I love Westchester. I love that I live and work in the New York area. I love the noise, the traffic, the crowds, the craziness of daily life here. But…
Recently, my husband and I took a leisurely bicycle vacation in the Po Valley, a drop-dead gorgeous region in Italy’s famous Emilia-Romagna province (the Po Valley extends from the Alps to the Adriatic Sea). We traveled mostly by bike (hey, we wanted to fully partake of the pasta and gelato without concern for the scale back home). We pedaled our way through charming ancient towns, starting at Bologna, on roads flanked by lush fields of wheat, sugar beet, peaches, pears, corn, and grapevines. It was grand.
Why am I telling you this? Because (a) I wouldn’t want you to miss out on such a terrific experience (gorgeous country, great food—how can you lose?), but, more important, (b) because it made me rethink the way I live my life—the way we Americans live our lives. What they say about Europeans seems true: they enjoy a better lifestyle. They seem to revel more in what life has to offer. They know well that life is much more than work and making money. It’s also (more?) about pleasure.
Which, brings me to our issue, not coincidentally. The subject is food, which, the Italians certainly know well, is one of life’s greatest pleasures. Food, they know, is something not to be wolfed down between meetings or grabbed on the go. Food is to be enjoyed and savored with family and friends (and, often, with a bottle or two of wine). In the following pages, we tell you where some of the great food in our county is; all you have to do is enjoy it. Buon appetito!
Esther Davidowitz
Editor-in-Chief
