Perhaps the most specious reason people favor one dish over another is its "authenticity." Admittedly, it's worth sampling basic Mexican food made the way that Mexican cooks have prepared it for hundreds of years-there's gotta be a good reason these favorites are favorites, right?-but we don't let it prevent us from tucking into the occasional burrito (invented in California in the mid-20th century). And we don't let the fact that Italian pizza is nothing like our overloaded pies stop us from ordering ours with tandoori chicken. If it's healthy, tasty, and well-prepared, who really cares? We digress on this subject because often, when we espouse the considerable virtues of this Govans bagel shop to friends and co-workers, we are met with grumblings about how Greg's handmade taste-tempters somehow aren't "right" for bagels. They, apparently, lack the right ratio of boiled/baked chewiness/crustiness that some folks need in order to feel they're eating a "real" bagel. (We suspect this is partly because, unlike the regimen at some other bagel places, the youthful counter staff at Greg's do not toast the bagels to a near-cinder before applying the schmear.) We respect anyone's right to like what they like and eat accordingly, but we don't need the quintessential New York bagel to go with our New York Times. Greg's bagels are among the finest Baltimore-baked breadstuffs you can stuff in your mouth-always fresh, tender, and flavorful, brimming, as they invariably are, with the finest ingredients, such as identifiable slivers of Vidalia onion in the Vidalia onion bagel, as opposed to "onion bitz" delivered in a five-gallon drum. And even if the bagels weren't as delightful, the shop sports the top selection of gourmet toppings in town-we haven't braved the caribou sausage, we admit, but we've never regretted trying any of the curry butter or smoked-trout spread. You go on and keep looking for the most "authentic" bagel in town. We'll be having the best bagel in town over at Greg's.

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