INTRODUCTION<br >I am an unabashed lover of New York s food and the people who make and sell<br >it. For eighteen years I have been relentless in my pursuit of the ultimate nosh.<br >Some people count sheep when they can t sleep. I call 24-hour diners to find out<br >what their specials are that night or what kind of pie they re serving. My wife<br >claims I choose my friends by the neighborhood they live in and what they know<br >about food there. I say that s a major contributing factor， but certainly not the<br >only one. When I meet someone at a party， I don t ask him what he does for a<br >living or what his sign is. I ask him where he lives and then where he shops for<br >food.<br > I regard every walk from a bus or subway stop as an opportunity for food<br >adventure. When I find myself with a rented car on my hands after a business<br >meeting， I use it to explore a bakery or food store someone has told me about.<br >Whenever I take my son to a play date， I plot the food possibilities on the way.<br >I know I m often late for business and social appointments as a result， but my<br >wife， friends， and colleagues have come to be understanding about my obsession.<br > It s only the people at my destination that occasionally get upset about my<br > resultant lateness. But once they find out why I m late， they want to know<br > what s in the box or bag I m carrying. Like most New Yorkers--and like most<br > people who visit New York--they are fascinated by and have a deep passion for<br > food.<br > It is this passion that I encountered again and again while researching this<br > book. I found it in John Fretta and his cohorts， who welcomed me to the back<br > of their wonderful sausage store with a plate of pasta and a glass of wine to watch<br > the Italians play in the World Cup. I found it again in Cambria Heights， a Queens<br > neighborhood that， with its boccie court， pork store， salumeria， and Italian-ices<br > joint， could have just as easily been in Sicily as New York. I found it in the voices<br > of second- and third-generation store owners who told me， sadly， that no one in<br > the family was interested in learning the family trade and taking over the store.<br > I found it in every single manager， stock person， and checkout clerk during my<br > five-hour guided tour of Balducci s magical emporium.<br >