Around the World in 80 Plates: Tim Tam Slam from Melbourne, Australia

This is an installment of the Inlander's yearlong project "Around the World in 80 Plates," a quest to find 80 foods and drinks in Spokane representing 80 different places. Read the introduction to the project here.

Week: 3
Count of dishes/places: 2

Any chance you get, hang out with Australians.

My last year of college, I studied abroad in the Middle East with a group of people from all over the world. A few were Australian. One evening, we set out to a local import shop, and the Aussies introduced us to the wonderful world of Tim Tams — specifically, Tim Tam Slams.

The namesake Tim Tam was a dark bay racehorse in Kentucky. He didn't win any races as a 2-year-old, but was a true dark horse his third year, coming from behind to win dramatic victories at both the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes in 1958.

That same year, an Australian biscuit maker was in the U.S. on business. He saw Tim Tam win the Kentucky Derby and loved the underdog story, plus the tongue-tickling name.

His bakers across the Pacific were already planning a riff on the British Penguin biscuit — two chocolate biscuits with a cream layer in between, covered in milk chocolate. His team eventually created something lighter and airier than the dense British treat, although it offered just as much chocolate decadence. They named their new biscuit Tim Tam after the shockingly successful horse, and put it on shelves in 1964. It quickly became one of Australia's best selling confectionaries.

A Tim Tam is delightful on its own. It seems fragile when you pick it up, but it holds together just fine. The biscuits (cookies, as Americans would call them, but if you're hanging out with Australians, get the lingo right) are malted and crispy. The chocolate has the perfect twinge of mass manufactured cocoa, adding a layer of childhood nostalgia to a surprisingly sophisticated sweet.

But back to the import grocery in Jerusalem. The Aussies not only picked up a couple packs of extra-taxed Tim Tams, they also snagged a bag of hot cocoa mix. Get ready, they said, for the ride of our lives.

The light, airy layer of cream between the two chocolate biscuits means the Tim Tam has a pretty sweet party trick. No one knows who figured it out first, but Atlas Obscura says that by the 1980s, uni students in Melbourne were using Tim Tams as straws.

If you nibble off opposite corners of a Tim Tam, you have a semi-porous tunnel of chocolate cream between two denser biscuits. Which means, just for a moment, you have a straw. Dip one nibbled corner into a hot bev, put the other in your mouth, and suck. You'll get a shot of hot cocoa or coffee that's sweetened and thickened by the chocolate cream. For a moment, it's pure bliss.

Then, suddenly, the entire Tim Tam will start to melt in your hand, even faster than a paper straw would. So you'll need to "slam" the entire biscuit into your mouth. (At first, cutting edge culinary explorers called the trick a "Tim Tam Suck." Thankfully, someone must have had an advertising degree, or an ounce of common sense.) It's the most urgent dessert you'll ever experience.

I slammed my first Tim Tam in a stone dorm room outside Jaffa Gate. I haven't had another chance since — that is, until I headed to Ladder Coffee to work remotely amidst this week's dump of snow.

There, second on the list of seasonal lattes, was a Tim Tam Slam.

Ladder's coffee program is heavily influenced by owner Aaron Rivkin's affection for Australian coffee culture. There's an emphasis on flat whites and toasts and, of course, Tim Tams. The Slam was on their original winter menu and has made periodic appearances since. It's back for this year's snowy season, much to my delight.

With any size latte, you can get an original flavor Tim Tam on the side. The Tim Tam Slam at Ladder doesn't come with instructions, but now you know what to do. Sure, you could dip the biscuit, enjoy it bite by bite, and it would be almost as delicious. But why be precious about it? Nibble, slurp and slam to your heart's content. That's what the Tim Tam is there for.

And if the people at the next table judge you, just tell them you're Australian.  They'll probably want to hang out with you. ♦

Have an idea for what I should eat or drink next? Wanna make me a favorite dish from your hometown? Send 80 Plates tips and ideas to [email protected].