On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
ema
You all know about NYC and its bagels. But did you know that, occasionally, you can spot a NYC bagel in the wild. For example:
Here is a NYC bagel hanging out at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Fifth Ave.,
relaxing on the Great Lawn in Central Park,
admiring Belvedere Castle,
in the Shakespeare Garden,
sunning by the Lake in Central Park,
right next to an osprey (as per the assembled professional photographers waiting to capture it diving for a fish. Will await confirmation form Albatrossity.),
back on Fifth Ave., checking out Atlas,
thinking about lacing up for a spin on the Rockefeller Plaza ice,
admiring the Christmas decorations on 6th Ave.,
and, last but not least, doing the touristy thing in front of Radio City Music Hall.
(iPhone 13 Pro)
Anyway
That bagel gets around! Nice set.
Donatellonerd
spotted in the wild, ema, or placed there strategically for photo purposes ?? :-)
can’t imagine all these abandoned half sandwiches
and can’t find the one with the bird.
but thanks very much for brightening my day.
OzarkHillbilly
HA!
And yes, that is an osprey.
Rob
Love the photos! And that is indeed an Osprey.
mrmoshpotato
@Anyway:
And apparently that bagel gets stalked too.
Wag
A nice bit of levitt. Thanks!
HeartlandLiberal
In Bloomington, Indiana, a guy opened a bagel shop that offers New York City bagels, shipped in and finished in the store.
In other news, that is some mighty fine depth of field photography. Kudos.
Yutsano
*squints*
I don’t see any capperi or red onions. I’m going to need to see the bagel’s long form birth certificate.
This series is putting the itch to return to the city soon in high gear! Maybe I can make plans after filling season and Chicago in June.
prostratedragon
Ah me, yes!
Ohio Mom
@Yutsano: As a native New Yorker, I never saw capers or red onions (or tomatoes for that matter) on a bagel and lox until I left the city.
Maybe very fancy restaurants prepared them that way? But not everyday New Yorkers back when I was growing up there (1950s-1970s).
Yutsano
@Ohio Mom: Huh. I had an ex who insisted that was the only way to have a proper bagel but he was also from Manhattan.
I did some searching and found this interesting goober which is definitely not kosher but looks closer to our bedighted friend touring the city. So I’m going with WHO KNOWS? now.
Miss Bianca
Thanks for the smiles, ema and ema’s bagel!
eclare
This was awesome!
ema
@Anyway:
Thank you!
ema
@Donatellonerd:
Ha, ha, I’ll never tell! And, thank you.
ema
@Rob:
Thank you!
ema
@mrmoshpotato:
I almost lost it on the steps of St. Patrick’s to a bunch of cheeky NYC pigeons.
ema
@OzarkHillbilly:
Thank you!
ema
@Wag:
I started a YT channel on walking in NYC, figured most viewers would be from outside the city and would enjoy one quintessential NYC thing in touristy locations.
ema
@HeartlandLiberal:
Interesting, I saw a few NYC places offering to ship fresh bagels all over the country.
As to the depth of field, thank you and definitely, that is what I was going for (as in, I was trying to focus on the bagel and have no idea what I did to make it come out that way).
munira
A fun post and great photos.
ema
@Yutsano:
Like Ohio Mom, I’ve never had any extras on a bagel and lox but I’m sure you can order one with all the extras.
And, yes, definitely come to the city when you have some time, it’s a lovely place to visit.
ema
@Ohio Mom:
It hasn’t changed, just the bagel, cream cheese, and the lox.
ema
@Miss Bianca:
Thank you!
ema
@eclare:
Thank you!
ema
@munira:
Thank you!
Ohio Mom
@Yutsano: I will bet your friend is much younger than I am. I will have to google when those extras became standard on bagel and lox.
One of my earliest memories is going to the bagel bakery (somewhere in the Bronx) with my dad on Sunday mornings. It was in a very old building in a narrow, long storefront, large glass window in front, with the original uneven, unfinished wood floors and a pressed-tin ceiling covered in many layers of off-white enamel paint.
At the front, a small area in front of a plain wooden counter; behind the counter, a group of men dressed in white, busily shaping, boiling and baking bagels, and sorting the finished ones into wire baskets. They seemed almost too busy to serve customers. It was always steamy in there.
Once a baker invited me behind the counter to marvel at the Ferris wheel contraption inside the oven and give me a sample of unbaked dough. I made a face and they laughed. Even as a preschooler, I knew I’d been set up.
As for that Dagwood sandwich on a bagel, well that is what it is. That is the history of all foods specific to a culture, they are adopted and transformed by others. Tomatoes were cultivated by the Aztecs, just try to imagine what they would have made of lasagna.
Ohio Mom
Also, that Dagwood sandwich bagel would not have been possible in my youth. Bagels were smaller and chewier then. By the time you had bitten through the bagel, the inside layers would have been squeezed out.
I don’t know when bagels started evolving into their present larger, puffier and softer form (maybe that was a result of Lender’s frozen bagels?).
But the people who can remember the old fashioned bagel are dying off and soon the classic bagel may be forgotten. In the future, anyone presented with a “real” bagel will think it wrong.
MelissaM
@Ohio Mom: Are you the daughter of Calvin Trillin?? ;-) He has a chapter in one of his Tummy Trilogy books about going to a bagle shop (I’m not recalling the name) for fresh bagels on Sunday morning, then to another shop for fresh cream cheese.
BigJimSlade
Very nice idea! A friend of my sister’s did this sort of thing traveling with a little Gumby.
ema
@ BigJimSlade:
Thank you!
Ohio Mom
@MelissaM: I wish!