Evidently bagels and bagel sandwiches are the main thing I want to eat lately. I used up an entire brick of cream cheese making different schmears, especially after I went to the farmer's market and acquired a box packed tightly with fancy sprouts. And not just the typical alfalfa sprouts, but a mix of alfalfa, arugula, red clover, and fennel. The result is especially cool, crisp, and refreshing, with just a touch of bitterness from the arugula. The anise flavor is really surprising, but perfect; I want to try it on egg salad pretty much immediately. It's so good.

So I promptly made a cream cheese schmear with sprouts, finely chopped yellow bell pepper, and shredded spinach, only to realize I was out of cream cheese when I went to make my bagel a couple days later. But that's ok! Fortunately, bagels can take anything you want to throw at them. This time I spread a sesame bagel with a thick layer of dijon mustard, some chopped roast beef, and a bit of parmesan cheese, and threw the whole shebang into the toaster oven until hot and delightful. Then I covered it with all the sprouts in the land, added a couple clementines, and was ready for lunch.

With my bagel, I had the new thing I want to drink all the time.


Grapefruit soda! And not just grapefruit--yellow grapefruit, which seems to have fallen out of the supermarket almost entirely. This stuff tastes very much like the local grapefruits that people grow in their backyards. How have I never had it before?

If you ever get your hands on a homegrown California yellow grapefruit, be very happy. Then make a drink of some sort out of it. Fresh-squeezed juice, either alone or cut with sparkling water, is amazing; cocktails with juice or grapefruit supremes are even better. Otherwise, this soda is an excellent option.

Bagel, sprouts, clementines, soda: yes please.


Of course, when you have a seed-encrusted bagel crammed with all the sprouts in the land, the detritus is going to fly everywhere. That's ok.

What have you guys been eating for lunch lately?