Testing the Limits of Good Taste

Cranberry bagels? Chocolate chip? Jalapeno? The mind reels.

Bad food ideas come about when the creator is unchecked by his or her Inner Yenta.

The Inner Yenta is to Jewish-American culture what Jiminy Cricket is to “Pinocchio” culture. It is the grating voice of conscience and good taste, the one that doesn’t hesitate for a moment to say, “You plan to wear those shoes with that dress?”

The Inner Yenta believes a blueberry bagel is a shanda (a disgrace) and as for a cranberry bagel, don’t ask. The foundation for this belief is the Kugel Principle. Everyone knows what makes a good noodle pudding, and cranberries have nothing to do with it. It’s not that cranberries aren’t kosher. It’s just that a kugel, like a bagel, is a starch thing, and starch things shouldn’t be too sweet, and that means you can forget the raisins, too. Start adding ingredients to a bagel that you wouldn’t put in a kugel, and what you get is a shanda on a plate, with cream cheese on the side. And you plan to eat that?