Late For The Train – Flagstaff, Arizona

“The powers of a man’s mind are directly proportioned to the quantity of coffee he drinks.” ~Sir James Mackintosh Dr. Steve Spence, my friend and former colleague at the University of New Mexico, probably drank more coffee than anyone I’ve ever known.  Walk by his office at any time of day and you’ll hear the melodic, soothing sounds of his electric coffee grinder pulverizing roasted coffee beans into freshly ground coffee ready to be enjoyed.   He grinds fresh before every brew and believes pre-ground (bagged) coffee is an instrument of torture.   Unlike the rest of us who drink barrelfuls of…

Sammys Cafe & Deli – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Most foodies have pondered the expession “Never trust a skinny chef.”  Maybe you’ve even mused if there’s any truth to it.   Your line of thinking probably goes something like this: “If a chef’s cooking is any good at all, how can that chef possibly resist stuffing himself (or herself)?”  With this train of thought, every chef should look like Paul Prudhomme, the brilliant Creole-Louisiana Cajun chef who once weighed more than 500 pounds.  Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay, who’s not shy about expressing his opinion, called the notion that you shouldn’t trust a skinny chef “BS.”  To the contrary, the volatile…