Cloo
Banana for scale
bagels are poached before baking, which gives them their particular texture and shiny outside. Iirc you put molasses or suchlike in the water.
Yup, they should be quite dense and slightly chewy when fresh, not spongy or like a heavy roll, and I think the boiling has a lot to do with this. I don't know how they flavour them, but I'd say that the real thing has a slightly sweetish, eggy flavour as well, which pseudo-bagels lack.