Better a Real Roll than a Fake Bagel

I've always loved a good bagel. I like to chew, and a good boiled first then baked bagel needs heavy chewing.  It's very hard to find a real bagel nowadays, because many bagel places use this new-fangled steam spritz rather than proper boiling.

A couple of weeks ago a friend and I needed a quick lunch. We were in the Jerusalem Central Bus Station and went to the Holy Bagel. I have a soft spot for Holy Bagel, since the owners, or first owners bought the Beit HaBagel, Bagel House from a friend of ours, and I had worked there many years ago. I wanted to like the sandwich.

We asked the kid working there if they were real bagels, because they looked too "fluffy."

"Of course they're real. I baked them," said the kid.
"Hmm.. really? They don't look real."

And they weren't. I should have just looked for another place to eat, but we were in a rush. There was no way he could make the bagels, real bagels there. The boiling needs extra equipment.

Close to twenty years ago the original Bonkers Bagels owners brought the first "steam bagel" machinery to Israel, and a whole generation of kids have grown up thinking those puffy things with the consistency of oatmeal are real bagels, but they're not.

If it's not a real bagel I'd rather have a roll, and sandwiches on rolls cost less than bagel sandwiches, too!

Bye, bye bagels, bye, bye...