There’s nothing like a soft, fluffy, fresh-out-the-oven bagel. Cut open the bagel and add a generous amount of cream cheese (or whatever filling/topping you like), it’s the perfect breakfast. You can simplify it even more and just go with butter. With how thick bagels are, the bread just soaks up all that butter — it’s a wonderful experience. Aside from the New York slice, New York is also known for its bagels and the iconic bacon-egg-and-cheese. And as a New Yorker, I agree. You can imagine my shock, scrolling through TikTok over the weekend and seeing content creator and LA native Taylor Offer complaining, “There’s nothing more stressful than ordering a bagel in New York City.” What’s so hard? You just order your bacon-egg-and-cheese and go. Offer then states he asked for a scooped gluten-free bagel, pause, what even is a scooped bagel?
What is a scooped bagel?
After seeing the follow-up TikTok from Taylor Offer, a scooped bagel is just as it sounds — you scoop the center of the bagel until the crust for both sides of the bagel.
I’m actually surprised that Offer was able to get a scooped bagel in NYC. One thing about New Yorkers, we keep things simple — and if you do want something complicated, you order ahead. In the video, he said you can put cream cheese inside the now doughless bagel for “less bagel, more cream cheese.”
“I’m from Los Angeles,” Offer said in the original TikTok, which now has 9 million views. “In Los Angeles, if you order a bagel, you walk in, you say ‘Hey can I get a scooped gluten-free bagel.’” He notes that the person behind the bar will offer the different gluten-free bagel options — BTW, I have nothing against gluten-free bagels.
Spoiler Alert: apparently someone bought Offer a ticket back to LA according to this crossover TikTok with content creator Daniel Bennett.
Los Angeles probably has great bagels, but in New York, scooping bagels isn’t a thing — it’s blasphemy. It just feels wrong. While I do see some positives here — maximizing toppings, eating less bread and carbs, etc. — the integrity of the bagel is now gone. Where’s the bread buffer? Having the bagel crust only just seems criminal. At this point, just go for sliced bread since the point of a bagel is to have that fluffy texture. Ang honestly, why mess with perfection?
It’s really simple, just because you can scoop a bagel, does it really mean you should? Offer did apologize for his order in one of his most recent TikToks, but also shades NYC in the process. Not sure how to take this, but you do you, Offer.
In the original TikTok users flooded Offer’s comments posting things like “I’m team bagel shop. Scooped bagel is a crime,” and “Yeah lemme get a car, no wheels” (my favorite comment so far).
Another person commented, “had no idea what a scooped bagel was and my bro in the deli was right to not do that bs.” In the TikTok video, Offer says that when ordering a scooped gluten-free bagel, the guy at the deli said he wasn’t going to scoop his bagel. TBH, I’m on team deli guy too.
Now, scooping bread is pretty common. Let’s take this parody TikTok video by @ayesebastien. He copies how other chefs make sandwiches, scooping out the interior to make more room for the fillings, and balancing out the bread-to-filling ratio. Let’s just not scoop a bagel though, please and thank you.