I like how when people say that they can eat spicy and how everyone’s spice tolerance lever varies to the pipsqueak tongue tickle that people overreact to and are clambering for a glass of milk, to the fire breathers that use Sriracha as eyedrops while doing splits between two Volvo semi-trucks after snorting a line of wasabi. I like to believe that I can handle my spice; I mean I’ll bitch and complain and make a scene about it, but I can take the level of heat that’s just short of sweating oil and seeing sounds.
A couple of weeks ago, the great people at Lincoln Motors contacted me concerning their reimagine/reinventing campaign around the Lincoln Motor brand to share with Montreal the kind of stuff they’ve been up to. They got in contact to inform me that they were pairing up with three local acclaimed restaurants to host dinner events and that they were inviting guests to test drive the brand spankin’ new 2013 Lincoln MKZ. Over 200 guests in three consecutive nights were treated to special tasting menus created by the chefs and teams at Helena, Apollo, Chez L’épicer and a wrap dinner event as a pop-up dinner at the Parisian Laundry with special guest Chef Stéphanie Audet. With a long sign up list to take a spin around the block, Lincoln Motors and Shut Up and Eat teamed up and I was given the opportunity to take one home for a couple of days and really give it a go. I know what you’re thinking “How does this have anything to do with a restaurant review?”
Growing up in a Chinese home and being sent to school with some sort of funk in my lunch thermos that would permeate the lunch room did not help my popularity in elementary school. Last night’s dinner of braised pork belly with pickled mustard greens over rice would be the only thing on my mind leading up to lunch time. Nowhere to be found in my He-Man lunchbox were there any fucks packed by my mom to give about the kids who thought it was gross; frozen chicken nuggets or peanut butter and jelly on whole wheat and other latch-key loveless lunches. Trying to explain what my lunch was, I fought fodder for ridicule and ultimately groomed my passion for Chinese cuisine and subsequent appreciation.