My dad’s distant cousin owned an apartment on 83rd and Broadway in New York. If you are well acquainted with New York, you know that this is basically the location of the infamous H&H bagel shop. Its hard to come back to my hometown of L.A. and call what we sell at the grocery store bins “bagels”. Plus, I remember making them in culinary school. What a schlep! Kneading, rising, poaching, baking….So yes, I can appreciate a good bagel, but I wont go to great lengths to make it. So why in the hell would I dare to review “packaged” bagels!!!! And “low carb” ones at that!!! Well, honestly, I’ve gotten a few email requests for me to review these, and I don’t think bagels can be that bad. I mean, it can be less than spectacular than the H&H ones, but if worst comes to worst, I’ll let them go stale and make croutons or bread crumbs. So these Western Bagels “Perfect 10” bagels stack up at 140 calories each, with 2 g fat, 19g carbs, 9g fiber, and get this 18g protein! I have never seen something that’s infamously “carby” have nearly the same amount of protein as it does carbs! Now, can I just give my piece about “low carb” anything. I am NOT an advocate of “low carbing” (I’m not a fan or diets or fads, and this is an infamous cocktail I snub), and I find most reduced carb foods (like reduced fat foods) to be less satisfying and so hence you don’t get your craving met or you think whatever it is your eating is super healthy. So, use “reduced carb” foods with caution! Ok now back to the review. These are nice and hearty and taste slightly sweet and nutty. It doesn’t have that yummy skin bagels tend to develop when they are freshly poached (like at H&H and other bagel bakeries). They are nicely sized, not huge like the ones at Starbucks (they are as big as my face there, literally! Mind you, I have a small face, but I’m not a child so you can imagine!). All in all, these ain’t so bad. Western makes another kind of reduced carb bagel, but they are teeny tiny and obviously not anything special besides a small, airy, bagel. So yea, given the nutrition (mostly the amazing amount of protein) I’d give these an approval. But I’ll never turn down and H&H!
