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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: 👼🏻 🐎 💣 🥩

🦀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.