Let’s talk about the humble cream cheese and smoked salmon bagel. It’s the ultimate bagel topping in my opinion.  The best smoked salmon bagel I’ve eaten was in New York. I wish I could pop over there for one now.

Never hurts to give the bagel a good toasting. I love when a bagel is crunchy on the outside and doughy and soft on the inside. Also, a slightly stale bagel is a very sad thing. At the moment I am toasting my bagels in a frypan, because my toaster shorts out the power in the entire house.

A good thick lathering of cream cheese is a must, it’s nice to mix it with scallions or a herb of choice. I haven’t done it this time, because I am a combination of lazy  and hungry and strangely apathetic about the herbs. Sue me.

Smoked salmon sitting happily on top is the ultimate end game. Getting great quality smoked salmon is everything. I go to my local fishmonger ‘Fin and Flounder’ and they have the most deliciously lush smoked salmon. It is really dark, and quite dense, a little bit chewy. I can buy the fancy whole pieces wrapped in plastic, or I can buy the offcuts which are a fraction of the price and just as delicious. Then all you need is a garnish, a bit of dill. A nice big sprig of it that you can promptly discard to the side of your plate.

So there you have it, I just wrote a short blog about a smoked salmon bagel. Sometimes I wonder what I am doing with my life. Regardless; with bagels as with life, the most important thing of all, is to see the bagel and not the hole.