west coast east

On my way to the airport yesterday, Bruce and I had a heated discussion about bagels, pizza and burritos.  Like a typical New Yorker (which I am not), I exclaimed that I couldn’t get a decent bagel in San Francisco.  The same with pizza.  Bruce argued there are places that have bagels in San Francisco that are just as good as any in New York (Katz’s, for one).   While I do find bagels and pizza that I enjoy in the bay area, they don’t come close to what I could get on the east coast.

This morning, Jim and I had bagels for breakfast.  And they were pretty damn good.  How do I judge a good bagel?  If I can put a bare minimum amount of accouterments on it, it’s deemed good.  And these that we ate this morning, needed only a thin layer of cream cheese.  They were crunchy on the outside, soft and chewy on the inside.  Perfect.

“Where did you get these bagels from?” I asked.

“Shop-Rite,” he answered.

I’m not sure what the difference is between an east coast bagel and a west coast one.  I’ve been told it’s the water.  I’ve been told it’s attitude.  I’ll say it’s a bit of both.  My bagel this morning was full of attitude.