Nostalgia at first bite: This skewer would have been the perfect after-school snack

Have you ever had nostalgia by proxy? It sometimes sweeps over me in restaurants with strong identities expressed in food, setting and story. Maybe you’re at an Italian place where the hand-rolled tagliatelle is so good you end up pining for a nonna, whether you had one or not. Or you’re in a Malaysian place, eating smoky, spicy noodles, and you fondly think back to old aunties who made char kwai teow by the roadside, even if your real aunty never held a wok in her life.

I had these misty memories at casual new Korean restaurant Dodam because the food is anchored in tradition and the origin tales are so convincing that I found myself pining for the Korean childhood I never had.

Sotteok sotteok: glossy skewers of rice cakes and hot dogs.Bonnie Savage

The sotteok sotteok reeled me in first. There we are, sitting at the counter, the main dining room a thronging assembly of jaunty diners chopsticking pancakes and pouring a little more rice wine, when owner Jacky Kim takes a moment to tell us that the skewers we’re eating, speared with nuggety sausage and sticky rice cakes, were her favourite after-school snack. As I enjoy the snap of snag, glutinous rice chew and sweet-spicy tang of the glaze, I have cosy pangs as I recall a Seoul snack tradition I’ve never actually experienced.

Dodam opened in July, the latest restaurant in ever-improving East Brunswick Village, where parking is easy and you can pair dining with a cinema session. Jacky Kim paused a career as an English teacher to open Dodam with her husband and head chef, Jin Jung, and sous chef, Mars Kim. The word “dodam” can mean a child growing healthy and strong: this kid is thriving.

Pork jowl hansang served with cold noodles, lettuce wraps, kimchi and sauce.Bonnie Savage

A spirit of celebration is threaded through the menu. The main event is the shareable “meat feast”. In Korean, it’s “hansang”, which translates as “table full of food”. The name doesn’t lie. You choose from various pork cuts or beef ribs and they’re served with cold noodles (eat them first as a refresher), lettuce wraps, kimchi and sauce. The pork jowl is the pick: slow-cooked to melting, it’s tickled with the grill, then thinly sliced, the meat’s richness offset by the punchy, dancing flavours of the accompaniments.

The word ‘dodam’ can mean a child growing healthy and strong: this kid is thriving.

It’s not all meaty. Handmade vegie dumplings are excellent, sturdy wheat casings filled with tofu, mushroom, cabbage and spring onion. The jeon (fritters) are mostly vegies – either battered, fried slices of zucchini or tofu or floppy little pancakes bulked with corn or kimchi. Again, I’m reeled into Jacky Kim’s story about women gathering to fry and flip jeon, sitting on the floor around little burners, chatting as they prepare a holiday feast to share. “It’s big, joyful work,” she tells me.

For dessert, creme brulee infused with black sesame is a nod to chef Jin’s time working at French CBD institution Bistrot D’Orsay. There’s also mango bingsu (flavoured shaved ice), but I’m more excited by the way the team uses its ice machine for a savoury dish, the wonderful mulhoe. This spicy broth with raw fish and vegetables is a summery staple, often served with an ice cube. The clever twist here is to serve it with little floes of shaved ice, which absorb the chilli-tinted broth before slowly melting away.

The mulhoe’s spicy broth is poured over piles of shaved ice.Bonnie Savage

Kim and crew are rightly proud of their makgeolli, a fermented rice wine brewed here over 10 days. Unfiltered and gently fizzy, I sip it over ice from a beautiful Korean cup, sure of one thing: I’m building my own memories to file away for future nostalgia.

This review was originally published in Good Weekend magazine

Good Food reviews are booked anonymously and paid independently. A restaurant can’t pay for a review or inclusion in the Good Food Guide.

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