Hello Deli – Albuquerque, New Mexico

HELLO DELI (to the tune of Hello Dolly) “Hello Deli, this is Joe, Deli would you please send up a nice corned beef on rye. A box of RITZ, Deli and some Schlitz, Deli Some chopped liver and a sliver of your, apple pie. Turkey Legs, Deli hard boiled eggs, Deli and a plate of those potatoes you french fry, oh Don’t be late, Deli I just can’t wait Deli, Deli without breakfast, I’d just die.” ~ Frank Jacobs (Writer for MAD Magazine) In 2016, BBC Travel lamented the imminent demise of the New York City deli.  “Not the corner markets or bodegas that appear on nearly every New York block,” but “the true New York City delicatessen: the brick and mortar expression of the American immigrant experience, the very culinary soul of the city. “Some 80 years ago, New York City was home to three or four thousand delis. Today, there are less than 24.”  That true New York City delicatessen of which BBC Travel wrote showcased “the food of the Eastern European peasantry – smoked sausages and cured meats, smoked cabbage and offal stews and dark bread, salted fish and boiled dumplings.”  The primary draw to the New York…

Vic’s Daily Cafe – Albuquerque, New Mexico

“When you wake up in the morning, Pooh,” said Piglet at last, “what’s the first thing you say to yourself?” “What’s for breakfast?” said Pooh. “What do you say, Piglet?” “I say, I wonder what’s going to happen exciting today?” said Piglet. Pooh nodded thoughtfully. “It’s the same thing,” he said.” Unlike the great philosopher Winnie the Pooh, many Americans, it seems, don’t equate breakfast with excitement. Studies show that far too many of us fuel our bodies with a “gobble and go” mentality that typifies our frenetic lifestyles. In 2007, one food service industry research firm concluded that most Americans spend no more than three minutes shopping for breakfast (at such paragons of nutritional virtue as McDonald’s and Starbucks).  Too many of us it seems would just as soon wait for lunch, our hunger being reason enough to overindulge. A food and health survey of Americans showed that 92 percent of respondents consider breakfast the most important meal of the day, yet fewer than half (46 percent) of them actually ate breakfast seven days a week. The most frequently cited reasons for not eating breakfast every day include “not being hungry after waking up” (59 percent) and “not enough…