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A short video still featuring a woman with blonde hair and a text overlay that reads “Things I prefer in the US as a German” with American and German flag emojis, and further states “I don’t know why we don’t have bagels in Germany.”

Above this, the social media post caption reads “I can think of a reason!” The post is from “Vikram Bath @vikrambath.bsky.social.”

  • EnderMB@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    For those that haven’t tried them, and don’t fancy going to NYC or Montreal for the “authentic bagel experience”, try making your own and you’ll see the huge difference between what you get in supermarkets (even good ones with good bakeries like Lidl) and a proper bagel. While there’s a few steps, it’s not hard to make.

    But for the yanks, you should absolutely try German bakeries. I can understand why even good bagels aren’t a priority for them…

    • miridius@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      As an Australian living in Germany for over a decade I’m still not that impressed with German bakeries. The pretzels are awesome and the bread is fine but the sandwiches are lame. They’re like mostly bread and never more than 1 or 2 toppings. A German once told me it’s because the point of the sandwich is the bread and if there are too many toppings you won’t taste the bread 😅

      Germans love their bread so much but I think it’s just because that’s what they grew up with, I don’t think it’s objectively as good as they think it is

  • SomeGuy69@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    We have bagel here, so.

    I never saw a reason to get a bagel if I could get better tasting alternatives. However since every bakery get stupid expensive I haven’t bought anything but blank buns there anyways. I’m not going to pay 6€ for some bagel and still be hungry afterwards. Keep it

    • BruceTwarzen@lemm.ee
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      4 months ago

      I don’t hate bagels, but in the end it’s just pretty dry funny shaped bread. I assume americans go crazy for bagels because their normal bread is ass. If you have some good alternatives or you can bake yourself, i don’t really see the point.

  • Treczoks@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Of course we have bagels in Germany. But with a good Baker having one or two dozen variants of rolls anyway, nobody actually needs defect rolls with a hole in the middle.

    • ElderWendigo@sh.itjust.works
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      4 months ago

      Tell me you’ve never had a decent bagel without telling me you’ve never had a decent bagel. A bagel is not a roll.

      I never said either was better, just different.

      • Treczoks@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        Maybe bagels are better than American rolls, but that is not exactly aiming high. Have you ever tried German rolls? Because after that, you won’t touch bagels anymore, unless you go back to the US. And yes, I’ve had them all, and I don’t understand how you can stand those squishy, HFCS-loaded things.

        • idiomaddict@feddit.de
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          3 months ago

          American living in Germany, working happily at a German bakery. Brötchen can be absolutely spectacular and I love German bread, but I still miss bagels. I’ve never had a good one here, but the ones you find in the grocery store are basically similar to grocery store bagels in the US(though sometimes they’re not boiled here, which explains why they might seem like Brötchen with a hole).

          It’s honestly similar to good Laugengebäck, just without the taste of lye (Lauge), which makes sense. If that’s not appealing to you, sure, but my homemade bagels (which are good but not spectacular, compared to some bagels I’ve had) have always been a hit among the Germans I’ve made them for.

        • miridius@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          The order of superiority goes like this:

          American bagels > German rolls > German bagels > American rolls

    • PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      The joke is that bagel shops are a Jewish food, so most bagel shops are owned and operated by Jews. And Germany did that whole holocaust thing, where they systematically tried to wipe out the Jews.

      It’d be a little bit like if a country tried to wipe out Indian people, then went “Hmm why don’t we have any good Indian restaurants?”

      • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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        4 months ago

        Not a great example though, because Britain literally conquered India and we’re full of great Indian restaurants.

  • mugthol@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    4 months ago

    I honestly don’t get to bagel hype so I would be glad if somebody could explain it to me. Why wouldn’t you just have a sandwich instead?

    Edit: Thank you for your detailed explanations! I don’t live in the US and I have dietary restrictions, so I’m sure that I’ve just never had a good bagel. However you’ve convinced me that they are out there!

    • ramirezmike@programming.dev
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      4 months ago

      I’ll add to the others that A LOT of places don’t make bagels well. If it feels like you’re just eating bread then it’s not a good bagel. It should be chewy but also somewhat hard on the outside. A good bagel also doesn’t need to be toasted because it’s fresh.