World Cup Treats and Lady Gaga's Oreos ⚽️
Welcome to Secret Breakfast / The best place to start eating expensive junk food while watching football matches, dreaming about some sexy named drinks
Hi there!
I just noticed there's not much cooking in this issue, but many peculiar things. Hope you'll find the time to enjoy some.
Have the best week.
Piero
✹Slutty Cheff, in Slutty Cheff Tells Lena Dunham How She Went From Shitposter to Bestseller.
The Ultimate Guide to Baking Great Cakes (No Eggs, Milk, or Flour Required)
One of life’s little joys these days is clicking on a recipe link, landing on a Substack, and finding that the ingredients, measurements, and instructions aren’t locked behind a paywall (free market, creator economy—love it or hate it). That said, I recently fell head over heels for these Gluten-Free Carrot Cake Cheesecake Bars (★ recipe). The best part? The recipe was free. So, as a thank-you to Kat, I’m passing it on to you—and while I’m at it, I’ll mention she has an amazing baking cookbook out. Is it too hot to bake right now? Never. And let’s be honest: you probably don’t have enough gluten-free, lactose-free, and egg-free recipes in your repertoire, do you?
The Elements of Baking: Making Any Recipe Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, Egg-Free or Vegan by Katarina Cermelj
→ Shortplot: 🥧 🍞 🍪 🍕
The Most Expensive Food Joints Right Now
Seven dollars for mineral water. A burger and fries at $24 in Houston. Chicken with bang bang sauce at $22 in Seattle (★recipe), plus $13.49 if you want a pretzel. In Monterrey, Mexico, chicharron that sells for $4 on the street goes for $11.25 inside the stadium. Loaded pulled pork nachos in Boston: $13.38. Canada's national treasure, poutine: $17.75, same price as fried pickles. Popcorn, a modest $11.75 (for ongoing pictures, go here)
The takeaway writes itself: World Cup stadium food is expensive. But I won't moralize about vendor margins or the economics of captive audiences, because that's not really the point. Nor will I tell you that, when I was young, stadiums were the ultimate "bring your own sandwich" places. Well, I just did it, because we live in the era where home food is forbidden in public places like arenas.
Matches like these come with expensive tickets, flights, hotels, and yes, a $4 chicharron that somehow costs $11.25. People know this "shambolic" thing going in. They pay anyway, not because they've lost their minds, but because they've already decided this is a memory worth making.
That's the counterintuitive truth about premium experiences: price stops being a measure of value and becomes part of the ritual. Nobody remembers what the nachos cost. They remember who they were with.
PS: quick link for the best World Cup 2026 recipes, if you happen to be somewhere else and be hungry.
🍹The Watermelon Sgroppino, the Lusty Nail (wtf?) and other Unmissable Summer Drinks (★recipes) 🌳Pack a Picnic: Lidey Heuck's Guide to Eating Outdoors (★recipes) ⏲️Yotam Ottolenghi's New Kitchen Design (one and two) 🌶️ Illustrated Chili Peppers of the World 🫙 The Newest EU Breakfast Directives on your honey, jam, and fruit juice 🍨Take a look at this old ice-cream parlor in Macau🍦Kikkoman sauce, Illy coffee, McVities... Fashion designer Anya Hindmarch turns British household brands into ice cream flavors 🚀Cooking from Space with José Andrés 🥇The Full List of James Beard Awards 2026 Restaurant and Chef Winners
Serving Biscuits in God's Kitchen
Anonymous / Vittles
An anonymous piece on running the refreshment table at London AA meetings. Food as ritual, as small act of care in a room full of fragility. Illustration by Sing Yun Lee.
Stop Eating Lady Gaga's Oreos
Adam Mastroianni / Experimental History
Pearl Jam refused to make music videos for five years. Now Iggy Pop sells insurance and the Chromatica Oreos flew off the shelves. Mastroianni traces how selling out lost its stigma, and argues it's because we swapped class envy for fame envy. We used to see ourselves as temporarily embarrassed millionaires. Now we see ourselves as temporarily unknown celebrities.
