When you only want half a bagel and they are pre-sliced do you cut it in half or do you take a take a top or a bottom?
If you take a top or bottom, a full circle, you have to cut it to make a cream cheese sandwich and symmetry it not guaranteed.
If you cut it in half you can either take the hinge part or the two free pieces and top to bottom symmetry it assured.
On the downside, you have to cut it and return the unwanted piece bag into the bag. Someone else will have to eat the piece you touched and left behind. Feh!
What is proper bagel etiquette?
Definitely a first world problem!
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Top. They are usually lighter and don’t have bagel bottom indentations from the surface it was baked on.
But if it’s a good quality bagel – fresh from bagel shop (not commercial) then there’s no appreciable difference.
Etiquette is different from convenience.
Etiquette would say you take the whole bagel, add schmear, then slice into two half
circles and share it.
Practicality says, choose the top or bottom, schmear using a butter knife, and then eat open-faced.
I take the top half, because it’s the easiest to access in the bag.
After I’ve had it and the next time I want a half, I’ll eat the remaining one.
If I wanted to make a sandwich with it, I’d go for the bottom as it’s not as puffy as the top.
I can’t handle a puffy sandwich
I almost always eat my bagels in half – more topping and less to bite through. So I divide them lengthwise and eat either the top or the bottom or both. My favorite way to eat a bagel is an onion bagel half toasted and buttered.
In any case, if you’re getting bagels that are pre-sliced, they’re not very good bagels, are they?
Top! They’re usually the thinner half and just have a better texture than the bottom half which tends to be more dense.
To clarify.
@janbb The bagels are Brueggers and are quite good. I buy 2 dozen at a time. I cut them all and put 18–20 in the freezer in 4 separate freezer bags. Then I take out a bag when the mood hits – about one bag per week. They keep quite nicely.
@LuckyGuy Ok. You pass the bagel test and can collect $200 then! I would have been surprised if you didn’t know good bagels.
I ended up taking a top and cutting it to make a sandwich – cream cheese with a sprinkle of poppy seeds.
Brueggers makes good bagels. There used to be one near my job’s headquarters and I’d love when I was visiting in that city and I’d stop there for a bagel and coffee to go. There’s another city in CT that I am in very infrequently and there’s a Brueggers there, too.
I’d have a semi-circle at a time. To me, that way there’s less of the open dough part left exposed. That’s the part that will get stale. If you eat a whole circle at a time, there’s more left exposed to get stale.
Lately I have been eating quarter bagels, half of a top or bottom
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