Welcome to Secret Breakfast / An exclusive newsletter, the best place to start your day celebrating Valentine’s Day and the Year of the Dragon with the most aphrodisiac stuff

Hi there!

The SuperBowl. The Chinese New Year. Valentine’s Day. Carnival. We’re living in busy days.

Find some time to enjoy them.

Piero

PS: you’ll find some new design items around. I’m just afraid if you’re reading this in “dark mode”, the layout will look like s**t. Tell me what you think and changes could be arranged.

Weegee, ca. 1945, printed ca. 1983

✦ Kurt Vonnegut, Jailbird.

ONE MEAL OF LOVE

Ok, I’m going 100% lazy with this curated Valentine Day’s set of links.

Break-Ups And Throw-Ups: What It’s Like To Work At A Restaurant On Valentine’s Day // Valentine’s Day is one of the busiest days of the year for those who work in restaurants. It’s also a day that many in the industry love to hate.

A Waitress Shared Her Hack For Making More Tip Money On Valentine’s Day & Now It’s Going Viral // People often use Valentine’s Day as a chance to splurge on their significant other, but one waitress figured out a (low key amazing) way to spend the day making a little extra money for herself.

Waiters what Valentine day disasters have you witnessed? 

Literal Food’gasms’: Aphrodisiac Foods To Spice Up Your Next Romp In The Sheets // Sometimes it’s a particularly well-timed Instagram post. At other times, a steamy paragraph from a romantic novel. Anything can be sexy and a turn on, but it certainly helps to have that extra nudge. That’s where aphrodisiacs come in.

Mumia: The Grossest Aphrodisiac You’ll Ever Hear Of // European apothecaries dispensed mumia for a range of conditions, including as an aphrodisiac.

These Aphrodisiacs Will Spice Up Your Valentine’s Day Dinner // All throughout history, foods like oysters, berries and dark chocolate have been purported to have a powerful effect on boosting potency, libido and sex drive. Aphrodisiacs are named after Aphrodite, the ancient Greek goddess of love and beauty.

These Phallic Sea Worms Make Salty-Sweet Snacks // If you’re wandering through one of South Korea’s many seafood markets and you see a bucket of wriggling phalluses, you’ve found the gaebul. Also known as “the penis fish,” it’s actually a marine spoon worm.

A Suggestively-Shaped Forbidden Fruit // The seed of the Coco de Mer is the largest in the world. Each one weighs about the same as three bowling balls.

Picture: from Paysages avec couleurs (Colourscapes), 1991© Nobuyoshi Araki / Courtesy Taka Ishii Gallery via DAZED ⚠⚠⚠ Araki’s images are strong and are considered controversial.

Yes, We Can

★★★☆☆

That’s exactly what you think it is. Just be careful and use GOOD tinned tomatoes.

The Tinned Tomatoes Cookbook by Samuel Goldsmith
→ Shortplot: 🥫 🍝 🍅 🍕

If you ever meet someone who can make this cube croissant your future is simple: you two will share a wedding, or he (or she) will make you crazy.

😴3 Things to Do When You Can’t Fall Asleep Because You’re Overthinking Everything 🏄🏻13 Single-Serve Ideas for People Who Live Alone and Are Sick of Leftovers (★recipes) 👩🏻‍🍳Enrique Olvera: Following Recipes Perfectly Isn’t the Thing That Makes You a Great Cook 🍋285-year-old lemon auctioned for $1,780 🦐The Most Ridiculous Food Trend The Year You Were Born 🔥Dating Apps Are In Their Flop Era 👽No, Aliens Haven’t Visited the Earth ❌ 7 Food Myths You Shouldn’t Believe 🍽️ OpenTable’s Top 100 Romantic Restaurants in America 🏈87 Super Bowl Party Snacks (★recipes) 🐲12+ Recipes to Welcome the Dragon Year (★recipes) 🎭Italian Carnival Food is Sweet and Fried (★recipe)

The New Vocabulary of Cocktails 
Emma Janzen / Punch

Amaroulette. “Are you mad at me?”. Bartender’s handshake. Dirty dump. Razzle dazzle. Current trends in bar lingo are reflecting industry evolution and crossover with restaurants.

I Opened A Grocery Store 
Alison Roman / a newsletter

One of my favorite recipe developers opened a small store in Bloomville, upstate New York. It follows a “curated approach”, focusing on essentials with limited condiments but a wide variety of snacks. Interesting angle.

➤ Last week's most clicked link was What Good Friends Look Like. And that's all for today.