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It may come as a shock to many, but the dim sim is not actually a Chinese dish. It was invented in Melbourne in the 1940s by William Chen Wing Young, who modelled the morsel on the Chinese dim sum dish siu mai. Chen created the steamed dim sim as a fast-food delivery version of the popular Chinese bite.
He gave the dumpling a thicker skin to withstand freezing and transportation and filled it with a more cost-effective ratio of veggies to meat. But it wasn't until his son Tom's Greek mate Joe fried the dim sim that it became the fish and chip shop icon Aussies still clamber for today.
The dim sim is just one Australian-Chinese dish on the menu Down Under. All of these favourites are anything but authentic Chinese, but that doesn't make them any less delicious.
Adam Liaw's version of lemon chicken does away with the gluey marinade often associated with the dish. Credit: Danielle Abou Karam
Wait, what? isn't a traditional Chinese dish? While the origin of this dish is lost to time, it's most certainly more Wagga Wagga than Wuhan. Don't let that stop you from making it, though. The combination of the tart ginger-lemon sauce dousing crispy chicken is pieces is inspired. For an even more Aussified version, .
This version of chop suey is in the style of Anhui cuisine, with a rich broth, silky soup and delicious mountain ingredients. Credit: Adam Liaw
Pork belly replaces the traditional chicken in this spin on Billy Kee's famous dish. Credit: Adam Liaw
Many Australian sweet and sour recipes add strawberries to really up the sweetness factor. Credit: Adam Liaw
Honey chicken is one of the most popular Chinese-food-that's-not-Chinese recipes in Australia. Credit: Ben Ward
The restaurant-stopping sizzling Mongolian lamb is actually a very simple dish to make. Credit: Kitti Gould
My mum’s prawn toasties Credit: Kitti Gould
Mango pancakes could be a contender for Australia's national dish. Credit: Kitti Gould
The may be ubiquitous across Australia, but that's the only place you'll find the cheerful yellow dessert. The dim sum staple first appeared in Sydney in the 1990s, but beyond that its origins are unknown. Lately the mango favourite has been showing up in Hong Kong dessert shops, but rest assured that like all the dishes in this list, this 'Chinese classic' was .
