Arepas reloaded, Crab Dips and Longevity Diet 🦀
Welcome to Secret Breakfast / The best place to start considering that man is the pie that bakes and eats himself on a neverending glucose roller coaster
Hi there!
Has 2026 started well for you? I don't put much stock in New Year's resolutions, but I do believe in setting the table right.
Surrounding myself with good people. A few tools that actually work. Keeping my mind open to new ideas. Choosing a practice that makes me feel alive. Giving myself one small indulgence every day, if I can.
These are the talismans I carry into the twelve months that show up every January.
What about you?
Piero
✹Alasdair Gray, Lanark. This book is epic. I saw that in Ben Mervis' feed and had to hop on eBay and get it.
How will the arepas taste tomorrow?
It seems like only yesterday—and in fact it was just November 2025—when we were asking ourselves who made better arepas: Venezuela or Colombia (★recipe).
Not even 100 weeks ago, the Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro Moros was a meme defending one of his nation's culinary treasures, even wanting arepas recognized as UNESCO World Heritage.
Today that same man has been deposed and forcibly taken to the United States in one of the most dramatic military operations in recent years.
Now in Caracas and across the country, people aren't mourning their leader's disappearance—they're fearing instability. They're emptying supermarkets, stockpiling drinking water, toilet paper, and long-lasting food.
Others queue at butcher shops for milanesa, muslo, chuleta de pollo, masa de pastelito, queso llanero.
Be careful: Caracas is not Gaza, and hopefully will never reach that threshold of desperation.
Today it seems the country's future will be decided by oil companies and American power.
Who knows if the arepas will taste different tomorrow.
📺Short doc: La Chef, The Story Behind Michelin-Starred Chef Ana Dolores and Esquina Común by Jessica De La Torre 🥜What a longevity expert eats in a day (spoiler: nuts for lunch, salad for dinner) 🍛I wanted to cook Japanese-style curry (★recipe), then I also made Curry Roux (★recipe) and Homemade Fukujinzuke (★recipe) 🦀A Spinach Artichoke Crab Dip Recipe That’s Ready for Any Party 🥣A 5-Ingredient Chinese Style Savory Oatmeal (★recipe) 🍲From Tadka Dal with Roti to Burmese Samusa Soup... 37 Satisfying Lentil Soups and Stews (★recipes) ❌The Paradox of Failed Resolutions: notebooks are where resolutions are made and where they are broken.
How Pete Wells, Former New York Times Restaurant Critic, Changed His Eating Habits
Pete Wells / The New York Times
This one I can relate to. A feared restaurant critic who spent 12 years eating professionally describes how he reversed prediabetes, obesity, and metabolic syndrome by breaking his sugar addiction—losing 55 pounds without counting calories. The piece argues that cutting simple carbohydrates doesn't just improve health markers; it fundamentally resets your appetite, making it easier to eat less of everything else by getting off what nutritionists call the glucose roller coaster.
