The Ultimate Bagel

[Too Tall]

I'll throw down first.

Are you kidding me? We were driving South on the NJ Tpk exit #6 starved and looking for a nosh and found >> https://www.stonebridgebagels.com/ Stonebridge Bagels. Trust me, my Genomic Bagel Potential is finely tuned. This random place has, hands down, the best bagel I've ever dispatched bagel mit Lachs und Schmear of course.

Fugget about H&H they are long gone, it was good. This is the new place. Go there.

bag1.jpg

[seanile]

best i've found at C & D's Old World Bagels in Warwick, NY.

i'm in jersey enough that ill definitely swing by your spot!

[watchcwgo]

Interesting. That place is a few miles away from my hometown. Don't remember it by name, wonder if it's new. New Jersey is full of a lot of things and countless good food options is one

[NYCfixie]

The tribe member from NYC says....

Ess-A-Bagel
The name has Yiddish (Eat a Bagel) in it so how can you go wrong?


And when I still lived in NYC near the east 21st street location I overheard some of these exchanges:

NYU Student - May I have a toasted bagel with the inside scooped out?
Counterperson - No.
NYU Student - Why not?
Counterperson - Do you really need to ask?


New person to the neighborhood - May I have a multi-grain bagel with tofu cream cheese?
Counterperson - Maybe in the next life but not today.


Out-of-towner - May I have a toasted blueberry bagel with strawberry cream cheese?
Counterperson - Just get out of the store.


The only issue with Ess-A-Bagel these days is that the 21st street location closed (due to high rent as the neighborhood became more upscale) and the mid-town location ended up in some Japanese tourist book so you can never get into the place. With that said, any trip to NYC includes a trip to pick up a baker's dozen to bring back to Boston.


It's true that the NYC water makes a difference. No bagel will ever be as good as one from NYC.


The best place in NJ is Sonny's Bagels in South Orange. You go in and only buy bagels because they do not sell anything else.


The best place in/around Boston is Rosenfeld's Bagels (thanks to TTX1 for the recommendation shortly after my arrival).

[spopepro]

Best bagel in the world is at fairmount bagel in Montreal. Come at me, NYC peeps.

[NYCfixie]

Best bagel in the world is at fairmount bagel in Montreal. Come at me, NYC peeps.

I will not allow for it to be "the best" bagel but I will give you a partial history lesson. Many Jews (and other peeps) could not get into this country due to immigration quotas like those in the Immigration Act of 1924 and as a result many Jews went to Canada or Mexico. Based on this, there is still a thriving Orthodox community in Montreal so you might actually be able to get a decent bagel in the area.

But, you still can't beat a bagel made with NYC water.

[seanile]

The best place in/around Boston is Rosenfeld's Bagels (thanks to TTX1 for the recommendation shortly after my arrival).

i'd like to contend with "Katz Bagel Bakery" in Chelsea, MA. they know how to do a damn bagel. but, i'll have to check out rosenfelds! thanks for the tip

[crumpton]

happy to text you my fedex account# Toots!

[Too Tall]

happy to text you my fedex account# Toots!

Hold your wallet my friend. Next time I go past exit #6 you will be taken care of.

[spopepro]

But, you still can't beat a bagel made with NYC water.

NYC bagels are special... but from what we understand now it's unlikely to be about the water. It's much more likely that the wild fauna in the air (molds, yeasts, bacteria) creating the specific esters, acids, and salts (usually from protein digestion) that are responsible for the location specific flavors in NYC Bagels, NYC Pizza, SF Sourdough, etc. They now think that wine "terroir" isn't about the soil and aspect as much as it's about the microorganisms in the area. Or maybe the microorganisms are in the soil... anyway, neither water or soil themselves contribute enough chemistry to produce things that taste and smell... it's the little guys.

Which is really cool! It means that there really isn't any possible way to make a real NYC bagel outside of NYC. I think it's great that we can't just package and reproduce any experience anywhere; that there are some things that must be experienced in place.

Even if the experience in Montreal is better ;)

[NYCfixie]

There's the rub. Good bagels have no preservatives so they do not last.


We usually have a 6 hour window from NYC and use this process:
Buy bagels in NYC
Immediately put in ziplock bags and get out as much air as possible
Get back to Boston ASAP
Cut bagels in half, turn one side 90 degrees, put into individual zip lock bags, put into freezer

When ready to enjoy either plan ahead and let defrost naturally or Microwave for 30 seconds with wet paper towel on top and then toast only if you want


Not exactly the same as fresh but so much better than the wannabes

Hold your wallet my friend. Next time I go past exit #6 you will be taken care of.

[robin3mj]

There's the rub. Good bagels have no preservatives so they do not last.


We usually have a 6 hour window from NYC and use this process:
Buy bagels in NYC
Immediately put in ziplock bags and get out as much air as possible
Get back to Boston ASAP
Cut bagels in half, turn one side 90 degrees, put into individual zip lock bags, put into freezer

When ready to enjoy either plan ahead and let defrost naturally or Microwave for 30 seconds with wet paper towel on top and then toast only if you want


Not exactly the same as fresh but so much better than the wannabes

While this may be true it's a little bit over fussy for folks living in non bagel lands.

The day-olds they sell frozen at 6 for a dollar at Bagel Bin in Bernardsville still kick the pants off anything you can buy south of philly. Sometimes good enough is more than enough to make this cat happy.

[Too Tall]

We can be sad together.
FWIIW Bethesda Bagel is no so bad.

While this may be true it's a little bit over fussy for folks living in non bagel lands.

The day-olds they sell frozen at 6 for a dollar at Bagel Bin in Bernardsville still kick the pants off anything you can buy south of philly. Sometimes good enough is more than enough to make this cat happy.

