I love food! To me, food offers comfort and security. In addition, cuisine is a cultural expression and represents an opportunity to more thoroughly understand and appreciate a particular culture or region. When traveling I make it a point to taste local specialties as a way of enriching my travel experience. Someone recently suggested that I share my favorite restaurants with my readers because of my great interest in food. Keep in mind that food preferences are very different from person to person and also that a restaurant experience is about so much more than the food.

For the last twenty or so years, Lee and I have spent at least one weekend during the month of August in Saratoga Springs, New York. Saratoga is the summer Mecca for horse-racing aficionados and we call this weekend our annual pilgrimage. Over the years we have sampled many of the restaurants that dot the city. Of all the places that we have tried, these are our favorite restaurants for dining in Saratoga Springs NY:

1. Caffe Italia, 662 Central Ave., Albany, NY (a bit of a drive from Saratoga but well worth the effort)

2. Chianti’s, 18 Division Street, Saratoga Springs, NY

3. Longfellow’s, 500 Union Ave, Saratoga Springs, NY

4. Old Bryan Inn, 123 Maple Ave., Saratoga Springs, NY

5. Pennell’s, 284 Jefferson Street, Saratoga Springs, NY.