Welcome to Secret Breakfast / An exclusive newsletter, the best place to start your day with expensive bananas, random Christmas gift lists, and - of course - brain rot

Hi there!

A few days ago cryptocurrency entrepreneur Justin Sun fulfilled a promise he made after spending $6.2m on an artwork featuring a banana duct-taped to a wall – by eating the fruit.

«It’s much better than other bananas», Sun said after getting his first taste.

Is that the answer to the infamous dilemma? Is the food really better at expensive restaurants?

I don’t know.

But apparently, it tastes better when you buy that winning an expensive art auction.

Piero

PS: this week is about presents; next week will be about recipes.

Photograph: Peter Parks/AFP/Getty Images

ONE ✤ QUOTE

✦ Ed Cumming, interviewing academic and motorcycle mechanic, Matthew Crawford, nine years ago. This bit is perfect for today: “Just as food engineers have figured out how to make food hyper-palatable by manipulating fat, salt, and sugar, similarly the media has become expert at making irresistible mental stimuli”.

(I found this reading Elena Rossini’s blog post that uses food to explain the Fediverse and how it differs from Big Tech)

Easy Wins. 12 Flavour Hits, 125 Delicious Recipes, 365 Days of Good Eating by Anna Jones
→ Shortplot: 🧅 🍋 🍅 🥗

IT’S BRAIN ROT TIME

Ok, you should know that by now. The Oxford University Press has named Brain Rot word (or phrase) of the year.

❝

“Brain rot” is defined as the supposed deterioration of a person's mental or intellectual state, especially viewed as the result of overconsumption of material considered to be trivial or unchallenging,

I don’t really believe in the Oxford University Press Word of the Year, as I don’t trust the Pantone Color of the Year or the European Car of the Year acknowledgment. It’s 80% marketing, 20% Zeitgeist.

Nevertheless, this Brain Rot topic is great for discussing an ingredient nearly disappearing from our meals.

Brains. Yes, as in hog, beef, or lamb’s brains.

Something I had when I was a kid and that I’ve never cooked in adult life.

How do you cook brains? Can you have venison brains? Do you simmer brains? Almost all the answers are in this excellent blog post, with this superb Brain Fritters with Gruyere, Lemon and Sage recipe. Or you can swing it and try a Moroccan Lamb Brain Recipe with Eggs and Harissa.

That’s for the “brain” part. Then, don’t think I’m forgetting about the “rot”.

Foods we only eat when they’re rotten are a staple of this newsletter and don’t deserve much more space.

Picture: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

💌It’s time to Bake Your Letters To Santa Cookies (★recipe) 🍞A génial strip by Skeleton Claw that explains leaving X (fka Twitter) with a bread dough analogy 🌴33 Bucket List Los Angeles Foods 🥸Here’s Tolstoy’s recipe for macaroni and cheese 🍹What is the best cocktail to throw at someone? Answers 🎄Here’s What the Sporked Editors Want for Christmas This Year A good gift guide for foodies, comin’ in hot. 🎁The 2023 Kottke Holiday Gift Guide 👩🏻‍🏫Helen Rosner’s gift guide 🥖Bread Baker’s Gift Guide 2024 🃏This Card Game Seems Fun 😣Melissa Clark killing Thomas Keller’s restaurants 📺60 Second Docs is a cool format 📰A super minimal news site: The Brutalist Report 📮A newsletter for divorced people (for my family and friends: nothing happened, I’m still married)

➤ Last week's most clicked link was The Best Cookbooks of 2024, According to Food & Wine Editors. And that's all for today.

SEASON 5 • ISSUE 301
Secret Breakfast is a newsletter by Piero Macchioni.

In five years we have shared more than 5,000 recipes, hundreds of books, and countless hours of news, gluttony, and joy.