Food for thought #135

A weekly roundup for hungry readers📚

Aug 02, 2026

Reading

• Everyone wants to smell like a tomato now

• The New York Times dove into IKEA’s grocery section and tried everything they could get our hands on — from iconic staples like its Swedish meatballs to lesser-known items like pickled herring. See the 18 surprisingly delicious things that they’d go out of our way for.

• It’s time to give up on the nonstick pan as we know it: The history of nonstick cookware, the risks associated with using it, and whether the new wave of nonstick ceramic cookware is worth the spend.

• Meanwhile, on the opposite end of the spectrum, products are getting worse on purpose – including once-premium kitchen brands

Scrolling

• Drawing tomatoes

• And the ultimate tomato manicure!

• And a tomato cartoon

• I can’t believe someone solved recipe design decades ago and everyone just decided to ignore it

• A museum masterpiece but make it butter 🧈

• Dublin supermarket reveals 11th-century Viking ruins

• Tupperware began as Earl Tupper's materials-science fix for postwar plastic, and only became a household name once Brownie Wise's home party model gave the seal a way to be demonstrated. The result was one of the most ubiquitous objects in twentieth-century kitchens, later finding a second life in MoMA’s permanent design collection.

Cooking the books

• Brookies from From Scratch – half cookie, half brownie, 100% awesome. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve made these since I first tried them at the photo shoot in January.

Word of the week

Art of the week

I’m Kristin Jensen, the founder, publisher and editor at Blasta Books and Nine Bean Rows. Before I started my publishing house, I was a freelance editor and food writer for over 20 years and I’ve co-authored three books. I pretty much eat, sleep and breathe books and food. You can also find me on Instagram @edibleireland.📚