The Dokboki Box
Younghee Park, M'ck McKeague and Nathan Stoneham
6 May 2014
River Walk by Federation Square
to 11 May
nextwave.org.au
The Dokboki Box happens in a pop-up orange tent between Federation Square and the Yarra and it's a bright flash of welcoming happy.
It's easy to feel uncomfortable in a small audience (only 15 tickets per show) – especially when the seats are plastic stools – but the warm and genuine welcome into the cold tent quickly banishes any awkwardness. We're given little warm rugs and offered Korean beer or wine and it's not long before everyone is talking. And the stools spin!
While Younghee Park cooks Korean street food (dokboki and odeng), she tells us how it's her grandmother's recipe and tells a story about her family, her attempts at finding love and about feeding hungry people in Seoul. With such a small audience, it's impossible to not become a part of the story and the line between performers and audience blurs into friendship.
The message is a bit earnest, but it doesn't diminish the atmosphere of welcoming loveliness as Younghee's story is as happily shared as the food she makes for us. And granny's recipe for Queen Dokbuki (vego) is delicious. I had seconds.
