I was super excited to try this recipe that I found online for meat bagels. I haven’t had a bagel in probably a year, and the thought of making little meat bagels caught my imagination.
It was simple. Mix onions and garlic with spices, tomato paste, ground beef and one egg.
They definitely looked cute in bagel shape forms.
But they didn’t look as cute when they came out. The holes disappeared and they were gray and greasy. Not appetizing bagels. I learned a lesson. Expectations are everything.
I knew that they were made out of meat but thinking of these little guys as bagels made me think the experience of eating them would be special somehow, satisfying a desire for food I no longer eat.
When I was a raw foodist I used to hate it when raw food restaurants called dishes “Mac n’ Cheese” when there was no cheese or pasta in them.
And I had fallen for the same silly trick with these meat bagels. And that’s why I was slightly disappointed when I took them out of the oven.
They were good though. And my dog, Mishka, approved. And they go great with sauerkraut, Greek yogurt, and mashed sweet potatoes.
My husband was confused by the name too. He wondered if we should cut them in half and shmear them with cream cheese?
If I called them baby meatloaves it might have been different. He would have been less disappointed.
It’s interesting how the name of the dish influences the eating experience.
