The other day I shared with Liz that one of the only few things I look forward to about winter is eating hot Dim Sim for breakfast in the office.
“You know that it’s an Australian thing, yeah?” she asked me, before further explaining: “As in we don’t have Dim Sim back in China“.
Jaw dropped!
I was introduced to it by Newman, my ex-colleague-turned-friend. During my first year here, I told him that I was going to the South Melbourne Market over the weekend, and he told me that the South Melbourne Market Dim Sim was a must. “Dim Sum, you mean“, I tried to correct him. “Nah, Dim Sim Kal!!“, he replied back with his robotic voice. I didn’t manage to find the Dim Sim place in the market that day. Fortunately, soon after, I found out that it was sold at one of the coffee shops in Southbank, where we both used to work. Ever since, it has been my unhealthy go-to breakfast choice for the four years I worked in Southbank.
So What Is Dim Sim?
According to Wikipedia, it’s a Chinese-inspired Aussie interpretation of steam or fried meat or veggie dumplings made popular by a Chinese immigrant who migrated to Melbourne from Guangdong, China.
Similar to Aussie’s beloved sausage roll, it is usually rectangular in shape but much better seasoned (at least the South Melbourne Market version one ━ I have yet to try from another place).
Try the Dim Sim from the South Melbourne Market or Chinatown when you are in Melbourne. It’s sinfully good. So good that it used to be my sole motivation for me to get up and get to work, and I managed to keep my seasonal depression at bay during the winter months.
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