Well met, friend! After writing that, I started reconsidering how it could be done. I arrived at a sibling comment's observation, that ceviche could be a better approach. Not so far from the balsamic! Onion in the ceviche may help (on second thought, it might be another strike against the strawberries). But no, the original incident was a grilled skewer -- yikes.

One flavor that I've found to be a a very flexible "strange bridge" is mustard. But... ye gods... that'd only turn the retch up to 11.