OT: Bagels...
 

Why does anyone like bagels? They're tough, chewy and kinda tasteless.

And I say that 'kinda tasteless' part as someone who likes porridge with only suger added.

It's like someone took plain donuts and stuffed rocks in them.

Re: OT: Bagels...
 

Dunno ... I kinda like starchy treats in preference to sugary. Bagels, good crusty bread, flaky croisants if there's butter on them -- maybe that's what's missing for you?

Re: OT: Bagels...
 

To add flavour to something I sprinkle flaked chilli pepper.

Nothing else is suitable. I only put salt on my fish and chips on Fridays because there's way too much salt in food as it is and besides I have a medical condition related to salt that destroyed the hearing in one ear.

Likewise I can't eat vinegar because of an allergic reaction that makes the area of contact peel.

I'll tell you what is tasteless. Lettuce. I am not a rabbit and I despise salad with oil on it. Really the other night I only had a steak because I refused to eat the salad. There's vegetables I can eat even though I prefer not to, but I absolutely refuse to eat salad. It makes me physically sick trying to eat it, like apricots or yoghurt.

Re: OT: Bagels...
 

I like breads myself and I did put butter and jam on it. Maybe it's just this batch that was horrible (We got it for the best legal price), but my parents didn't seem to notice a problem, so it could just be me.

Hot foods are almost out of the question for me. Something that other people call 'mild', I find hot. Actual hot foods? The only reason I can come up with for people to eat that painfull stuff is that hot foods dulls the taste buds - And I'm pretty sure my taste buds are more sensitive than average.

Oh, that's bad. Salt and vinegar are great on fries and fried meat sandwiches, respectively.

And, uh, the side effects are kinda bad, too.

Yeah, I can barely force myself to eat lettuce and that only because it's good for me.

I used to dislike yoghurt (I have largely retained my youthfull somewhat spotty dislike of 'mush'), but recently I've found I like the fruit ones. It helps that I don't mind bland, so long as there is a minimum of taste and some texture.

The odd thing is, I do taste lettuce; it just tastes bad. Although I could be tasting the water on my taste buds.

I love grease. Chicken strips, fries, fried fish, three-patty hamburgers, bacon, sausage...Although I do admit my form kinda shows that.

Re: OT: Bagels...
 

Preposterous. Bagels? Tasteless?
The only reason I don't have bagels daily is due to a certain counter productiveness in losing weight.
However, it should be noted that they taste better with a sort of topping -- Such as cream cheese and lox.

Re: OT: Bagels...
 

I like either plain bagels with cream cheese on them or cinnamon raisin with peanut butter on it. Toasted of course.

Re: OT: Bagels...
 

Hmmm...an onion bagel, with scallion cream cheese, and lox, only nova lox will do. Now thats breakfast. No one wants to kiss me afterward 'tho -- but that's OK, ... you guys can fill in your own punchline http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Re: OT: Bagels...
 

Why? Opium.

(In the poppy seeds.)

Re: OT: Bagels...
 

I think bagels taste so bad in part due to their density. Any bread that you could drop on the floor and have it punch through to the basement shouldn't be eaten http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif
Spicy foods are so good, the spicier the better. Ever try a habenero pepper? Those burn *all* the way through, you can pin-point exactly where they are in your digestive tract at all times http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif Plus, they're supposedly good at cleaning out any internal parasite you may happen to have (though that might be a myth), so you can't lose!

On the other hand, I know a guy who, when he even smells something spicy breaks out in an uncontrollable sweat. If he tries to eat it he literally can't, it's too painful for him. I think it's mostly just a matter of personal tolerance.

I think the poppy seeds they use nowadays can't contain opium...also, opium is made (I think) from the pre-flowering buds of the plant, before the seeds are even mature.

Re: OT: Bagels...
 

I share Narf's dislike for hot food. Food should not cause pain, simple as that. Although I do rather like a couple jalapenos in my subs, but that's just because I like their actual taste, not the spiciness. Very mild jalapenos are quite yum.

Although I can't say I dislike lettuce, seeing as all I've eaten for the past couple months is salads, aside from the occasional pizza on the weekend, or a burger when I go drinking on a Friday after class.

