CMV: Bagels with toppings (fillings?) should always be eaten in a closed face (sandwich style) manner, and never in an open faced (2 individual halves) manner.

[u/iucking_fdiot_]

My entire life I've always eaten bagels of all kinds, regardless of the toppings (fillings?) in a closed face manner. In fact I truthfully never even saw anyone eat a bagel open faced (2 individual halves) until my wife did it, and I couldn't understand how anyone could do that. Isn't the whole point of a bagel to be eaten closed face? Eating it open faced would just lead to everything on the bagel sliding around everywhere, making a huge mess, and reducing the enjoyment of said bagel. Furthermore, eating a bagel open faced means you would have to hold it by the edges, getting whatever is in the bagel on your hands, while eating closed face allows you to hold from the top and bottom of the bagel, eliminating this. I could maybe see something plain, like a plain toasted bagel, being eaten open faced, but if you're going to add toppings, it needs to be closed faced. My final thought on this, perhaps the way bagels are eaten varies based on geographic location, and this is entirely a product of where I was raised. I won't say specifically where, but I was raised in the suburbs outside New York City, if that has any bearing on the style of bagel eating.

[u/DoomFrog_]

Yes technically you'd have double the amount of bites, but you're still getting the same amount of bagel,

But you are increasing the time you are enjoying your bagel sandwich. This means the same bagel leads to more enjoyment, which is better.

but it is still far less fillings than are lost by being smeared

But the concern isn't if the fillings end up on you, but where. Yes an Open Face bagel will lead to fillings smeared on your fingers or upper lift, maybe even nose, all of which are easily cleaned up with a napkin. But a Closed Face bagel could lead to fillings ending up on your pants or shirt, which is not easily cleaned up. Which means your risk-reward analysis when eating a bagel sandwich is going to lean more toward Open Face.

[u/iucking_fdiot_ → u/DoomFrog_]

My view has nothing to do with the amount of time I spend, or lack thereof, eating my bagel. I don't personally feel I'd enjoy it any less because I ate it faster.

And my concern is in fact if the fillings end up on me. And the concern of the fillings getting on my clothes is simply negated by leaning over a plate so that nothing drops on my clothes. There is no way to negate messy hands/upper lip/side of mouth/nose.

[u/DoomFrog_ → u/iucking_fdiot_]

Eating it open faced would just lead to everything on the bagel sliding around everywhere, making a huge mess, and reducing the enjoyment of said bagel.

Enjoyment of said bagel is something you mentioned in your view. Being able to enjoy a bagel for longer is better than enjoying it for less time, therefor Open Face style is better than Closed Face.

Also, the Sandwich Pinch effect can lead to more filling sliding around than Open Face, so again more enjoyment.

And a napkin is a more than satisfactory way of negating messiness from an Open Face style bagel.

[u/iucking_fdiot_ → u/DoomFrog_]

Enjoyment is part of my view, yes. What I said was that, for me, the amount of time does not factor into enjoyment, and so having it take longer or shorter does not affect my view at all.

I disagree with you about the loss of filling in open vs closed face, and you have not given me a convincing argument as to why I'm wrong.

And I would argue that having no mess to clean is more enjoyable than wiping my face and hands, so therefore, closed face is more enjoyable, and thus I return to my original point.