One thing we need to get clear, for the benefit of non-Australians reading this: dim sims are NOT dim sum, not by a mile. If Dr Frankenstein was a dim sum, then dim sim would be his monster.
A dim sim would be 3-4 times larger than an average siu mai (to which it shared a similar shape and construction) and would have a doughier skin which is 2-3 times thicker than a dim sum dumpling would have.
Dim sim is also more often deep-fried, rather than steamed, and often offered as an option in fish-and-chip shops. I absolutely love fish-and-chips in Australia, which I think are consistently better than those in the UK. One would be hard-pressed to find “bad” fish-and-chips anywhere in Australia. But, I absolutely detest dim sims - even when I was a teenager scarfing down meat pies or Vegemite sandwiches every day. To me, dim sims were the height of bad food which looked awful, smelt horrid, and tasted absolutely disgusting.
But then, I grew up in Western Australia. Although the term “dim sim” was used as far back as 1928, the modern-day dim sims were supposed to have been created by William Chen Wing Young of Melbourne in 1945, and served at his restaurant, Wing Lee in Melbourne’s old Chinatown.
The typical dim sim has a thick doughy skin, so thick, one can throw it at a bird and kill it. The filling is usually mutton or beef mince, chopped cabbage, onions, salt and pepper, cooked together till it resembled grey sludge. The same filling also goes into another of Mr William Chen’s invention: the thick-skinned “chicken roll”.
Dim sims today are just about as Australian as the Aussie meat-pie, or the pavlova, or Vegemite.
South Melbourne has its own popular dim sim, the round-shaped “dimmies” popularised by Chinatown restaurateur, Ken Cheng. He’d passed on in 2006, but the famous South Melbourne Market dimmies are still available, in a chain now run by the late Ken Cheng’s sons, Edward and Phillip.
I was at their Emporium Melbourne outlet at lunch during my visit here last year. Despite my misgivings about the dim sim, I had not had one in 40 years, so I thought I might as well see if its nightmarish qualities were inadvertently amplified in my childhood memories.
The verdict? No, it was not a dream (nightmare). Even this famous Melbourne version of the dim sim could not persuade me to go beyond the first bite. 
I then went for the Spring Roll.
It was, if anything, worse than the dim sim.
Sorry, no Aussie-Chinese dim sim or spring roll for me. They were just as bad as I remembered from my schoolboy days. I adore meat pies then, ate them every single day, and I still loved them (perhaps even more) now. Some taste preferences just simply don’t change over the years.
Address
South Melbourne Market Dim Sims
Emporium Melbourne, Level 3 Cafe Court
287 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne
VIC 3000, Australia
Tel: +61418 340 999
Opening hours: 9am-10pm Mon-Fri, 9am-7pm Sat & Sun
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