But there's only some varieties of lettuce that I like. The green ones tend to be very nice. Iceberg has virtually no flavour, but it's nice & crispy. The purple stuff tends to be nasty & bitter, so I avoid that.

My patented Ultimate Salad of Yumminess involves iceberg lettuce, black olives, feta cheese, cucumber, and strawberries with a random dressing to keep things interesting. Not only is it yummy, but I've lost 20 pounds in the last 12 weeks, and I've staved off my formerly-inevitable Sept/Oct cold/flu. It's win-win, baby!

Re: OT: Bagels...
 

Olives? Ugh! Can't stand em (although I luuuuurve olive oil, wierdly).

I fond bagels to be a little doughy, but tolerable with the right toppings. Soft cheese and the like would be a good start. SImilarly crumpets: That's a pretty hefty slab of bread to be chewed through, although I will partake if one is offered.

Love hot foods, although in the last few years I have developped a wierd reation to them: Anything moderately spicy (a Madras, say, or even a good pathia) will bring out a bright red "zorro mask" on my face. It's wierd to watch, but it does nothing to mar my enjoyment of the food. My wife and I both like it hot since visiting Sri Lanka (although I wouldn't ever go to a phaal, and I'm wary of vindaloos) and the curries and chillis we cook have to be carefully watered down if anyone else is going to be eating them. It helps that my father in law grows his own super-strength chillis in his greenhouse=-)

Did a really nice dahl the other night:
Finely chop an oni*n and a chilli, crush lots of garlic. Fry it all gently in curry powder, cinnamon & chilli powder. Curry leaves too if you have them , and saffron if it costs less than diamond dust where you are.
Now put some red lentils in water. When the onion is soft, drain the lentils and chuck them in the pan with some coconut milk (tinned is fine if you don't happen to live in the tropics.) The creamier the better, so avoid the "low fat" stuff. It's all good fats anyway. Probably. Add mustard powder, black pepper and, if you like, more curry powder & chilli powder. A little bit of tomato puree for colour & thickness won't hurt, as long as you don't add so much that you start to taste it.

Let is all simmer, adding more coconut milk whenever it starts to look a little dry. When the lentils are soft enough that you could eat them without teeth, it's ready!

Re: OT: Bagels...
 

I think the idea is that the flavor of the bagel is supposed to be less savory than the toppings. When I have bagels, it's usually onion bagels with some variety of flavored cream cheese. If I'm feeling ambitious, though, I like pizza bagels: spaghetti sauce, ricotta cheese, some oregano.

Re: OT: Bagels...
 

It's not that weird if your experience with olives is limited to the the canned black and green jar types. The flavor of fresh, fully ripened olives is must closer to the oil that you enjoy so much, but unless you live in the Mediterranean or some other area where they can be grown you've likely never had that.

Re: OT: Bagels...
 

Where's the meat man! And don't tell me pizza or a burger...that doesn't count as real meat. Go out and fry yourself up a nice, thich, juicy, medium-rare steak! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/cool.gif

(Cold/flu not coming = coincidence methinks http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif ) You need some meat, where are you getting trace minerals from; Iron, magnesium, etc. As far as I know, salad contains none of those http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/confused.gif


If you really want a way to lose weight, try my caffeine diet. At lunch and supper, eat enough to keep you almost full, but not quite. As soon as you start getting hungrey, drink coffee. Lots of coffee. Coffee fills you up with 0 calories (if you drink it as I do, with no cream / sugar). If you can get to bed without feeling too starved, you'll wake up in the morning quite hungrey, but that's ok since breakfast is right there waiting http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif Only downside is you have to pee about as often as a pregnant woman every night from all that coffee http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/shock.gif

Re: OT: Bagels...
 

And then you'll be like that:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3o9HbP6-P1k

Re: OT: Bagels...
 

Bagels are bread in the shape of a donut. So, absent any toppings they taste like plain bread. Yeah, that is kinda boring. That's why there are so many interesting toppings. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Not all bagels are 'plain' though. Try some of the fancy flavors offered by this company:

http://www.oldworldbakery.com/
Apple Cinnamon
Banana
Blueberry
Caraway Rye
Cherry
Chocolate Chip
Combo
Egg
Everything
Garlic
Jalepeno
Multi-Grain
Onion
Pesto
Plain
Pineapple
Poppy
Potato
Pumpernickel
Raisin
Raisin Cinnamon
Sesame
Sourdough
Strawberry
Sun-Dried Tomato
Whole Wheat

Re: OT: Bagels...
 

