Dim City

Melbourne is the birthplace of many a contribution to the betterment of humanity but few compare to the wonder that is the dim sim. Created 80 years ago by William Chen Wing Young, this original Victorian gloss on the Cantonese classic siu mai took the dumpling out of Chinatown and into the streets, milk bars, fish and chip shops, pubs, servos and footy grounds of the wider world.

This supersized dumpling has gone on to become one of the pioneering fusion foods of Australia, an enduring tribute to the ingenuity of Chinese-Australians.

Can you improve on perfection? Perhaps not. But you can certainly play around with it, and in that spirit we’ve invited three of Melbourne’s freshest and most imaginative chefs to put their own spin on the sim for 2025. You’ll have the chance to try dim sim remixes by celebrated author Rosheen Kaul, by John Rivera, the brains behind Kariton Sorbetes and Askal restaurant, and from Moon Mart chef and co-owner Eun Hee An.

Each of these top-drawer culinary talents comes to the table with a winning combination of razor-sharp fine-dining smarts and a proven knack for taking the snack to surprising new heights.

Dim City is a celebration of these dimmie good times. Thanks to the true believers at Emporium Melbourne, we’ll be giving away hundreds of Rosheen, John and Eun’s dim sims, and we’ll be backing it up with prizes, games and merch for the dimmie diehards.