Bagels are a funny thing. I've been told by my New Yorker friends there are no good bagels in Austin. Indeed, they insist there are no good bagels outside of New York. And then, amongst themselves, they'll further disagree that lower Manhattan is the only good place for bagels, while others argue that midtown is the place to go, and still others say that new place in Brooklyn has them all beat and it's the only one worth trying.
When I visited a friend in NY a few years back, a local NYer that I'd met in grad school, he took me to a place in midtown that he loved and said was the greatest. I tried the bagels. I liked the bagels.
I couldn't honestly tell any difference between them, and the ones I can get at bakeries here in Austin. I mean, there's a definite difference compared to storebought packaged bagels, don't get me wrong. Fresh-baked are way way better. But there are a few different Jewish deli/bakery places here in Austin, and I've had bagels there, and they tasted the same as the ones in NYC.
So, well, there you have it. Anyway, I do like bagels.
