All for the love of a girl…

…my girl, that is.

We were browsing around at the hypermart in town (2.325528,111.853515) the other day and I saw these bagels…

…from the USA and knowing how she used to enjoy the ones here when she was in Wellington, New Zealand, I wasted no time at all in grabbing a pack to try even though it did not come cheap, RM14 something, if I remember correctly, for a pack of 4 so that would work out to over RM3.00 each, almost 4.

Then I had to look around for something to eat those with and I spotted these…

No, even though they were made in Malaysia, they did not come cheap either – over RM17 for 8 mini-patties, a little over RM2.00 each. The beef ones were cheaper, around RM12.00 a box…or was that the price of the bagels and the beef patties were over RM14.00, I can’t remember exactly now. You know what it is like with old folks – the memory is not all that good anymore. Sobssss!!!!!

I do not mind them being expensive as long as they are very nice, value for money, like those local-made bangers and meat pies. They sure did not come cheap, not at all but they were really good and I sure would not mind buying once in a long while when the craving sets in – instead of those much cheaper, not-quite-worth-the-calories ones. Unfortunately, those are no longer available here. Perhaps they did not go down too well with the locals – I wouldn’t be surprised, not at those prices – so the hypermart people are not bothered to order them anymore.

Anyway, back to the bagels that I bought, they came sliced and I toasted one in the oven with a slice of cheddar cheese on top of one half of it. In the meantime, I grilled the lamb patties and when they were done, I put one over the cheese…

Then, I cut a tomato and placed a few thin slices on the patty…

…and over all those, I added a leaf of lettuce…

Lastly, I poured a little Australian-made ranch dressing…

…onto it and placed the other half on top. This range of salad dressings have only recently been made available here at that supermarket that sells a whole lot of imported stuff (2.293109,111.826969) and no, they do not come cheap, way over RM10.00 a bottle – I can’t remember exactly either, but then again, neither are those regular mayonnaise or salad creams, regular or thousand island or whatever and they are not all that nice. I bought two bottles, the other one for Ceasar salad or something but we have yet to try that and if it is anything like this one, I am pretty sure we would love it!

Oh dear! Forgive me for deviating from the topic proper but getting back to that, the whole thing put together…

…sure looked pretty good, don’t you think? LOL!!!

The bagel was not exactly hard or tough – perhaps, chewy would be a better word to describe it – something like our local Foochow kompia minus the wonderful fragrance and the delightful very mildly salty taste but it wasn’t quite like the ones in Wellington – we found those a little on the hard side though they were quite nice too. However at the price it was going for, I would much sooner settle for our own kompia or some regular kosong (empty) burger bun from our bakeries here.

As for the lamb, it was very very good but it came across more like a mini-lamb chop or nugget, not quite like a patty. That, I guess, was an indication as to how much meat there was in each one of them and how little of the fat and all the stuff that one would find in the regular meat patties. Of course, they did not come cheap so I guess I would not be going back for more all that soon but perhaps, I should give the beef a try as well to see if it is just as good or even better.

But come to think of it, the cost of the whole thing put together…

…give and take here and there, would be less than RM10.00 which is cheaper, or more or less the same, compared to some of the burgers at those franchise places…or even the roadside stalls in town. Anyway, my girl had it and she enjoyed it very much – to me, that would be all that matters!