I reward (bribe?) myself with food pretty frequently. The most recent deal I made with myself was that if I got up early on Saturday to do yoga in the East Village, I could go to Tompkins Square Bagels afterward. The quality of this reward definitely outweighed the small sacrifice of a few hours of sleep.

There were two reasons I wanted to try Tompkins Square Bagels, but each would have been enough of a reason on its own: macaroni and cheese on a bagel (are you freaking kidding me) and birthday-cake-flavored cream cheese (I know!). Since I don’t have unlimited room in my stomach, I thought this adventure would be best enjoyed with a friend so that we could split everything and not explode in the meantime. Mike was easily convinced.

While we were waiting in line, my eyes also came across “The Jersey” which I couldn’t resist either because, duh – Taylor ham, egg, and cheese on a bagel. Mike said he couldn’t help me out with that one. I usually am only able to eat half a bagel at a time so I’m not sure why I thought I’d be able to split two and eat one myself, but I’ll never give up on my ambitions.

After receiving our order, Mike and I walked across the street to sit on a bench and dig in. When we took the open-faced mac and cheese bagel out of the bag, we both giggled excitedly like we were five. We ordered this delicacy on an everything bagel and it was scooped out, which I would *never* do with a normal bagel but it made perfect sense in this situation since the mac and cheese was heavy enough on its own. I got cheese all over my hands and my yoga pants and I didn’t care one bit.

The woman we ordered from recommended the birthday-cake cream cheese on a plain or French Toast bagel. We obviously went the French Toast route and it was unbelievable. Not only does the cream cheese taste just like cake batter, but there are rainbow sprinkles involved too. You would think that this combo – or even just one or the other would have been overwhelmingly sweet, but it was absolutely perfect and will be enjoyed again soon.

As suspected, I was too full from the first two bagels that I didn’t get to the third that same morning. “The Jersey” sandwich went into my yoga bag for later. I popped it in the toaster oven Sunday night and it surprisingly stood up (probably because it was called “The Jersey” and we don’t back down for nothing*).

*double negative intended

xx