Good afternoon. Happy Holy Mother of Ice Cream It’s August 6th Already??.
As a person who’s fine with m&m’s to start my day, I’m calling this one a stroke of breakfast inspiration. I had the peaches, and we’ve got the corner bagel shop. And then I suddenly remembered our visit to a Portland farmers market a few years back, when we got to try Tastebud’s famous peach slices with honey cream cheese on a sea salt bagel. Actually, the Internet told me just now that’s what it was. All I remembered this morning was the peaches and cream cheese and bagel. This was my first try.
Immediately upon my first bite my brain screamed out what I’d forgotten: “Honey! Salt!” So I finished this one, and tried again for my second half, drizzling a bit of honey and a shaking a few cracks at the salt grinder over it. Pretty darn good. Sadly, my California loved ones, this isn’t something that can be replicated with good results for you because, as the New York Times recently decreed, good bagels just never made it out west. It’s not new knowledge: bagels in New York are superior, sure. But they’re also just so much more plentiful here, so it’s easy enough to run out and buy just the one you want for your breakfast that day. I’d never be able to do that in LA. We’re talking about a geographic inequity in fair bagel access. And that’s before considering the fact that fresh New York City bagels are also far better (crunchier on the outside, softer on the insides) than a sleeve of more expensive and less satisfying bagels from the Ralphs. Though I do miss Ralphs. Scratch that. I miss shopping carts. No that’s not quite it either. I miss throwing my groceries in the trunk of my car and zooming home. That’s it.
I also found a photo Kevin snapped from our Portland farmers market trip. If I remember correctly, Tastebud’s bagels were smaller, denser, more compact, like Montreal-style rounds. But it seemed not to matter so much this morning.
So, while the stone fruit is still plentiful, I suggest whipping this snack up for yourself, wherever you may be, as long as where you are isn’t California.