Mom's Talk: What is Your Kid's Favorite Bagel?

From what I can tell, bagel lovers in this section of the Somerset Hills seem to be obsessed with "everything" bagels.

No matter what side of The Hills I head to in search of fresh, (ideally warm!) everything bagels on a weekend morning from a local bagel shop, there always seems to be a line ahead of me, waiting to snap up those desired bagels. If they haven't already done so.

Now I think everything bagels — covered in salt, seeds and lots of flavoring — are pretty good, but with all that salt, I can take them or leave them.

My kids are another matter. They want everything bagels. Whole wheat or not, it doesn't matter. But I better come home with at least two.

Run on everything bagels

They apparently are not alone.

Last Saturday, I was second in line at a local bagel shop, staring forlornly at the empty bin labelled "everything," when a dozen or so everything bagels appeared fresh from the back!

Bingo! Eureka! I was finally in luck.

Or not. There was one young guy in front of me and he ordered 10 bagels, all everything.

Ok...so I at least would come away with one or two...

But no, apparently the big guys standing behind me had already been waiting for their breakfast sandwiches to be made on everything bagels.

I've suggested that the local bagel shops make MORE everything bagels, but the employees who work there didn't seem to want to hear such suggestions. "We make plenty of everything bagels," one said, perhaps a teeny bit snappishly.

Meanwhile, it seems to me that poppy and sesame bagels aren't as popular as they once were. And I doubt that as many people are in search of onion bagels, which my late father-in-law used to consume topped with fresh onion and lox. (Hold those air kisses!)

On Sunday, we finally found a whole bin full of everything bagels at the O'Bagel shop in Long Hill Township. Good thing, too. The girl in front of us ordered four bagels, all everything.

Even though we had just finished an ample breakfast at the nearby Stirling Diner, my younger son crammed in an everything bagel as soon as we walked out the door. "I only ate it now because it's warm," he explained.

So, do your kids share what seems to be the local taste for everything bagels?

Do they have a distinct preference for a bagel type? Or don't they really care as much?

Everyone seems to eat bagels these days, no matter where they live. For many of us, giving a stale bagel to a teething baby was standard procedure.

Is your son or daughter's favorite bagel an easy one to find?

Or are they determined to find a freshly baked blueberry or jalapeno pepper bagel every weekend?

Let us know in the comments section below.

Either way, I've figured out that if I ever get tired of this Patch gig, I'm going to open a local bagel shop — exclusively producing everything bagels.