Sami Muirhead dives into the wild and wonderful world of dips - and names her favourites

Dip. It is one of my favourite words, and one of my favourite pastimes.

I refer to the gooey snack best smothered on Jatz crackers or stuffed generously into a cob loaf that will delight your digestive system.

The humble dip is having somewhat of a renaissance, with many fancy recipes doing the rounds, just in time for December.

What is a Christmas get-together without a litter of Eskies, some sliced up mangoes, plenty of ice in your wine, and a dip or two on a platter?

My friend sent me a recipe for an artichoke dip with fennel and rosemary pickled radish. No thanks!

My mum keeps trying to tell me my life is not complete until I whip up her new roasted carrot with hummus dip.  Mum. I love you. But it’s too fancy.

Give me a good old-school corn relish dip any day. I know the corn of the relish is controversial, but I am a basic bogan at heart, even if I pretend otherwise.

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There are two more dips to round out my top three of all-time list. They are the cob loaf. 

Yes, that trusty barbecue staple of the ’80s that to this day ensures smiles all round. If your friend avoids gluten and white fluffy mounds of bread, then you need to find some new ones.

I teach my kids the rules of life when we share a cob loaf. The Hunger Games commence when it comes to who eats the last morsels of the dip and bread.

The smallest kid is not shown any mercy. There is no ladies-before-gents rule. Nope! It is an all-out family fight to stuff your greedy face with cob greatness.

And the best dip of all is of course the seven-layer Mexican dip.

Bravo! It contains the seven food groups of carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins, minerals, fibre and water.

Okay. Perhaps a Mexican dip doubles down on the fat and carb components and doesn’t have vitamins and minerals. But you know what it does have? Sour cream. Corn chips. And five more layers to make the crankiest of critics feel full of sunshine.

So, turn back time this festive season with some dips from the golden decades.