Daily (intermittent) Open-Ended Puzzle: Crowd-sourcing bagels
Posted on September 6th, 2008
When I was in Norway last week, in a shopping arcade in Kristiansand there was a bakery selling sandwich bagels. The bagels seemed to have categorized as such simply because they were tori made out of bread: ovoids eight inches in diameter and about as high as the edge of a pizza crust. Was this the least bagel-like bagel on the planet?
This is something only the wisdom of the crowds can answer. If you’ve come across a national, regional, or industrial version of a bagel that is less bagel-like, let me know. Otherwise, the laurel will remain on Kristiansand’s brow. (It’s a lovely city. I just wouldn’t go there for the bagels.)
I have not been to Norway, so my standards may be different. I am always amazed at the number of bakeries that make one or several top-notch items that also offer bagels of poor to mediocre quality. One, that makes great bread, told me they made bagels because the customers wanted them, even though their crusty bread is far superior to their bagels. I would certainly rather (and do) have their bread than their bagels.
If their customers said that they wanted torus-shaped dough of any consistency and size, then the action of those bakeries would be more explicable.