Welcome to Secret Breakfast / An exclusive newsletter, the best place to start your day with exploding artichokes, tricky restaurant menus, and the undeniable bitterness of reality 

Hi there!

Sometimes I feel uncomfortable.

We are talking about cooking, food abundance, and pleasure, while we all know that most people on this Earth struggle to have one basic meal a day.

This week I am even more uncomfortable after reading this New York Times feature about the daily hunt for food in Gaza.

We can grow cynical to the point we consider hunger “normal”. We can have our ideas about the Middle-East mess.

But reading about people making soups with a few leaves of grass, cooking pitas using animal feed, or having just tea and nothing else is heartbreaking.

It’s the details. Hunger is an abstract idea when you have everything. Once you see what’s on the table of desperate people, everything changes.

If you can read only one thing in this newsletter, please read this.

And forgive me for giving you the undeniable bitterness of reality for starters.

Piero

The New York Times. Reporting by: Amy Schoenfeld Walker, Rawan Sheikh Ahmad and Malika Khurana

✦ Thomas Aloysius (Tad) Dorgan, cartoonist.

SET OFF THAT ARTICHOKE

Have you ever dealt with an exploding artichoke? A few days ago a friend of mine experienced this: cutting the base of an artichoke a tiny flame started, made a poof, a bang of smoke, and a burning smell.

Apparently, the phenomenon is well known, often in Italy, and some food people consider it normal (listen to this podcast: Stella and Daniel on Combustible Artichokes and Making a Better Cookie).

Why did the artichoke explode, then? A certain amount of ammonium nitrate used as a fertilizer could have been embedded in the plant, and then set on fire by a spark generated while cutting with the knife.

Artichokes have always been controversial. “He has ‘le coeur comme un artichaud’. Eddy fumbled for her high school French. ‘A heart like an artichoke?’ ’Oui. He has a leaf for everyone, but makes a meal for no one.”, wrote Poppy Z. Brite.

But in Rome artichokes are a sort of religion: you can go for the fried Carciofi alla Giudìa (★recipe), or the stewed Carciofi alla Roma a (★recipe). No way you can say NO to them, except if you’re suffering from favism.

Picture: Illustrations from a 16th-century manuscript detailing the phenomenon of Nuremberg's Schembart Carnival

No Menu is an Island

★★★★☆

The Jewish Food Society is an organization dedicated to preserving Jewish cuisine around the world. Here you have 135 recipes reminding us that “for many Jews, the meal IS the holiday”, and that this kind of cooking embraces a thousand different cultures.

The Jewish Holiday Table: A World of Recipes, Traditions & Stories to Celebrate All Year Long by Naama Shefi and Devra Ferst
→ Shortplot: 🕎 🥣 🍆 🍩

☪️45 Ramadan Ideas (★recipes) 🍽️Restaurant Menus Are Designed To Trick You Into Spending More Money 🥬The Coolest Menu Item at the Moment Is Cabbage 🛒Here’s Which Grocery Aisle You Are Based on Your Zodiac Sign 🍷What do wine experts really drink at home? 🤖My smart kitchen: the good, the bad, and the future 💩7 Best Foods to Eat When You Have Diarrhea 🇫🇷I Need French Food Without Onions and Garlic

‘My focus is survival’: how rising costs are hitting independent restaurants 
Sarah Butler / The Guardian

The article discusses how independent restaurants in the UK, like Sambal Shiok and Ditto Coffee in London, are raising prices due to inflation and supply chain disruptions. Despite being upfront with customers about the reasons, they're struggling to balance quality and affordability amid economic uncertainties.

➤ Last week's most clicked link was The Beginner's Guide on How to Meal Prep for the Week. And that's all for today.