1. Tuna salad sandwiches and chicken-noodle soup.

2. The egg dish my dad made when I was sick. Make buttered toast and cut into small rectangles. Mash it up with softboiled eggs. I still eat it when I'm down.

3. Torrone.

4. Beef Wellington (on special days, of course).

5. Spaghetti with white clam sauce.

List five foods that remind you of home or your childhood:

1) Hamburger bean soup - (chili) - my brother wouldn't eat chili, so it was renamed. He ate.

2) Tuna tetrachloride - tuna noodle casserole, a la mom. With corn flakes on top. Newcomers' cookbook, circa 1970.

3) Ice cream sandwich - 9th grade. Someone dropped an "ice cream" sandwich in the stairwell after lunch; by the end of sixth period it was still there, unmelted. An unheeded lesson in "read the label."

4) Ravioli - my grandfather was 100% Neapolitan Italian-American, but he tried to leave his hyphen behind. One year my WASP father talked him out of his shell and he produced some of the most sublime food known to man. We all went to Caste Village to buy a press, a roller and all the kit. Grandpa got to talking with the shopkeeper and I think he suddenly broke down. We got torrone for a "treat". We had cannoli for dessert. To this day, I've gotta rigotta, mozzarel' and cappacol' stuck in my throat.

5) Kraft Mac-and-cheese. A meal in a box, a quarter a meal. Long after Grandpa had died. My Italophilia was latent longer than Cordova's.

1. Whole pintos simmering in broth with a hamhock

2. Chile Verde

3. Chorizo con huevos

4. Mexican hot chocolate with a stickof canela in the mug

5. sopa seca de arroz

My Italophilia developed later in life.
SC