6.24.25 | The World Is Our Oyster

I like a good bastardization.

Call it cultural appropriation, call it incorrect, call it straight up wrong, but I like fusion, I like blending of flavors. Harissa spice with pork, wasabi and guacamole, Thai and Mexican, Peruvian and Japanese—some flavors just work.

I was flipping channels the other day and came across a show based in Australia. The main character was eating something he referred to as “dimmies.” Never heard of it, so I looked it up. Turns out dimmies is a colloquial term for dim sim which is a bastardized term for diim syiim which itself is a Toisanese word, the main dialect spoken by the Chinese immigrant community in Australia in the 1940s.

Now I have really piqued my own interest. I started looking at recipes. Dimmies appear to be a staple of Australian food, served from street carts at at your local chippy shop. Based off Chinese dim sum, it was brought to Australia and turned deeply Australian. Thicker skins, heartier fillings, sometimes even going as far as using mutton.

It's amazing what immigration does for food. Hawaii has Spam because Spam was part of the rations given to soldiers stationed in Hawaii during World War II. One could argue that Spam fueled the winning spirit, the esprit de corp, that helped us win the war against the Nazis. Hawaii also has saimin, a delicious broth and noodle soup that came about during the plantation area when they brought in immigrant workers from China, Japan, the Philippines, and Korea. Maybe not the best period in Hawaiian history, but what came from the melting pot of so many immigrants was a delicious hearty soup....and it also contains Spam.

In the States we have okra, lima beans, and black eyed peas because the slaves brought these items with them during our own dark period of history. We wouldn't have succotash today had these ingredients not come from other cultures. British curry, Filipino adobo, Mexican adobo, potatoes in France, tomatoes in Italy, peppers in India. All brought in from elsewhere. You could argue that the majority of American cuisine was brought about by other cultures.

Not to gloss over the atrocities that came with some of these foods, cooking techniques and flavors. Simply to point out diversity, multiculturalism, fusion of any kind—and yes, even bastardization—can create beauty and finesse in a way all our own and all your own. An amalgamation of people, flavors, spices, and techniques is what we need in order to grow in flavor and in culture. 

The proof is in the pudding. Look around the globe and taste some food and ask where it came from and how'd it get there. It's easy to see that the melting pot (forgive the pun) is what we need more of, not less of. I want to know what you eat and I want to eat it. The best way to get to know someone is to get to know what they like to eat.

I want to taste everything this world has to offer, I want traditional dim sum and I want Australian dimmies, but I can't get them around here so I guess I will have to make it myself, a bastardized version of them I'm sure.

Maybe they'll even wind up on the menu.

—Chef Matt