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Vegan Nutella and Evil Tacos 🌮

SB198

Hi there!

Ok, then, we have a vegan Nutella in this very timeline.

This green-caped new entry sports ingredients such as chickpeas and rice syrup, and promises to offer the same taste and texture as the original Nutella recipe.

I always love the moment when a super-successful formula is hacked in the name of a growing market niche.

For the record, in the past years, Nutella has nailed the marketing move of baking Nutella-filled biscuits (and the waffly Bready), but also launched a disappointing ice cream jar.

In different timelines, Ferrero has probably found a way to limit sugar and zero the palm oil usage in the Nutella recipe.

Will we ever join them?

Piero

Image: Je hyung Lee on Flickr

✦ Taffy Brodesser-Akner, Long Island Compromise.

IT’S TIME TO MASH-UP PASTAS

Once upon a time, in the 1990s, I was in Japan with my family. A friend of ours, who happened to live in Tokyo, insisted we tried an expensive place who made pasta in a unique Japanese way.

I remember we couldn’t even read the menu, but I had a large plate with the most beautiful spaghetti, perfectly cooked, with marinated ikura (salmon roe), maybe some wakame, and don’t really remember what else. Was that “pasta”? I don’t know, I’d say it was. Was it memorable? It was.

No, fast-forward 30+ years, and we have this phenomenon of mash-up pastas, meaning Italian pasta cooked with very different sauces: Huitlacoche Cacio e Pepe, Kao Soi Rigatoni, and so on.

I have zero experience of those, and you? Would you call it “pasta”?

Picture: I love you to death, 1990

Chefs at War

★★★☆☆

I ignored the existence of this one, then it came out yesterday while I was writing this issue. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization not only has a role in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, but also shared a valuable publication - dated 1957 - with Dwight D. Eisenhower’s favorite stew, Juliana of the Netherlands’ Hotchpotch, and the mysterious Angels on Horseback.

The Best of Taste by OTAN/NATO (pdf free download)
→ Shortplot: 👼🏻 🐎 💣 🥩

This is the space where I share some food (un)related stuff of my week

🦀How to Steam Crabs, According to Experts 🥮Date and Walnut Cake (★recipe) 🥪Neil Fak’s Essential Food Guide for Back to School, quite messy (★recipe) 🐄Cottage Cheese is All Over the Internet Now 🥔Potatoes, Dill & Mustard (★recipe) 🇲🇦Moroccan msemen technique is awesome 🥃Ryanair boss calls for two-drink limit at airports 🐙Evil Octopus Tacos al Pastor 🍋Lemon Raspberry Brioche Buns (★recipe)🚰13 Things You Should Always Hand-Wash 🎸Hey, I bought a baby-guitar (here are a few cheaper options) 🧉Still struggling with mate taste, trying Paraguayan yerba now 🖋️Ordered my 2025 Hobonichi Techo Japanese Diary

The Burger is a Portrait of America
Priya Krishna and Tejal Rao / The New York Times

Today, burgers can include ingredients that show the country's culture: local traditions, ideas from immigrants, history, and creativity. They can have plantains, gochujang, and lots of cheese. Here are 11 different types of burgers that show how diverse and amazing a burger can be.

Reading a cookbook is as creative as writing
Beatrice Azzolina / Orecchia

One of Secret Breakfast’s oldest friends opens up about cookbook obsession. That is a common obsession, after all.

➤ Last week's most clicked link was My Friend Is a Surgeon and She Taught Me a Trick That Kinda Saves My Life in the Kitchen. And that's all for today, since I’ve linked to Food&Wine 3 times.

• SEASON 4 - ISSUE 198 •
Secret Breakfast is a newsletter
by Piero Macchioni

Think of it as The Morning Brew for food people, or just the most unconventional email you'll get today. In four years we have shared more than 4,000 recipes, hundreds of books, and countless hours of news, gluttony, and joy.

★★★★★
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