My hometown. I am a rare breed, a born and raised New Yorker from lower Manhattan. As much as I like to travel around the world, it was here where I first started becoming fascinated by food, and the global variety of it. Here in NYC, you can find traditional food from around the world, surrounded by people of that culture, in their neighborhood. It is from being exposed to so many types of cuisine that I developed the understanding that there is a lot of good food in the world! Chinese, Indian, Russian, Italian, French, Modern American, and Spanish are just some of the cuisines that are represented accurately and with integrity here in NYC. Besides traditional cultures, there are food countercultures like the underground restaurant scene in Brooklyn, Food Truck parking lots, immense farmers markets, modern American fusion cuisines, and of course the locals who remember those crappy and amazing hole in the wall bagel joints. Come here to find funky coffee shops, three star restaurants, and the smells of traditional home cooked food pouring out of the apartment windows of strangers. It's also the pizza. For me, its the challenge of knowing that as long as I live in NYC, I will never, ever, find all of the best food there. I love you NY.