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1. KOREA  » Chicken and Jokbal, Hawthorn East

Jokbal is a Korean dish of pig's trotters braised for hours in soy with sugar, spring onion, ginger and garlic, which is then deboned and sliced. The result is tender meat spiralled with gelatinous bits that soak up flavour and dissolve when eaten. At Chicken and Jokbal, which also has no less than seven varieties of fried chicken, there's a spicy jokbal cooked in a sweet red chilli sauce made from gochujang, sugar, vinegar and fermented soybeans that comes with lettuce for wrapping and saamjang for dipping. Order gimari, deep-fried seaweed rolls, and mandu dumplings to start. If jokbal isn’t for you, there are sizzling bulgogi stir-fries, bibimbap, cold naengmyun or japchae sweet potato noodles, tteokbokki stir-fried rice cakes and filling stews.467 Riversdale Road, Hawthorn East, 03 8529 3117, facebook.com/chickenandjokbal

2. WEST INDIA » Ruchira Restaurant, Burwood

3. TURKEY » The Turkish Tea House, Balywn

Dining in at this Turkish brunch cafe on Whitehorse Road is always a treat, but since COVID they’ve offered specials scrawled on a blackboard (and sometimes posted to Facebook and Instagram). You might find $14 adana durum (minced kebab wraps), spiced charcoal chicken on rice, biber dolmasi (rice-stuffed capsicum), stewed green beans, manti dumplings in yoghurt sauce or whatever strikes the owner as delicious that day. Turkish breakfasts remain, while house-made dips and sweets like lokum are available for all your Turkish picnicking needs.232 Whitehorse Road, Balwyn, 03 9830 4993, Facebook

4. SINGAPORE & MALAYSIA » Danny's Kopitiam, Glen Waverley

This is slightly further east than the promised five kilometres, but Danny’s, on the cusp of Glen Waverley, is a contender for my favourite Malaysian restaurant in Melbourne. Open from Wednesday to Sunday for lunch only during Stage 4 lockdown, the husband-wife owners here were the original chefs at Penang Coffee House before it changed hands in the ‘90s. The char kway teow is chewy in all the right places with the obligatory wok hei; you can eat rojak fruit and veg salad in sweet shrimp paste dressing; and there are slow-cooked curries and laksa (I prefer the funkier assam laksa over curry laksa, its fish broth sour with tamarind and sweetened with pineapple). My favourite dish here is the Chinese-influence pork trotters (written as “pork leg” on the menu), which fall off the bone into a pool of sticky, gingery vinegar sauce.264 Blackburn Road, Glen Waverley, 9886 7699, dannyskopitiam.com.au

5. NORTHWEST CHINA » Lao Tuo Jia, Surrey Hills

6. JAPAN » Suzuran, Camberwell

Long before Northsiders had Hinoki Japanese Pantry, Eastsiders had Suzuran. Technically a grocer and takeaway store and not a restaurant, I used to walk here from school to get a fix of seaweed salad, pickled daikon and sashimi while other kids went to Macca’s. It was established in 1979 and predates my existence by a decade. Thanks to COVID, you can now pre-order sushi, sashimi and nigiri platters online, but the seasonal a la carte menu is where it gets really good. Look for tako wasabi (raw octopus), shime iwashi (marinated sardine), aka ebi (raw red prawn) and akagai (ark shell clam) online. There are solo options, whether a sushi bento ($13.50), unagi don ($18.50) or chirashi don ($19.50). Want Japanese grocery items (including a decent range of Pocky) delivered? Visit Suzuran’s online store at japanfoods.com.au.1025-1027 Burke Road, Camberwell, 03 9882 2349, suzuran.com.au

7. HONG KONG » Kowloon Cafe, Box Hill South

8. INDONESIA » Bamboe Indonesian, Camberwell

Tucked in a far corner of the car park that's usually home to the Sunday Camberwell Market, Bamboe is as big on traditional Indonesian food as it is on portion sizes. Chef Alihadhi Soehanto is from Surabaya in East Java and regularly posts special meals that feed two to three in the restaurant WhatsApp group (contact him here to join) and on Instagram. The specialties here are martabak telor (a thick pancake stuffed with egg) and grilled and deep-fried meat, like pork satay or ayam kremes (chicken with crunchy bits on top). Ask for dishes that use East Javanese petis, a thick, black prawn paste), perhaps tahu campur lamongan with Hokkien-style noodles, tofu and beef and turmeric broth. You can order "nasi komplit" meals directly from the website – large sets containing a spread of menu items like fried chicken, beef rendang, soy bean cakes, tempeh, fried beef lung, sambal and more.656 Market Place, Camberwell, 03 9077 5855, bamboe.com.au

9. SOUTHWEST CHINA » Colourful Yunnan, Hawthorn, Box Hill, Burwood & Carlton

10. MALAYSIA » Aunty Franklee, Hawthorn & CBD

Since lockdown, Aunty Franklee has extended its offering well beyond bak kut teh (BKT), the aromatic herbal soup heady with star anise, cloves, peppercorns, garlic, goji berries and more. While its 23-herb Hokkien-style BKT tastes like it could cure a pandemic, they also have black garlic BKT sets with multigrain rice and chinese doughnuts. Its COVID offshoot, Rainy Day Soups, has a second menu of rotating broths, all seasonal with healing and comfort at the forefront, while @larrycooks.melb, a chef at a restaurant that's closed during COVID, borrows the kitchen on Monday to cook Singaporean hawker food. Follow the respective Instagram pages for specials, suburbs and when to order.64 Burwood Road, Hawthorn, 03 9818 6719, auntyfranklee.cloudwaitress.com

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