That still leaves the big problem, that being eating them being like chewing rocks.

Subway has a cheese steak option; good, but could use some work.

Re: OT: Bagels...
 

Due to one of those just plain strange things in life, the prepackaged lettuce at the grocery store tends to be fresher than the "fresh" heads of lettuce that they sell, so I tend to buy those instead. The bags I usually buy tend to be 60% iceberg & 40% spinach. I'm not a huge spinach fan, but a good strong garlicy dressing drowns the taste out quite nicely. Co-incidentally, spinach is a very good source of both magnesium and iron.

As for the lack of colds & flus, I attribute that more to the half litre of fresh-pressed fruit juice I have every morning. Well, 1/4 litre in the morning and the rest for lunch. That, coupled with my borderline-unhealthy obsession with pumpkin seeds (dunno what it is, I just love em!) means that I'm probably getting a bit more Vitamin C and Zinc than I need, and of course Vitamin C & Zinc are great for your immune system.
You'll have no arguments from me on that point. You might here arguments from the pretty young thing I'm fortunate enough to spend a bed with, since meat, especially beef, doesn't make my digestive tract happy, and the inevitable result of this is that within seconds of me waking up the night after a steak, my very small bedroom suddenly becomes an environment quite hostile to all forms of life. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/eek.gif
Funny thing... At one point, I weighed a little under 190lbs. Given that I'm 6 foot 4-and-a-bit, that ain't healthy. But at the time I was drinking at least a litre of Coke a day. I also worked with a fella half my size who drank 4 litres a day, and if he turned sideways, you wouldn't see him.

My current method might not be the best, but it's delivering everything those crazy fad diets promise: I get to eat food that I like, in big quantities, do minimal exercise (I only get in about a half hour walk a day), and still lose weight.

Victory would appear to be mine.

Re: OT: Bagels...
 

190 is actually a normal weight for someone your height. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif On the high side of normal, admittedly.

Re: OT: Bagels...
 

Um... No? One of my classmates is in very good shape (he'll tell you "pretty good" because he doesn't *quite* have his six-pack done), weighs 180lbs, and is a full foot shorter than me.

When I was going to the gym regularly and had gotten rid of my tubbiness and built up a respectable amount of muscle, I weighed in at around 220-225.

When I weighed 190 I could see my ribs, and seeing your ribs != healthy.

Re: OT: Bagels...
 

I have to point out I am slowly losing weight and I don't drink anything with caffeine in it. No Coffee or cola. All I drink is water and fruit juice (Apple, prune). I quit chips and other snack food and have been slowly losing weight since.

Re: OT: Bagels...
 

It would indeed!

As for weight-to-height ratio, it all depends on your body type. My sister, for example, is 5'11" tall, and weighs in at a paltry 115 pounds. However, she simply can't gain weight, she eats whatever she wants, and stays rail-thin. Perhaps that's the point at which her body 'likes' to be?

On the other side of the coin, one of my uncles is 6'6" tall, and probably around 220 pounds, and in decent shape. But he's a big-boned guy, has an active lifestyle, so he's in good shape for his body-type and lifestyle.

Re: OT: Bagels...
 

Pistachios are addictive. I start eating them and the next thing I know, I'm half-full.

Re: OT: Bagels...
 

If I started eating them, next I know i'd be half dead. Unless I use my epinephrine.

Bagels........
 

It is hard to find good bagels. I agree with you that, in most places, most bagels are lousy. (Actually, where I live, ALL baked goods are mostly lousy.)

But a GOOD bagel -- like you get routinely in NY or Philly -- is awesome. The outside is tough, almost but not quite crunchy. The inside is soft and doughy, but not airy. The aroma is amazing.

Properly-made bagels are most definitely NOT "bread shaped like a torus." The recipe is different, and you boil them for a while before baking them.

Re: Bagels........
 

Well GREAT! Now my stomach is rumbling. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Bagels........
 

Bah. Be happy it is. I'm on day three of an allergy strike and all I've eaten in three days is some stew (Day one), some buns (Day two) and two cans of pineapple (Days two and today).