Are bagels in New York better than bagels elsewhere?

[Cloo]

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.

 

[tarannau]

Eh? So a bagel's not a bagel if it hasn't got cream cheese?

What were all those things with holes in called in the couple of centuries before some bod accidently stumbled on a way of making cream cheese industrially?

 

[QueenOfGoths]

In general, I'd say that when the conversation turns to cheese, Americans should have the grace to assume an extremely low profile.

 

[strung out]

http://www.haruth.com/bagel.html


I think maybe the difference is the US invention of cream cheese. A bagel w/out cc is just a different type of roll, really,

mental

 

[Maurice Picarda]

What were all those things with holes in called ?

Caphats, I believe. Hence the verb to caphat: to argue poorly from false premises.

 

[pogofish]

The bagels I was eating in NY last year were good - Maybe because it was appropriate. Can't say I have them that often here but they trounced anything I've had so far.

 

[Pip]

Cheesy, New York bagels are the best because they have been making them for so long there. Just like any other type of bread, that factor makes a big difference. But yeah, other bagels can be very good too. Also, not to be a snob, but you're really supposed to eat a bagel with cream cheese or cream cheese and lox. It's not supposed to be used as bread for a sandwich.

Sure about that love?

 

[Wilson]

http://www.haruth.com/bagel.html


I think maybe the difference is the US invention of cream cheese. A bagel w/out cc is just a different type of roll, really,

Cream cheese was invented before the US was created

 

[Cheesypoof]

I didn't think the bagels in NY were any good myself, but then Cheesy's description of her excellent bagel doesn't sound too good to me either.

whats not to like?

 

[Cheesypoof]

The bagels I was eating in NY last year were good - Maybe because it was appropriate. r.

thats an odd argument....do you mean it was the fact that you were eating it in NY that made it taste better? strange.

 

[killer b]

c'mon cheese - you of all people should know that surroundings & atmosphere effect how you percieve something.

 

[Pip]

Cream cheese was invented before the US was created

This, and there were Jews in Britain centuries before Columbus ever went to America, let alone Jwsh ppl.

 

[QueenOfGoths]

c'mon cheese - you of all people should know that surroundings & atmosphere effect how you percieve something.

Absolutely - the first doughnut and coffee I had in New York was amazing....simply because of the OMG I am eating this in a New York coffee house factor. Much as Apple Tea in Istanbul tastes so much better than Apple Tea in Maidenhead, even though it's the same tea that I brought back with me from Turkey

 

[Maurice Picarda]

This, and there were Jews in Britain centuries before Columbus ever went to America, let alone Jwsh ppl.

Yes, but they hadn't developed mitteleuropean tastes in bread then. Apart from feasting sometimes on matzohs flavoured with the blood of innocents, they probably ate the same as other Brits did. The taste for heavy stodge associated with the Ashkenazi diaspora is due to horrible cold Polish and Russian winters.

 

[Pip]

Yes, but they hadn't developed mitteleuropean tastes in bread then. Apart from feasting sometimes on matzohs flavoured with the blood of innocents, they probably ate the same as other Brits did. The taste for heavy stodge associated with the Ashkenazi diaspora is due to horrible cold Polish and Russian winters.

Don't buy that Mauza babes, sorry.

 

[Steel Icarus]

The bagels I was eating in NY last year were good - Maybe because it was appropriate. Can't say I have them that often here but they trounced anything I've had so far.

Agreed; as I said earlier, my NYC bagel experience would've been a good deal duller had it been the same bagel in Preston. I did, however, have a disappointing pizza experience in Rome. I know they're more a Naples thing but I was near enough to expect something better than the shite I had from 3 different places - although the ice cream I had at the Trevi Fountain was so good I'm not sure returning there is anything to do with throwing a coin in the fountain, more throwing coins at the nice gelato salesman.

 

[twentythreedom]

slightly ot, but.... the biggest trouble i have i finding "authentic" foreign food is with pizza. our idea of pizza as a nation is sickening! bagels - lived in finchley for years, so not a problem.

 

[Wilson]

whats not to like?

I'm sure it was lovely and if you brought one round to me right now i would be chuffed, munch it down in seconds and consider you a good friend.
However if you were to also bring me a hot salt beef beigel with french mustard from brick lane then i would be ecstatic and eat that first savouring it over several minutes then consider you to be the love of my life.

 

[moonsi til]

I visited NYC last year with the intention of ordering a bagel but in the end I got hooked on the pizza and ended up having a regular slice most days for lunch.

 

[Miss Caphat]

Sure about that love?

Sure about what part?

 

[editor]

I've never tasted bagels in the UK better than the ones I've tasted in NYC, although Brick Lane comes close.

 

[Maurice Picarda]

Have you ever had bagels from North London though? Carmellis, Platters or Daniels? Far superior to Brick Lane.

 

[Pip]

Sure about what part?

Cheesy, New York bagels are the best because they have been making them for so long there

Ed, if you're a bagel fan pleeeaaaase go to Golders Green, I can't remember what the really good shop there is called, but it's massive, double fronted, has got a kind of shiny floor, sells loads of cakes, ugh God I'll give you the name soon, but yeah, they put Brick Lane to shame. You can combine it with a nice walk in the park

 

[Miss Caphat]

Cream cheese was invented before the US was created

I didn't mean it was literally "invented" there, but the style, and putting it on a bagel, it seems to me, originated in the US.

I don't know any of this for sure, but if you can find a source citing that bagels with cream cheese started in the UK, then fine.

I love all the ruffled feathers, and I understand that its' because the UK has such low self esteem about their food.

But the thing is...certain foods are associated with certain geographical locations. Could they be possibly made better in other places? Of course. There might be better pizza in some place in Norway than in a particular restaurant in Naples. There is a bagel place near me (in Massachusetts) that is pretty well known for their home-made bagels even though they're different than New York style bagels. They're damn good though, and it sounds like you have good bagels there in the UK too.


I have never even tried a New York bagel in New York. But I have had several pretzels from street vendors there and never would have imagined a pretzel could be so delicious. So I tend to believe the hype about things like that.

 

[Pip]

LOL

 

[Mrs Magpie]

I don't know any of this for sure, but if you can find a source citing that bagels with cream cheese started in the UK, then fine.

I love all the ruffled feathers, and I understand that its' because the UK has such low self esteem about their food.

Cream cheese and bagels (or beigels) is nothing to do with national borders it's to do with Jewish food. Also the low self esteem about food really came with the war. It's all Hitler's fault. Remember we had rationing here long after the war ended.

 

[Pip]

Miss Caphat, you don't know much about your own cuisine, how much do you know about British food? My feathers remain unruffled btw (cool as a cucumber sandwich, you could say ), couldn't give a shit about how a nation I don't particularly identify with is perceived, I'm just a sucker for facts.

 

[Mrs Magpie]

She gets that from me.

 

[killer b]

I'll just post some bullshit here, then say you're being touchy when you call me on it. Deal?

 

[editor]

Have you ever had bagels from North London though? Carmellis, Platters or Daniels? Far superior to Brick Lane.

Over the years, I've scoffed bagels from all over London and can say, with some confidence, that NY ones are the finest I've tasted. Have you tried NY ones yourself?