Oy gevalt! What a clever title! Unfortunately, I can’t take credit for it. The title of this post is the menu listing for the impressively pungent bagel pictured above. Just north of Philadelphia’s Rittenhouse Square is a little deli called Rachael’s Nosheri. And while their coffee is somewhat weak, their bagels strong-arm their way into your heart and stomach.

As if an everything bagel wasn’t flavorful enough, you get lox, the wonderfully cured fillet of salmon on a bed of cream cheese. Then, to add bite, they sneak in a red onion, which– in addition to the fish– makes for the freshest of breath. To garnish and add even more flavor, the chefs at Rachael’s add an olive on a toothpick to each half of the bagel. The first bite is tantamount to a blast of cold water in your face, a blast of cold, salmony, oniony water. Continuing through the bagel, your taste buds begin to acclimate themselves to the onslaught of zest.

But perhaps the best part of my trip to Rachael’s Nosheri was that I got to enjoy my bagel with a friend of mine, a real live Jew named Rachel. While she is in fact from New York (not Philadelphia) and spells her name differently, Rachel gave her whole-hearted endorsement of Rachael’s bagels. And that stamp of approval was good enough to convince me to keep eating, even after the first bite nearly knocked the wind out of me.