Bagels

The Second of September Two Thousand and Eleven. Friday.

Oh, man it's nearly 3 in the morning. I can't even come up with a clever title for this entry. I was just eating a couple of bagels, plain with just butter, and I couldn't think of anything else.

Yes, eating bagels at 0245. That's the kind of lifestyle I lead.

I do like a bagel, though. Butter on its own works quite well but there's nothing wrong with the popular 'cream cheese' (usually in a Philadelphia stylee) variety. A touch of Marmite is welcome to, but cross contamination as the yeast extract mixes in with the spread calls for the use of two knives.

Or spoons. A friend of mine applies the cheese with a spoon. This allows you to scoop up a a goodly portion and then use the superior surface area of the back of the spoon to spread the cheese more evenly. While I admire the elegance of this both in concept and execution I find myself unable to break out of the knife paradigm.

It was also a very cheap breakfast on my first visit to New York City back in 2002. To save money, Shu Shu, my erstwhile spouse, and I kept pretty much to UK time and went to bed and got up early. This meant there was next to nowhere open to get breakfast with the exception of the odd coffee stand. Even then we had to queue for a coffee and an untoasted bagel. On one occasion the old bloke with a walking stick in the queue ahead of us was buzzed by a pigeon during its take-off. 'Whoa!' exclaimed the old timer. 'Kinda low there, buddy!' he said to the bird. The bird did not reply.

In Scarborough let's not forget the bagels on offer at Mojo's Music Cafe. That link is to an older menu but the Veggie Breakfast Bagel and the famous Bob Marley Bagel are still very much available.

I'm off to London tomorrow. On a previous visit I had visitied a baker in Finsbury Park that did olive bagels - ok, but I wouldn't necessarily pick one out again. On this journey I am once again staying in the glamorous locale of the cheapest Travelodge I could find for the weekend. This time round it's at Gants Hill in Ilford. A quick google of what was around there revealed that the Shalom Bakery just up the road has a very good reputation for its bagels (and cheesecake - double plus good). But during this little shufti around all the sites tonight apparently the place to go is the Beigel Bake on Brick Lane.

Open 24 hours. Blimey!

I however, am not. Closing for the weekend.

More soonliest.