Fish & Chip Shop Icon · Oversized Dumpling
Dim Sim
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It was scaled up from a Cantonese siu mai by Melbourne restaurateur William Wing Young in the 1940s — invented locally to suit Australian tastes and fish-shop fryers, not imported ready-made from China.
A dim sim is an oversized steamed or deep-fried dumpling packed with minced pork, cabbage and ginger, sold hot from the same bain-maries as flake and chips. Victorians order it by the piece from milk bars, chippers and market stalls, doused in soy or tomato sauce.
Why it's made this way: Melbourne restaurateur William Wing Young adapted the Cantonese siu mai into a bigger, all-in-one dumpling in the 1940s for local mass production, and it became a fixture of Victorian fish-and-chip shop menus rather than Chinese restaurants.
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