[lbo-talk] bagels/ethnicity

Shane Mage shmage at pipeline.com
Sat Sep 9 17:12:10 PDT 2006


Real bagels are always available at Zabar's--the ones I've been eating for nigh on to 70 years now. No salt on the outside! 40 cents per. Across the street at H&H their bagels are indeed sweet, doughy, and grossly overpriced.

Shane Mage

"Mortals immortals, immortals mortals,

living their deaths, dying their lives"

Herakleitos of Ephesos, fr. 62


>Yesterday, having no other resources, I bought a bagel at Gristedes. It
>turned out to be covered with specks of salt, as if the people who made it
>had thought they were making a pretzel.
>
>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
>
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