Black lime sauce at Lincoln Street Food – a reminder the only constant is change.
The holiday lights are up, the sun is down. Winter approaches our southerly shore. The advancing darkness is reflected in the windows of Lunenburg’s Lincoln Street Food, listed for sale last month. I catch a meal before this experimental eatery closes its usual season, a treat from my partner who proposes food for forgiveness. I have a starter of the house-brined olives followed by the tuna ceviche. There’s fabulous flavour from both dishes, with the ceviche’s delicious daikon and fun waffle fries packing an extra punch. For my main, I have the wild mushroom polenta. Delicate maitake mushrooms lavishly dress the layers of vegetal comestibles. On the edge of my plate, a crisp piece of cauliflower sits in a squiggle of sauce.
This unassuming smear is the dish’s cornerstone. I consume it quickly, its bitterness overpowers my palate. But savouring a sample on the tip of the tongue makes sparks fly! This was the potency of Paolo Colbertaldo’s black lime sauce, created by fermenting the fruit in an enclosed container for weeks. The staff supply a generous serving of the sauce as I sing its praise. The sauce induces salivation, intensifying the following bites, escalating the experience to monumental. So powerful is the sauce, I have no choice but to ignore the betrayal that just impaled my 12-year partnership. It tastes that good!
My stomach turned as my date revealed the depths of his deception, so I do not follow with dessert. But the Lincoln Street crew sends me home with some sauce to try with more pairings – my favourite is vanilla ice cream and the Pride and Prejudice 1995 BBC miniseries. I give their sauce five ladles, with ten tubs of Get The Scoop and a few months’ BritBox subscription. That should get both of us through the slow winter season as we find ourselves back on the market in 2025!
