Mmmm....Bagels

I recently had an opportunity to travel to New York. Ahh, the mother-load of good eats. Not discounting LA food at all, but I'm used to it, and New York provided me with a mecca of delicious treats that was almost overwhelming. What can I say? NYC I <3 your food. I'm only feeling slightly guilty about my love for NY, LA you just own another part of my heart. The main thing that warmed my heart was the bagels. Not just any bagel. Ess-A-Bagel, bagel. Thank goodness I got to meet up with my dear friend Katie that was only happy to meet up with me to share the Manhattan bagel experience with me. My travel group didn't quite understand my love of food and my search for this bagel experience.

Let me describe this bagel, maybe we should capitalize this, it deserves it's own pronoun. Now, let me describe this Bagel. I ordered the everything Bagel: poppy seeds, salt, garlic, onion, and sesame seeds, they might have included some bagel magic too, who knows? The crust, was let me say, crusty. Such a perfect thin crunchy crust. The bagel, sorry, Bagel was still warm from baking. They don't toast at Ess-A-Bagel. And quite honestly they don't need to. Normally, I love toasted bagels (no capitalization here), this way they get warmed up and have that little crunch you need to counter the soft doughy-ness of the center. But like I mentioned earlier, the Bagel (capitalization here) was still warm from baking. Ahhhh... I opted to add Lox, tomato, and cream cheese to this. This was vacation food remind you. I felt I could indulge. And I did. The Bagel was huge, tasty, and warmed my soul. How can you pass this up?

I don't think I quite understood what the West Coast was missing from bagels. I've had wonderful and fresh bagels from the Western Bagel Factory in Van Nuys. Which, if you ever have the chance, they are pretty decent too. But alas, nothing compared to this Bagel. We really are lacking here. I had another bagel in NY, but it was just your ordinary fresh bagel. So they miss out too. How they can sell these sub-standard bagels in NY, I don't quite understand. I've heard of a few other great bagel shops in NY, Jersey, and Brooklyn so I'm not discounting these. Maybe not everyone wants to be a bagel elitist. I might have been conformed though. I'm now a bagel snob. *sigh*

In leaving as a bagel snob, I've decided I must go back to New York to have a complete, or more complete food tour. The Bagel was just a skimming of my food adventures in NYC. Plus, I need to go back to experience the other burroughs. Maybe to find the best pizza pie.

P.S. I apologize for the poor food photography. I was so excited to taste the Bagel I forgot to take a picture before I took a bite, plus I'm not so good at the photography. Eating, yes. Photography, no.