What's a "gentile bagel?"

The New York Times City Room column reported today about the Yom Kippur fast and what people did, where they shopped for break fast, etc. And one quote stood out for me:

"Mr. Jablonsky said H&H Bagels had only 'gentile bagels' by the time he made it through a long line to the counter"

So what's a gentile bagel? I mean, I've always referred to bagels that don't quite have the toothy hardness on the outside that a real bagel ought to as goyishe bagels — donut shaped and soft bread for people who can't deal with the authentic bite of a bagel. And I think of products like blueberry bagels as not authentic. Though once you get to cinnamon raisin, it's a slippery slope. And I have to say, I haven't like H&H bagels for years now, feeling that they have softened up to appeal to a generation not used to the tough chew a bagel requires.

So I am curious. What's an authentic bagel to you? What varieties are beyond the pale (which in fact any bagel in the US would be given the original meaning of that phrase)?

Comments

[Stan Magnan]

An authentic bagel, from a goyish (atheist of Southern Baptist/New England Catholic extraction) perspective, is plain or sesame, from H&H, for 15¢, at 3:00 a.m., with o.j., alas, in the Seventies.

[Mark H]

Stan: the '70s was about the last time H&H bagels were any good. So you're right there. Of course, buying a bagel on the corner of 80th street and Broadway at 3AM in the '70s was also taking your life into your hands. But the bagels were good.

[Piet]

Noah's in SF used to have actual bagels -- not only hard on the outside and chewy, and not flavored with sweet stuff, but kosher pareve. You could get a bagel with lox and shmear and know you had something in your mouth for $1.50. But that was before Noah sold the business and opened a kosher vegetarian restaurant in a trendy neighborhood of North Oakland. Now, the only way to get a chewy bagel from Noah's or anyone else, at least in the SF Bay area, is to leave it out unwrapped for three days. Alas.

[Mark H]

Hi Piet! A couple of years back I went with a friend of mine to Montreal, where there is a big rivalry between two bagel bakeries. I had a strong preference for one — but I found myself wondering about how the difference in the water in Montreal affected the taste, which was clearly different from what I knew in NYC.