"All I want right now is a NY bagel."

Shanghai has a lot of amazing things. You can eat a meal for less than 1 US dollar, you can order clothes online, have them delivered to your door the next day, where if you try them on and they don't fit, you don't have to pay, no delivery fees, nothing. Every time you get on the subway you enter the largest subway system in the world, and yet, there are some things that Shanghai simply seems to be missing and eventually you start to remember things you've forgotten since you've come to the city.

Our thing was bagels. My least favorite part of eating in Shanghai is breakfast. I never thought about breakfast too much before I came here but I realized it was difficult for me to live without a bagel, some yoghurt, cereal, or just SOMETHING like that in the mornings. Cereal here is expensive, and the yoghurt has weird consistencies, so I eat a lot of eggs. So after we talked about eating bagels for 3 days straight, our stomachs growling loudly at the thought I finally decided to look it up online, because surely Shanghai must have some hidden gem buried. And sure enough, Shanghai never disappoints, we found our bagel shop in the form of Egghead Bagels.

After work on Thursday my classmate and co-worker Caroline casually asked me what time the bagel store was open until. I got her hint immediately. Our study break was about to start the following day, 10 days of uninterrupted  freedom from school and plenty of opportunity for trying new things and spending more money than usual. Without any second thoughts we jumped into a cab and made our way to Egghead Bagels in the Jing'an area.

I'm going to admit we were a little giddy to see a sign proclaiming bagels and we were SO EXCITED to try some bagels. We got in, looked at the menu, and each decided to get a bagel sandwich "bagelwich" and also take a bagel to go which we planned to attempt to toast the next morning for breakfast. Egghead's menu is pretty extensive. They don't have too many kinds of bagels but they have a lot of different sandwich and breakfast options. I got a turkey, avocado, and swiss bagelwich, and Caroline ordered a cheese-steak bagelwich. They made the sandwiches quickly we left the store giggling with warm toasted sandwiches in brown paper bags clutched in our hands.Total money spent on one sandwich and one bagel to go 75 kuai aka $12.

 

Caroline had to go home so she could start packing for her trip to Thailand the next day so I headed up to my room to enjoy my bagel alone. It wasn't the most amazing sandwich I've ever eaten but when you've lacked the thick chewy consistency of a bagel for a while it will do with any sandwich combination. The bagel wasn't perfect but it was good enough to satisfy the craving and actually eating a classic sandwich combination was a welcome change too. I can't wait to try a bagel by itself this morning to see if the magic from last night has worn off.