This is not a Korean restaurant, but neither is it not a Korean restaurantCálong in Stoke Newington, north London, poses many questions to the casual diner. Such as: can you really turn Korean kimchi into crisp fritters, in much the same way as the French make beignets with courgette flowers? Or can pork terrine, the centrepiece of any trad French pique-nique, be served with a Korean ssamjang, or fermented soybeans and hot pepper? Some people may say: “Heck, no”, but Cálong’s chef/owner Joo Young Won would disagree.Won was head chef at Michelin-starred Galvin at Windows for seven years, where he served reassuringly expensive French classics to a moneyed, West End audience who appreciated the tablecloths, prompt service and 28th-floor views of London. Here at Cálong, however, he’s bringing those Euro-dining techniques and flexing them with Korean influences in a pretty but mainly practical room. Cálong, which is very much an independent restaurant, has clearly passed the sniff test with Stokey’s feisty anti-gentrification crowd, who love to gather outside a Gail’s or a Nando’s and wield their Down With This Sort of Thing banners. Then again, it’s hard to take offence at something that’s so wilfully niche as a man serving French-style pressed brawn with bossam mooli, or hwangtae (dried pollock) croquettes with tartare sauce. This is not a Kore