Welcome to Secret Breakfast / An exclusive newsletter, the best place to start your day wondering why chocolate melts in July and whether 'tis nobler to cook spaghetti to live, or to live to cook spaghetti

Hi there!

The worst time ever to talk about chocolate is probably now. Hot summer melts any cocoa craving.

Nevertheless, we have the new Willy Wonka movie trailer out there, featuring:

• that handsome House Atreides member (and AS Roma fan) known as Timothée Chalamet;

• the incredible Hugh Grant as green-haired-boiled-shrimps-complexion-and-talented-piccolo-maestro Oompa Loompa.

Chocolate in Summer, I was saying. It can be done.

I find this 66% chocolate drink (★recipe) particularly refreshing. Add some chili powder (or, better, chili jam) in the mix for a spicy kick.

Then, don’t forget brownies or any sticky chocolate cake: they can have a marvelous second life if you let them cool and keep into the fridge.

And now, are you ready for a refreshing Secret Breakfast issue?

Piero

PS: be warned… Next week I may skip the issue, or just surprise you with some - hopefully - unconventional content.

Oompa loompa doompety doo…

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THE BEST QUOTE

✦ Robin Williams, this one never gets old. Thank you MyMind social media manager.

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THE MISSING INGREDIENT

GOODNIGHT KISH

Top Chef winner - and Restaurants at the End of the World’s host - Kristen Kish is replacing host Padma Lakshmi in Season 21 of the show. What can we say? We can just steal some ideas from her!

Food&Wine’s Favorites from Kristen Kish (★recipes)

Top Chef's Kristen Kish Shares the 5-Minute Soup She Can't Stop Making (★recipe)

Top Chef Kristen Kish's Friendsgiving Manicotti (★recipe)

Picture: Kristen Kish Facebook Profile

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THE BOOK

The season of Arepas

★★1/2

The average frying time allowed yearly to me in my home’s kitchen doesn’t make it possible to make good arepas. Those “crisp round pockets made from corn flour” by wise Venezuelan hands are just a street food fantasy to me. But could be a fun skill to get this summer to surprise your guests. There’s more: you can take the 50 recipes in this book and basically get about 40 new fillings for your sandwiches, pitas or panini. Wanna try without the book? Start with the basic ★recipes.

Arepa by Irena Stein
→ Shortplot: 🇻🇪 🌽 🍖 🍃

❍ OnlyPans
This is where Secret Breakfast picks juicy content from (food?) creators

Some of my favorite answers (some are really NSFW filthy):

➡️ I've never tried it this way before.

⏱️ You done already?

🍔 That was nice, but I still prefer Five Guys.

🤧 I think we need more napkins.

Yes, probably you can come up with funnier answers!

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RANDOM ACTS OF HUNGER

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

Wanna make a chicken sandwich from scratch? This 7 years old video says that it will cost you $1,500 and 6 months 🥭Watermelon with Mexican spices, Malaysian mangos, Sichuanese aubergines – six salads for a hot summer (★recipes) 🎙️Lewis Capaldi Grasps for a Lifeline While Eating Spicy Wings (video) 🍹World's Most Hated Drink: The Long Island Iced Tea (featured in Jen Lawrence latest movie too) 👨🏻‍🍳 David Thompson, the man, myth, chef, legend (★recipes) ☕️Vintage Food52 iced coffee for your thermos (★recipe) 🍧The easiest ice-cream you can do WITHOUT an ice-cream machine is basically cold heavy cream and sugar in a jar (★recipe) 🔥The perpetual stew of NYC 🔌The Instant-Pot failed because it was a good product, yet Microwaves are now Britain’s hottest cookery gadget

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FOOD FOR LATER

‘It’s not just the food we missed’: three writers remember beloved restaurants that closed down
Rachel Cooke, Shahnaz Ahsan and Eva Wiseman / The Guardian

Food is never just food. Food is people, emotion, and connection.

The Year of Spaghetti
Haruki Murakami / The New Yorker

This is a classic short story about a long-shaped pasta. A major author wrote words like: “I cooked spaghetti to live, and lived to cook spaghetti”.

➤ Last week's most clicked link was the one about the overcrowded, overpriced and badly managed Italy. Grazie!