You know how you drink hot chocolate in winter to warm up after an hour of digging your car out? What do we do in summer to stay cool? Swim, eat copious amounts of ice cream, stand naked and pose like Captain Morgan in front of a fan after a shower? Try eating spicy southeast Asian food! Sink your gob into a steamy bowl of hot soup noodle or chow down on a plate of spicy noodles. I remember when I spent time in southeast Asia, the spicier the food was, the cooler you became. I’m not going to give you a science lesson on how sweat cools you down and how spicy foods make you sweat that would perpetuate the evaporation of moisture to give your body a cooling effect. I recently visited this Thai restaurant in Villeray serving up some authentic Thai and Lao cuisine that made me sweat in places I didn’t even know I had glands.
If you can remember last year around this time, I was chosen as one of seven celebrity bloggers across Canada to take part in Thai Kitchen‘s Ambassador search in their “Lucky Recipe Challenge” where I was asked to develop recipes using some of their products. My recipes included a red curry pulled chicken tacos and even a tasty vegetable salad rice bowl with crispy noodles – some of these recipes I still use to this day. If you can also remember that I didn’t win and was robbed of the title; but at least I’m not bitter about it.
I don’t have to tell you that the south west borough of Montreal (Saint-Henri, Griffintown…) is the place to be for some of the hottest food destinations, coveted reservations that bring out the humblest of brags on social media. With spots like Arthur’s, L’Avenue‘s new location, Foiegwa or Le Bird Bar, cuisine offerings of this area is diverse as is their neighbourhood and clientele. From modern Jewish deli-inspired food, tacos and burritos, to upscale refined comfort food, the “Sud-Ouest” has it all… except a go-to legit Asian spot (more specifically, Vietnamese) until now; Tran Cantine.