Ilana's list of wants ... today

A very wise person once told me that listmaking was a valuable endeavor...

and another even wiser one told me to start a list of things in order to take care of myself...

So, today's list has to do with food, that all important and recently overlooked base of Maslo's famous pyramid...

Things I want to eat, when I feel like preparing food for myself again, or perhaps if anyone ever decides to prepare food for me... hmmm. not very likely, let's just stick with me for today. I am on a liberation kick, just learned how to drive a standard. yes, finally, no more hiding behind perceived lack of ability...

Oh, and of course, money is no object on this imaginary list:

1) Risotto with eggplant, truffles, olive oil and red wine

2) milanesa de pescado (fresh caught, perhaps by me?)

3) baguette with melted brie (or by itself, let's be honest, who can resist a fresh-from-oven baguette?)

4) Organically and locally grown fresh strawberries in a nocilla fondue

5) Gnocci, hand made, with potatoes from the garden and a fresh "tuco" argentine style (I really must pester someone for a good recipe)

6) Spinach salad, with mandarin oranges, toasted almond, sliced mushrooms and a poppy-seed, red-onion vinaigrette

7) Winter squash soup, (damn! I forgot to buy ginger, this one might actually have been a possibility)

8) Curried red lentil soup or perhaps garbanzos... or a spinach daal...

9) Withered (on purpose) beet greens, sauteed with garlic, oil and fresh tomatoes

10) A repeat of the midnight snack we had in Montreal, with, of course, a smile from my favorite concierge Luis... croissant, salami, capicola, dill havarti, olives stuffed with anchovies mmmmm.

11) Kirsten's bow-tie salad with blanched tomatoes, scads of fresh grown basil, a fistfull of garlic, olive oil, parmesano and romano cheeses, fresh grated minus the nubs of back side of my hand that always get torn when madly grating cheese.

12) Un asado - every cut of meat ever known to a gaucho, obviously served to me (having no grilling skills - yet) with a fresh beet salad, boiled eggs and vinaigrette, or shredded carrots, or both...

13) Choripan - with no political ties, I mean, feeding the masses is one thing, but buying their vote, well that's another one altogether, isn't it?

14) Piononos, PR stylee, with very, very ripe plátanos (can't make this one myself)

15) Tacos al pastor (damn this so-called Mexican food, damn these californians what do they know?)

16) Falafel, but not the bad kind sold in boxes, something like I had on Bourbon street many years ago with melt-in-your mouth pita bread and a tzatsiki to die for.

17) Gazpacho (but only if its not cold - maybe I will wait until I am basking in the sun of Nice, then it would actually even be a novelty)

18) Rocío picking me up on her moto for coffee ice-cream when it feels like my life is going to end, and in her absence, at least the Haagen Daas that I bought this evening on my first drive to the supermarket.

19) Beignet at the Cafe du monde, with hot chocolate or Churros from El Jarocho in Coyoacán

20) Chiken tikka masala (truly *not* Indian, but really good and Isabella's favorite dish, ergo, manner of convincing me to go to a restaurant when there is no money to do so)