Explore Long Island

Nassau County's business and government hub centers around Garden City, Mineola and nearby neighborhoods. Accordingly, there's plenty to eat and drink. But there are other restaurant-friendly places to land for lunch or dinner. Here are 20 recommendations, in a range of prices, covering dependable eateries in central Nassau.

For the true food lover, eating is not enough. We want to immerse ourselves in every facet of the gastronomic experience. Of course we want to eat, but we also want to shop for food -- and for cooking tools and serving pieces. We want to talk about food. We want to learn about food, and we want to learn about the world through food.

Driving north on Route 107 toward Hicksville, the landscape quickly morphs from a string of unremarkable strip malls and heavy industry into a cluster of Indian businesses.

The deafening noise of ascending jets mixed with the sound of bats hitting balls on a warm summer day: A Saturday afternoon at Shea Stadium.

Long Island's recreational gems don't stop at its coastline. Residents of Central Nassau know that there's a rich collection of art and culture that extends well past the walls of their local Ikea.

THEYRRRRRE OFFFFF! The 9-year-old in the Yankees cap breaks fast, along with the pigtailed toddler riding her dad's shoulders, as the motley field of two dozen pretend-thoroughbreds bursts from the starting gate amid giggles and grins.

LAUGHTER SPILLS OUT of the Old Bethpage Village inn, circles the schoolyard in search of new allies, then fades into the buzz of daily commerce. This is a town that time remembered. But while now it's filled with life, it never actually existed as a community at all.

When American steel-fortune heir John "Jay” Phipps fell for globe-trotting shipping heiress Margarita "Dita” Grace, he promised her not only a rose garden but a country estate to rival her favorite childhood home -- a formidable English landmark called Battle Abbey, built 900 years ago by William the Conqueror.