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The Hidden Cost of Our Dinner 🚫
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Welcome to Secret Breakfast / An exclusive newsletter, the best place to start your day trading Montreal Bagels for Cochinita Pibil, while your marriage is upended by weight-loss drugs
Girl, you’re fire
Hi there!
I started this year printing a certain word on a sheet of paper and I glued it on the first page of my diary.
The word is: friction.
Friction as in “the resistance that one surface or object encounters when moving over another”.
Every day I hope for an easy day, and I’m almost certain it will not be easy at all. Then why do I long for more effort?
I’m afraid that our hectic lifestyle is pushing us to accept anything that comes easily: we take notifications for news, hyper-processed ingredients for meals, insta-tricks for reality.
We are fatigued by anything needing our patience, we don’t take the right time to hear the people we love, we expect consent from humans like we feel we deserve recognition in interactions on social media.
By making our life easier we’re losing a lot, we’re giving away privacy, health, complexity, even feelings maybe.
That’s why the most precious ingredient of my year is friction, not to make things harder, but to take back some sense of control, and truth, that I feel I’ve lost.
Piero
PS: in the coming weeks there will be a huge change in the tech stack powering this newsletter. I’m afraid you will be asked to pay attention to your inbox and bear with me because I’ll be reminding you that for a few issues.
Photograph: Manila, Philippines. A performer breathes fire during Lunar New Year celebrations in Binondo district, considered the world’s oldest Chinatown. Ezra Acayan/Getty Images
 | Pintxos are one of my obsessions. San Sebastián Old Town - in the Basque Autonomous Community, Spain - is home to the unique culinary tradition of pintxos, bite-sized dishes ranging from simple skewers to elaborate creations. These impressive morsels showcase culinary expertise and are often guarded family recipes passed down through generations. Marti Buckley's The Book of Pintxos explores this dynamic Basque food culture, defining pintxos, tracing their history, and providing dozens of recipes for our dinner parties and snacks. |
The Book of Pintxos: Discover the Legendary Small Bites of Basque Country by Marti Buckley
→ Shortplot: 🫒 🥖 🐟 🧀
THE PRICE WE PAY FOR SNOBBY RESTAURANTS
Two or three Sundays ago, I stood outside a Milanese coffee bar and bakery, staring at their gleaming window display while the hostess explained their strict reservation-only policy. My growling stomach and I had naively assumed that a morning bakery would welcome walk-ins.
Instead, I found myself wandering two blocks down to an “old style” alternative, a charming patisserie with an open-door policy and equally delicious croissants and tortelli (★recipe). As I watched a mix of regulars and newcomers stream in, I remembered an old TimeOut feature about the reservation-only restaurants, and I couldn't help but reflect on how this tale of two bakeries mirrored a larger economic story.
***
A reservation-only restaurant (or bakery, or bar) and a protectionist country share surprising parallels in their approach to controlling access. Just as an exclusive establishment turns away walk-in customers to maintain a controlled environment, a country imposing tariffs creates barriers to “walk-in” foreign goods to protect its domestic markets.
Both prioritize predictability over potential: the restaurant ensures its regular customers get tables, while a protectionist nation shields its domestic industries from foreign competition.
However, this approach comes with clear downsides.
The restaurant might miss out on valuable new customers who could become regulars, just as a country with high tariffs loses opportunities for beneficial trade relationships.
Both systems can lead to inefficiencies: empty tables during cancellations parallel higher prices for consumers in the tariff-imposing country.
Like my morning search for breakfast, sometimes the most rewarding experiences come from keeping our doors - and markets - open to new possibilities.
Am I wrong?
Picture: Devon Janse van Rensburg / Unsplash
Juicy content from food creators
This is the space where I share some food (un)related stuff of my week, but this time we’re celebrating the plates of two random countries: Canada and Mexico
🇨🇦Bake some Montreal Bagels (★recipe) 🍖Have a decadent Maple Rib Roast (★recipe) 🥧Enjoy Coffee with the Canadian Butter Tarts (★recipe) 🥥Ever tried Nanaimo Bars (★recipe)? 🇲🇽Start with the Mexican basics: Salsa Macha (★recipe) 🌶️Try Chilaquiles for breakfast (★recipe) 🥣Something warm: Red Pozole (★recipe) 🐷Make a batch of Cochinita Pibil (★recipe) 📺Watch starred chef Enrique Olvera talking about Mexican food
How Weight-Loss Drugs Can Upend a Marriage | Doctors caution that these medications can cause physical side effects, and they might also affect your relationships in surprising ways. |
During Times of Crisis, Restaurants Are Always the First to Give Back | From New York to Detroit to Houston, chefs and restaurants raise money, provide resources, and show support for their LA counterparts |
➤ Last week's most clicked link was The 4 Seasons of Being a Woman. And that's all for today.