I was in New York City recently, and as any self-respecting traveler does, I wrote out a list of things I wanted to do while passing through. This was not my first trip to the city — I think I’d been there maybe two or three times before — but it had been a while since I last set foot in one of the five boroughs, and I wanted to make sure to enjoy some of the things I had missed.
In recent months I’ve been in a habit of eating an everything bagel each morning for breakfast. I haven’t historically been a breakfast person, but it’s a habit I picked up while recovering from my transplant and is now the highlight of my day. I start looking forward to the next one as soon as I finish the last bite of the previous one. I’ve tried all the various store brands, but I find that I like the Thomas bagels the most. They’re chewy, they have the exact right amount of toppings (not too many, not too few), and they toast up nicely on the 2/10 setting on the toaster. Just enough time to get a little crunchy and colorful, but not enough to become burnt or bitter.
I know Thomas is the most basic, boring, widely available option, but I like it.
The first morning I woke up in the city I rushed to the corner bagel place and ordered an everything bagel with plain cream cheese spread (exactly what I eat at home). I was sorely disappointed with the first bite: it was toasted to the point of legitimately being burnt, and had too much cream cheese (is there such a thing?). Not to mention that there were a ludicrous amount of seeds and toppings to the point where it made the entire thing bitter rather than flavorful.
Am I trying to use a single reference point to say that all bagels in NYC suck? Of course not. In fact, I’ve had bagels on previous trips, and they’ve mostly been great. I’m in no way suggesting that the most run-of-the-mill grocery store bagel is better than the ones that you can get in New York. But there’s something to be said for knowing exactly what you like, and if it’s a simple pleasure, that’s all the better. There’s something beautiful about knowing you can get just as much, or more, joy from the readily available mass-produced boring bagel as you can from the exotic, creme-de-la-creme option.
Who knew cheap bagels could be so zen?