Downing a Whole Bagel Before You Finish Your Coffee
No syrup+coffee recipe this time. I wrote this while in Chicago, relishing some New York Bagels™ with a friend who’s been tragically deprived for too long.
No syrup+coffee recipe this time. I wrote this while in Chicago, relishing some New York Bagels™ with a friend who’s been tragically deprived for too long.
So, for today’s ‘recipe’:
downing a whole bagel before you finish your coffee
While this is definitely a joke, there’s something to be said about transitory dining in the city, letting the pigeons snap up the flighty crumbs as you steam-walk to…well, your next coffee, probably.
How to make:
Order a bagel first
Order a coffee second
Enjoy the first sip of the coffee, then place it down. Prepare your bagel for one hand eating, and finish checking your phone—let this moment be the five minutes of solitude you get today.
I’m leading to a quote from one of my favorite books, hopefully giving you some insight into this recipe’s real importance [not as a joke]:
Sink into
your comfortable armchair ; put your feet on a chair.
[he means “walk aggressively fast”]
Light a cigarette [he means a bagel]…Send a puff of smoke slowly up to the ceiling.
Sniff up the perfume of your coffee.
Close your eyes.
Dream of the second puff [bite], of the second sip. You are fortunate.
From Edouard de Pomiane, in Cooking in ten minutes [page 30].
My point is, a coffee always comes with a phone in the other hand. A pastry always snuck in with the coffee; “just a bite”, “saved for later”—never a priority.
A bagel and a coffee is your entire self given to five minutes, bite by bite.