"Though I grew up with Dunkin' Donuts as my weekend snack, these days I’m more likely to hanker for a bagel." Yes, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of goyem, I will fear no lack of bagels, for thou foodie gods art with me. I figure if I repeat this mantra enough, it’ll eventually stick, but the truth is I’m pretty down on the lack of good Jewish eats in Chicago. Though we have a sizable metro population, only about 30 percent of the total Jewish population lives in the city proper. There wasn’t always a local diaspora. In the mid 1800s, a significant number of immigrant Jews lived in the central loop, Pilsen, and the famed...
Continue reading »
Learn about the origins of your favorite ring of boiled and baked wheat in this short history of the bagel by Joan Nathan of Slate. For a longer history of the bagel, check out Maria Balinska's recently published book, The Bagel: A Cultural History....
Continue reading »
Photograph from roboppy on Flickr According to Jennifer 8. Lee, the best bagels in Beijing (known as "beigu" or precious wheat) are at Mr. Shanen's Bagels, a shop opened by Lejen Chen, a woman in her late forties who grew up in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. Ms. Chen makes 26 kinds including ham and cheddar, which are neither traditional nor kosher. No word on whether she makes decidedly non-kosher varieties like Peking Duck or twice-cooked pork bagels, which both sound good to me. One bagel not in Beijing: poppy seed, because of the association with opium. Some other delicious tidbits from the story: When you google bagel in China, it's defined as a doughnut-shaped Jewish bread. Chinese workers in Beijing...
Continue reading »
Vittles Vamp went to the Neil Diamond show on Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden, and she did something a little unusual. But something I can totally see becoming some sort of weird food-related photo meme. She shot a photo of the man through the hole of a bagel. This was Brooklyn-bred Neil Diamond, we were talking about. Damn straight, I wasn't bringing him flowers no more. The only thing a bona fide Jewess could do was add an bag of mini-bagels to her FreshDirect order to make sure she had something on hand that was more befitting this Judaic god of schmalzy pop. I'm going to have to bring bagels into the office tomorrow morning and shoot everyone through...
Continue reading »
"Lay in a course for Bagelgeuse, Mr. Data." Looks like they took bagels into space when the Space Shuttle Discovery launched last week. Montreal-born astronaut Greg Chamitoff insisted on bringing 18 sesame seed bagels into orbit with him. The bagels are from Fairmount Bagel in Montreal. 74 Fairmount West, Montreal QC H2T 2M2 (map); fairmountbagel.com [via The Big Picture]...
Continue reading »
The
New Yorker's story behind the everything bagel hits a snag when someone else claims to have invented it earlier.
Continue reading »
Photograph from drewleavy on Flickr We have no shortage of delicious bagels here in New York City. (Is there a better bagel city in the world?) We also have no shortage of fat laden, drool inducing corned beef. (Is there a better corned beef city in the world?) Yet, explain to me how London is the city that has combined the two into what looks like a pretty outstanding sandwich. It's called a hot salt beef bagel, and it leaves me wondering, "How on earth did we got scooped on this?"...
Continue reading »
Channeling the spirit of
Uncrustables and
Hot Pockets, in April
Kraft will launch
Bagel-Fuls, frozen bagels which come prestuffed with Philadelphia cream cheese.
Continue reading »
Anytime people gather to discuss one of the most pressing issues of the day—what is the most proper and delicious way to eat a bagel—heated (pun intended) arguments ensue. So I have decided that we are going to settle it once and for all, right here on Serious Eats, with the first and probably last Serious Eats Bagel Debate. As you are about to hear, there are many subtle nuances to this freighted issue. First let's define our terms....
Continue reading »
Rodrigo Piwonka put an avocado-filled toasted bagel into an empty CD spindle, and voilà, a bagel to go! It's the perfect solution if you love complicated bagels but not the wrapping up, or the potential mess of transporting them in your bag. [via Kung Fu Grippe]...
Continue reading »
