Welcome to Secret Breakfast / An exclusive newsletter for Black Friday survivors, black beans stewers and white truffle hunters

Hi there!

Congratulations! You survived Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Cyber Monday and - well, if you think about it - you survived Monday too.

If I’m correct, this email could be at the top of about a hundred last-minute-offers in your inbox. I hope you’ve dealt well.

Don’t worry, this newsletter will be quick and compact: I’ve had a devastating week, didn’t have enough time to lose myself on the Interweb as I wanted, and I can’t stand selling stuff emails no more.

Piero

Rowan Atkinson, during his seminal scene for Love Actually.

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THE BEST QUOTE

✦ Anne Serre, The Beginners.

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THE MISSING INGREDIENT

LUNCH IS IN THE SHOEBOX

I really wanna like the Netflix show High On The Hog, about the importance of the African heritage in the American food culture. It’s polished, it has two great hosts, and the writing team did its job. But sometimes I find it predictable and boring in the execution. Why? I can’t tell.

The message, though, is quite powerful.

I live in Europe and I knew almost nothing about the “Shoebox lunch” (Season 2, Episode 1 - New Orleans). That’s the way black people brought food on the trains when they weren’t allowed to dine in the restaurant car.

In the shoebox, you could find fried chicken, some fruit, and a slice of pound cake.

“Shoebox lunch” was born from a human need, but somehow it’s incredible the search for dignity in this form of American bento during a time when dignity wasn’t meant for all people. Food has this power too.

Picture: Netflix

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THE BOOK

Enter a different world

★★★★☆

Cree are a North American Indigenous people who live primarily in Canada. In the Cree language, tawâw means, "Come in, you're welcome, there's room". And here chef Shane M. Chartrand brings us in a world of flavor totally different from ours. I mean, elk’s not on my table every week. Here you find a story about him, even if I believe you can’t really cook that food at home, you have to be there.

Tawâw: Progressive Indigenous Cuisine by Shane M. Chartrand
→ Shortplot: 🖐🏽 🍠 🌺 🦌

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RANDOM ACTS OF HUNGER

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

⭐️Bookmark this: 64 recipes from the best cookbooks of 2023 🇬🇭Black Bean Fritters from Ghana (★recipe) 🎧Why Audiobooks Are… Books 🎁I love this idea: Wedding planning + party planning recovery kit 📖 Prophet Song by Paul Lynch Won the Booker Prize 🍚Rice Pudding Bengali Style (★recipe) 🥞Kevin Bacon’s No Flour Pancakes (★recipe) 🫒When Cooking, I’m a Butter Person, but No food or medicine can do what olive oil can do 🤖In the Future We Will Have electronic noses designed to prevent food poisoning ✈️Buy Some Tickets: you age slower on a plane ☝️What to do when you see mold on your food (triple the price tag and wait for your Michelin Star)

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FOOD FOR LATER

This is how dogs learn to hunt for truffles
Chris Horton / National Geographic

In one of my favorite movies ever, Pig, Nicolas Cage truffle hunting pig is kidnapped. (Then we already are in the spoiler zone, so this premise was totally unnecessary). Truffle dogs, then: Autumn, Hampshire, two women, one man and one dog go in search of a local delicacy. But who’s teaching who?

➤ No Thanksgiving leftover was used in the making of this newsletter. Last week's most clicked link was the Invisible Apple Tart Recipe. And that's all for today.

B