Every Friday, Ross Harrington, a car dealership service manager in Melbourne, heads to

a local lunch shop to pick up a couple of deep-fried dim sims, kicking off his weekend
dim sim routine.

Harrington is the founder of Dim Sims 4 Lyfe, a Facebook community made up of about
5,000 dim sim enthusiasts who share their experiences and innovative recipes -- dim
sims on pizza, for example.

They aren't alone in their obsession.

Dim sims, or "dimmies," are a variant of the traditional Chinese dumpling. Served in a
variety of ways, including steamed and fried, they first gained popularity in the 1940s
and have since become an iconic dish in Melbourne and beyond.

So who invented them? Turns out it's complicated.

Chinese Australian businessman William Chen Wing Young is often credited as being
the father of dim sim.

Elizabeth Chong, Chen's daughter and a well-known Chinese Australian cooking show
presenter, tells CNN Travel otherwise.

"It's often been erroneously recorded that he invented the dim sim and had a restaurant
called Wing Lee. He did not invent the dim sim," says the 90-year-old celebrity chef.

"But yes, if it weren't for my father dim sim wouldn't be what it is. It wouldn't be an
Australian fast-food icon."

Australia's dim sim story began in 1942, when Chen realized that a number of elderly
Chinese men who had come to Australia to work during the gold rush of the 1800s were
left jobless.

"They were like the leftovers from the goldfields days. They didn't make it back home to
China and were too old for heavy works," says Chong.

At the same time, Chen noticed how popular Cantonese dim sum had become in
Australia. ("Dim sum" refers to the whole collection of dumplings and delicacies served
with tea. Among the many dim sum dishes, siu mai -- a flowerpot-shaped pork and
prawn dumpling -- was especially popular.)

Chen came up with an idea: If he could mass produce siu mai, these men could sell
them on food trucks and earn a living.

But siu mai was too much of a mouthful for Australians to pronounce back in the 1940s.
Chen called it "dim sim" instead -- which has the same meaning as dim sum, but in a
different Canton dialect.

"So he kind of combined philanthropy with the business," adds Chong. "They started
with four women making them by hand -- my mother was one of them. Then the
popularity grew and we started to employ more and more ladies."
Chen called the business Wing Lee -- Wing was his middle name and Lee was his wife's
maiden name.

But the hearty dumplings weren't propelled into stardom until his son stepped in, albeit
accidentally.

A day of slacking launches dim sim to the masses

"At that time, my eldest brother Tom checked into the business. My father asked Tom to
deliver a box of dim sims to an elderly Chinese gentleman who lived in Cheltenham (a
Melbourne suburb)," says Chong.

"While my brother was on his way to deliver them, he decided it was such a fine day,
he'd stop and say hello to his good friend Joe, a Greek guy who owned a fish and chip
shop near the Mordialloc area."

The two friends ended up going fishing. Chong says when they got back, Tom told Joe,
"I've got a box of these dim sims. If you like, I'll cook them in your shop and you can
have them for lunch."