While Chicago is not particularly known for bagels (though a few artisinal shops have cropped up over the years), there’s a place out in Lincolnwood, just north of the city, called New York Bagel and Bialy that is open 24-7 and churns out bagels like no one else. It’s the first time I’ve ever had a bagel and realized, oh, this is why people love them so much. Their bagel sandwich with lox (which they don’t skimp on), a healthy schmear of chive cream cheese, cucumber, onion, tomato, capers on a mish-mosh (aka. “everything”) bagel is one of the top sandwiches I’ve had in my life.
Huh? ‘English’ muffins have existed in the Uk long before McDonald’s starting using them. We just used to call them muffins. Same thing.
And here in the US also.
All those times I stayed at the Travelodge on Drury Lane I still thought the Muffin Man was selling what I guess are the sweet cake-like so-called “American Muffins”.
Thomas’ English Muffins are the best and I’ve not seen their equal either in the US or UK. Samuel Thomas was an Englishman who set up shop in NYC and so probably coined the “English” bit to differentiate them from “American” muffins.
I have tried the Bagel Factory bagels somewhere in London and they’re to NYC bagels what the Pizza Hut down the block here is to NYC pizza. I haven’t eaten there yet to their credit it looks like you get exactly what Pizza Hut in America heats up and sells.
They’re a relatively recent import though - maybe late 80s? When did Starbucks arrive? Whereas ‘English’ muffins have been a popular bread item for a lot longer. Hence there was no need to call them ‘English’ before the American cake version turned up. I remember have them hot and buttered as a child in the 70s.
Going back a bit, ‘muffin’ was a bit like ‘bun’ in England - in that it was a category of baked items rather than a specific thing.
There are good bagels in London, and I still miss the salt beef ones from the place outside my last but one job.
The only bagels I’ve had back in Scotland have been pretty rubbish, flavourless and rubbery. That’s not been an exhaustive search, no doubt there are good ones somewhere, probably Glasgow.
An important factor here is that compared to the US, the UK has a very small Jewish population (0.5% vs 2.4%), more than half of whom live in London, and much of the rest of whom live near London. And it’s fair to say that that 0.5% has not had the cultural impact seen in the US, particularly, in this case, in culinary terms.
Yeah, when I was talking about not being able to find anything like American all-beef hot dogs here in England, a lot of people said ‘just go to a kosher deli’. We just don’t have many of those here in rural Dorset.
There aren’t that many true Kosher delis in the States either, unless you’re near a pretty large Jewish community. There are many Kosher-style delis near Boston, but only a handful over in Brookline are actually Kosher.
But we actually have a few very good bagel places, the best I’ve had outside of NYC.
True and true - however…if you want the best stuff you have to go to the right place. And BTW, note the spelling:
(and also, as noted by @Q.Q.Switcheroo: )
OK, there is a long tradition in London (and elsewhere) of former Jewish areas (as Brick Lane was) being taken over by more recent immigrants. Brick Lane is, these days, largely Bangladeshi but these two shops remain at the north end of the street. I have eaten bagels from The Beigel Shop and whilst they are (as you would expect) a cut above, they are not radically different from store bought bagels. I would say they do have a chewiness and stiffness about them (a texture I like) - I guess it’s not beyond the bounds of possibility that it’s a local style which has been passed down from Brick Lane originators (as above) to supermarkets. Maybe a genuine British (should I say English?) beigel is simply not quite the same as a US bagel.
j
Meanwhile, in New York’s still-heavily Jewish Upper West Side, one of the best bagel shops is Absolute Bagels - run by a family of Thais.
That’s glorious!
j
I don’t like using bagels as closed sandwiches. I like eating them plain; i like them halved, toasted, and buttered; and i like making an open faced sandwich with cream cheese and lox. I even like freezing one and gnawing on the still-frozen bagel.
But even hot and fresh, they are too thick to be easy to bite. And good bagels are moderately dense and chewy, not fluffy. They are kind of a saltless pretzel. They should be boiled in lye and have a shiny crust with a distinct hint of lye flavoring it.
I remember decades ago visiting shops or bodegas in Manhattan that served a bagel with a schmear, meaning a really thick layer of cream cheese.
BTW, the New York Times ran an article (gift link) in March about how New York-style bagels were starting to become available in London with some shops operated by New York transplants.
Err, no, not really. Any time I’ve gotten a bagel with cream cheese at an old-school NYC bagel shop it’s been a closed sandwich, including the aforementioned Absolute Bagels.
I’m not a big salmon fan and even I love this so much. Especially with capers.
Nah, Orowheat’s are much better. I don’t care for Thomas’s.
Every 4 or 5 years or so I’ll get a McMuffin breakfast…& then immediately realized why it’s been so long since I had one. I put them in the category of sustenance not food. They are like supermarket bagels as compared to a Brooklyn / Lawn Guyland bagel from a bagel shop; technically the same thing but multiple standard deviations of quality apart
Nope, any of the good delis will give you a sandwich on a bagel, usually piled high with whatever you’ve asked for. Not quite Dagwood height but not flat, either. A good pastrami or corned beef is magnifique! As long as you hold it properly you can keep the meat in it.
I’m used to more like 3pm but I agree, if you go after lunch rush options may be slim pickin’s & you may not get your desired type/flavor. I’ve also been in one at 9 or 10am on a weekend & have waited a minute or two for a fresh batch. There’s almost nothing as good as a fresh, hot from the oven bagel! (I couldn’t even hold it to eat; had to let it cool for a few minutes before chomping into it.)
NY/LI bagels are also bigger, both in diameter & height than something like a Lender’s bagel you get in the supermarket. I actually read this thread while eating one this morning, unfortunately, it was purchased fresh the other day.
I’ll just throw in since no one has mentioned it but Dunkin Donuts makes a decent bacon, egg and cheese bagel sandwich all day long. I miss the McDonald’s breakfast sandwiches since they dropped them from the all day menu. Heck, they stop selling them before I get out of bed these days.
Yeah, but there aren’t even fake kosher delis in most of the UK. It’s a culinary style that just isn’t widespread or well established. To our loss! And what there is has come at least as much via American cultural import as home grown, I would guess.