H&H Bagels – Plate 10

It’s kind of a blessing and a curse for me to do this post. The blessing part of it is that I am playing catchup (I think I’ll be playing catchup until the morning of February first) and I need a short post to help me get on schedule. Right now, it’s 4:20 (dude) and I have just over three hours to write two posts to get back on track. I met Andrea this morning at H&H and immediately recognized her by her cool camera. I mistakenly called her Jessica (whom I’m meeting tomorrow), but other than that, I think our brief bagel encounter went pretty well. She’s also coming with me to dinner tonight at Telepan, and he lives on the UWS, so it was serendipity.

The curse part of it is that #1) I don’t have six different dishes and a tuna flight to write about. I am only to expound on the virtues of a solitary bagel, with some cream cheese or course.

H&H has no way to toast their bagels; they’re bagel take out only. Now, I am a toasted bagel guy. There are times I’ve refused bagels for the sole reason that there wasn’t any toasting apparatus to be found, but today, I learned something from native Torontonian Andrea:

“Did you see the seriouseats-”

“Yeah, with the bagels and the freshness (link); I saw that,” finishing her sentence as only another dedicated food writer could.

“Yes. Well I usually get a sesame seed bagel,” she said, “but if I’m going to eat it right away, the only one to order would be whichever just came out of the oven.”

We did this, walked across the street to Starbucks and cut open our bagels to find them steaming hot. I spread on the cream cheese and completely forgot the bagel wasn’t toasted.

I’d never had a hot. fresh, untoasted bagel from a store before this Pumpernickel Bagel, and now, I don’t think I can look at the bagels in the bin the same way ever again. There’s not many times when I agree with the old adage, ignorance is bliss, but let me tell you: if you’ve never had a steaming hot bagel seconds from the oven and you are offered the opportunity, just walk away. Walk away and be happy that you’ve never experienced what bagels are really supposed to taste like. I felt like my circular self had just been ripped from the second bagel dimension and plopped into the third, Flatland style. Couldn’t you just let me stay in bagely purgatory forever?

#2) Curse you, H&H. Curse you.

Guest Writer: Andrea Chan … Here’s her post

The IRL Arts Foundation and The Wandering Foodie thank H & H Bagels for providing this meal.

H & H Bagels
2239 Broadway
New York, NY 10024
(212) 595-8000