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I love an H&H everything bagel with sweet butter

In high school I had "early bird" gym class because my schedule was so busy and the only way I could make it to the 7:30 class was to stop at Upper Crust (Deerfield, IL) and pick up a bagel and lox spread. To this day it's my slow-morning pick-me-up!

And grubnoise - I don't think you can even compare Montreal bagels to the classic NY bagel. Equally as satisfying, but in a totally different way.

I grew up on the Upper West Side, eating Absolute bagels, and I still go there every time I visit my parents. Their bagels are fantastic, and their tuna salad is possibly my favourite thing in the world. I don't know what's in it, but it transcends 'tuna salad' to become its own food category. I should also mention that my mother loves their chicken salad so much that she was once driving along, trying to eat a chicken salad bagel (ok, not traditional), and was so distracted by its deliciousness that she had a minor car crash. This is the kind of extreme to which a food obsession can drive one.
Now I live next to the Brick Lane Beigel Bake, which is a kind of legendary London bagel place. Londoners wax poetic about them, but they are NOT the same. They're a bit like H&H, but they're too chewy - almost soggy. I, too, prefer a bagel with a bit more oomph.

You are lucky as NY does have the greatest bagels. I'm thinking H&H must be the place on the upper west side kind of near Zabar's? We went in there and were kind of disappointed with the PLACE, but ordered bagels to go and they were tasty.
Also: Sesame bagels MUST be toasted to bring out the seedy flavor.
We are lucky enough to have two from-scratch bagel places in our town that are not too terrible, but nothing like NYC. My favorite combo is: Toasted Everything Bagel (savory) with chive cream cheese and a slice of cheddar that starts to get soft because of the warmth of the toasty bagel. Yum.

Arrgh. Cinnamon raisin bagels are NOT and NEVER WILL BE real bagels. Same with choc chip or latte mochinco half caf bagels or some other such nonsense.

I'm with Ed re: "bagels with a little fight in them." To me, an authentic bagel isn't soft. And I have no wish to shame you, Adam, but how can anybody who's savored the real thing call that spongy hunk of bread Dunkin' Donuts sells a bagel?

Forgot to add, was at Absolute last weekend, and I saw a counterperson grow visibly weary at being reminded, thrice, that a customer's girlfriend wanted - no - needed her bagel to be 'scooped out.' What kind of moronic, Atkins-onian trend is this??

The 'idea' behind not toasting bagels is to not be bothered toasting bagels. At H&H, it's to not be bothered applying a spread to bagels. This is New York - most people, even the service-industry types, would just rather not be bothered.

Oh Adam, I had a cinnamon raisin bagel with lox cream cheese and Absolute Bagels last sunday and it was delicious. I first discovered this combination at Zabars which used to sell raisin walnut bread with lox cream cheese. Hey if it was good enough for the Zabars!