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For some reason, the people I grew up around considered bagels to be the inferior store-bought ones, heavily toasted and slathered in cream cheese.
There was no other way to eat a bagel.
And so I thought I didn't like bagels. This is because I don't really like cream cheese unless it's an ingredient in desserts.
So when I moved to Toronto and finally had a real bagel or two, I realized that I do indeed really like them. There's nothing wrong with a bagel with *some* cream cheese and lox. Actually, it's quite delicious. However, if you order a bagel at Tim Hortons, they're going to want to destroy it.
The great thing about Toronto (and Montreal, mind you) is that the city is well covered by the services of rather decent kosher bakeries and butchers. Top quality stuff.
I enjoy bagels on their own, untoasted. More or less like eating a donut. If it's a good bagel, it's all you need. However, I do enjoy making sandwiches out of bagels as well.
I'll eat a toasted bagel with some butter and enjoy that as well. The cream cheese I'll only enjoy if it's with the lox or in a sandwich.
I've never had a Montreal bagel. I really should the next time I'm there.
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Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön
Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot
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