philly

I cannot begin to state how happy a proper bagel makes me. I grew up in NY and living in Philly for the last 6 years, I've grown to appreciate a few things about NY I always took for granted. When I go back to NY, I almost always get at least one bagel in during my trip. When I went back up for Turkey Day, I was in NYC on Black Friday intent on going to The Met for a photo exhibit. I stopped into Tal Bagels at 86/Lexington for a plain bagel, cream cheese, lox and some fresh squeezed OJ. And there it is above.

It set me back a good amount of dough, but it was worth it. That crisp crunch of the boiled and baked crust. The chewy, doughy, just barely sour inside. How the cream cheese melds with the first millimeter or so of dough. I asked for it lightly toasted, but when the guy behind the counter split it open, a puff of vapor emerged from the bagel "it's still warm" he said as he turned to me. I smiled and nodded in satisfaction – I had gotten the first of the new batch from the oven.

He wrapped up the bagel after slathering on 1/4lbs or so of lox and squeezed out some fresh OJ into a bottle. I sat down by the steamy window (fresh bagels were being pumped out from the back regularly as it was the second wave of the morning rush) and got to work on my feast. The bagels were up to snuff so I got me a dozen for the road. Normally, you get a bakers dozen, but at Tal, you get an extra 3, count em 3, bagels for 15. My bag, and my clothes inside the bag, smelled deliciously of bagels for the rest of the day and ride back to Philly.

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