Rant #3,639: Searchin'

I went to a local bagel store yesterday morning, still searching for the best bagel I can find in my area.

This place came highly recommended, so I decided that since Tuesday was supposedly going to be a light day--certainly less hectic and stomach churning than Monday was--I might as well go to this place, and see if it was any good.

I got there, and I was served pretty quickly, and this place was a little cheaper than the one I went to a couple of days ago, the one where I was completely turned off by their bagels.

So I made my order, paid my money, and came home.

One of the ways I determine if a bagel is any good by cutting them when they are fresh, and that is just what I did.

These were certainly netter than the previous bagels I had.

They are kettle-cooked, as you can readily tell by the soft top and the hard bottom.

But they didn't seem to be cooked through and through, as the middle was pretty doughy, not as bad as the bagels from the other place, but still a bit puffy.

I made a sandwich using one of the halved bagels, and yes, it was pretty good, better than the other bagels by a mile--

But still a little bit doughy.

A bagel place in my old neighborhood has better bagels than what I have encountered in my new environs, and I might just go back there the next time I want a good bagel--or a bialy, for that matter--but I wouldn't cross off this latest place from my list.

The bagels were good, a bit doughy, but did I mention that there were actually honest-to-goodness holes in these bagels?

Much unlike the others I tried, which were hole-less and were more like rolls than bagels.

As I said before, since the ethnicity is not there anymore in bagels--and pizza, for that matter--these delicacies simply don't taste like they used to.

They aren't bad, you won't be poisoned if you eat them, but these comfort foods just don't taste the same as they once did.

And no, my taste buds haven't changed with age ... I know a great bagel when I bite into one.

So, the search for the best bagel i can find remains open, and if I have to go back to the old neighborhood to get what I want, so be it.

And that's the "hole" story ... with, I am sure, more to come.