> and indeed prefer the texture and structure of non-bagels to bagels.

They're different textures. They are best suited to different things.

But if you want non-bagels in the shape of bagels, Costco's store-brand bagels are like that. I hate them so much. If I wanted regular bread, I'd buy regular bread.

Where does a bagel excel? I've had so many disappointing bagels that I've become jaded about them (but bear in mind I'm from Australia which, as far as I know, is not really known for having a culture of bagel excellence.)

New York City and Montreal are both well known for having very good bagel bakeries, each with their own distinct traits. In my experience the further away you get from those two cities, the more a bagel ends up tasting like regular (and often stale) bread that just happens to be in a torus shape. In any case, you should always get one freshly baked from a bakery and not from a supermarket bread aisle.

I'm surprised at the number of commenters here talking about toasting a bagel. In my opinion, if you need to toast the bagel, you already failed at finding a good bagel. A good bagel should already be somewhat crispy on the outside and pleasantly soft on the inside, and it shouldn't need anything spread on it to be edible.

Toasters with a bagel setting concentrate the heat on the cut side of the bagel (which is presumed to be the inside), a toaster oven can do this even better by setting at toast to heat up, then using the broil setting for the actual toaster.

This gets three textures going: the crump stays chewy and dense, the crust isn't burned (very important if it has any allium topping, fairly important for seeds, still not great for plain), and a nice crumbly toast layer.

Which holds up under schmear and butter excellently. I agree that a fresh bagel should be tasty direct from the bag, but I'm still going to be eating them with toppings for the most part.

Is there anywhere that does the converse? I'd like a bagel-textured bun.