Central Bodega – Albuquerque, New Mexico
As if living just outside of Boston for two years just out of high school wasn’t thrilling (and filling) enough for this rustic clodhopper, New York City was only four hours (with good traffic) away. There were more languages (800) spoken in New York City than there were people (500) in my hometown of Peñasco, not to mention a population of some 16-million. All those languages meant a vast diversity of dining opportunities and I wanted to try them all. Best of all, so many of them were available all day and all night long. Large, hand-tossed slices of thin-crusted pizza were available from street vendors. You could even find warm food at some of the Puerto Rican bodegas (owner-operated convenience stores) in the Bronx, home for my friends Carmen and Vladimir “Speedy” Gonzalez who graciously showed me around Metropolis. At a neighborhood bodega, they introduced me to one of my favorite beverages, the legendary egg cream. Untapped New York describes a New York City bodega as “where the city’s character, diversity, and history are embodied in a physical space.” Sadly, however, instead of being treated with reverence for being “lifelines for New York City’s food deserts” bodegas seem…