This leads me to some speculations and questions about bagels and ethnicity. Far from a Jewish nationalist myself, I do feel that what has become of the bagel is an offense against ethnicity, particularly here on the upper West Side, and similar offenses against other ethnicities would bring angry responses. H & H (Hispanic) are highly sugared; Absolute (Thai) -- along with most other sources -- lacks the traditional hardness on the surface (during WWII there were jokes about Jewish bombardiers dropping bagels on the enemy). It may be that Jewish-made bagels have also deteriorated.
My questions:
were there traditional bagels that were salt covered? is it wrong for me to be a traditionalist in regard to bagels? What do people think of current bagels? Can people cite similar crimes against other ethnic foods? (Chinese restaurants up here in Szechuan Valley are terrible, but they are Chinese-operated, so this deterioration can't be seen as an attack by other ethnics.)
This is not so much of a fetish with me that I am willing to travel out of my neighborhood (99th-112th St.) in pursuit of the Perfect Bagel. Just curious.
Jesse Lemisch