[NYCfixie]

NYC bagels are special... but from what we understand now it's unlikely to be about the water. It's much more likely that the wild fauna in the air (molds, yeasts, bacteria) creating the specific esters, acids, and salts (usually from protein digestion) that are responsible for the location specific flavors in NYC Bagels, NYC Pizza, SF Sourdough, etc. They now think that wine "terroir" isn't about the soil and aspect as much as it's about the microorganisms in the area. Or maybe the microorganisms are in the soil... anyway, neither water or soil themselves contribute enough chemistry to produce things that taste and smell... it's the little guys.

Which is really cool! It means that there really isn't any possible way to make a real NYC bagel outside of NYC. I think it's great that we can't just package and reproduce any experience anywhere; that there are some things that must be experienced in place.

Even if the experience in Montreal is better ;)

I have no scientific proof but I have always been told the water makes a difference. And NYC water is not actually from NYC. It comes down from the Catskills Watershed. And to include a bike related fact - one of my first rides on a dirt/gravel trail before it was a thing was on the old Old Croton Aqueduct Trail which used to bring water into NYC.

While this may be true it's a little bit over fussy for folks living in non bagel lands.

The day-olds they sell frozen at 6 for a dollar at Bagel Bin in Bernardsville still kick the pants off anything you can buy south of philly. Sometimes good enough is more than enough to make this cat happy.

It is not fussy. It is planning ahead.

I was visiting a work friend in Minneapolis in the late 90s. He was not Jewish but had many Jewish friends. He shared this story of a time he went ice fishing "on the lake" and was ordering breakfast at a local diner by the lake with his Jewish friend:
Waitress: What will you have?
Friend: A bagel with cream cheese?
Waitress: A what?
Friend: A bagel.
Waitress: Sorry sir, we only serve American food here.

i'd like to contend with "Katz Bagel Bakery" in Chelsea, MA. they know how to do a damn bagel. but, i'll have to check out rosenfelds! thanks for the tip

TTX1 mentioned Rosenfelds because it is sort of near both of us but thanks for the tip on katz - I'll have to try them out. Never can have too many good options.

[seanile]

i've got a few friends in beer/cider production and they all say that all the beers brewed in NYC taste different/better than their counterparts from different facilities.

[j44ke]

i've got a few friends in beer/cider production and they all say that all the beers brewed in NYC taste different/better than their counterparts from different facilities.

I think that's because life is so stressful here, any alcohol tastes better.

Russ & Daughters uses bagels from a place in Brooklyn called The Bagel Hole. They are very good bagels. But the bagel is of course not the whole package, so you need a collaboration these days and I think Russ & Daughters has the package offering all sewn up.

The Classic Bagel and Salmon Sandwich at Russ & Daughters in New York City - Eater

Black Seed Bagels is a very very close second and might actually be better in some ways.

https://www.blackseedbagels.com

You can get Black Seed Bagels and other great food at Mile End Deli (a Montreal Jewish deli.)

https://www.mileenddeli.com

Even in the short time that I have been living in NYC, three really excellent bagel bakeries have closed. These are relatively no-name places that still made those small hard water bagels with the traditional outer skin and the dense inner bread. Everyone wants a fluffy bagel now. Why? Because people now are soft, that's what I'm saying to you.

[NYCfixie]

Even in the short time that I have been living in NYC, three really excellent bagel bakeries have closed. These are relatively no-name places that still made those small hard water bagels with the traditional outer skin and the dense inner bread. Everyone wants a fluffy bagel now. Why? Because people now are soft, that's what I'm saying to you.

I thought when Lender's Bagels came out it would be the death of the bagel as I knew it because good bagels should not have preservatives and be sold at supermarkets in the bread aisle. And then Brueggers made it that much worse by taking bad bagels to the masses.

Lender, Brueggers, and similar type places make boiled round bread but they do not make bagels.



Jorn - you have not lived until you have had smoked salmon from Barney Green Grass on the UWS with a Bagel from Ess-A-Bagel in mid-town. Please try it out this Sunday while you are reading the paper version of the New York Times with your significant other and report back because it is worth dragging around Manhattan to get what you need for brunch. It is as good, if not better, than Russ and Daughters. And yes, my two sets of grandparents spent years arguing which one of these two establishments had better smoked fish so we always ended up with both at family functions.

[Too Tall]

I like his thread. Need to hear from the left coast.

[fastupslowdown]

Not to hijack a thread, but what happened to my beloved Bialy?

http://www.placematters.net/sites/de...0exterior1.jpg
(haven't been to Kossar's in a few years)


And as far as bagels go, I miss H&H on the upper west side and , i'm old school so prefer true kosher bagel stores, not ones that serve shrimp and bacon.
It's not simply about how they make the bagel, but the whole experience, and bagels are about cream cheese and smoked fish, not the other stuff.
-Mike G

[Too Tall]

Not to hijack a thread, but what happened to my beloved Bialy?

http://www.placematters.net/sites/de...0exterior1.jpg
(haven't been to Kossar's in a few years)


And as far as bagels go, I miss H&H on the upper west side and , i'm old school so prefer true kosher bagel stores, not ones that serve shrimp and bacon.
It's not simply about how they make the bagel, but the whole experience, and bagels are about cream cheese and smoked fish, not the other stuff.
-Mike G

I hit H&H just before the end. Loaded up on pumpernickel. They were my favorite.

Again and FWIIW In Rockville, MD of all places "Bagel City" is about a 8 on the bagel scale when fresh out of the oven. They make them correctly and it is a Kosher establishment including the ubiquitous and expected massive display of fresh made cookies in colors not found in nature.