There’s a common belief here in South Florida (elsewhere too I’m sure) that the New York bagel cannnot be duplicated outside of NY (pizza too, but that’s another thread). Delis have gone so far as to truck NY water down here in hopes of being able to claim they have the authentic clone.
In my opinion, Ray’s New York Bagels, in the frozen section of in your neighborhood supermarket (well, in 18 States & DC), nails it where so many others have failed. Bialys, too! Nuke for 30 seconds, toast (or not), take a bite and close your eyes, & you’ll see taxis whizzing by.
Frozen White Castles are worth mentioning, although any time I was in an actual White Castle restaurant I was impaired, so hard to draw an accurate comparison :D.
Marie Callender’s frozen pies aren’t quite as good as Gramma’s, but they’re impressively close.
And frozen pieroghis work just fine. It’s not how you make them that’s key, but how you cook them (boiled, then fried slightly brown in butter and onions).
Williams-Sonoma Frozen Croissants are as good as any we had in Paris, and better than most we’ve had outside of Paris. There are not super easy, as you have to take them out of the freezer 9-12 hours before you want to eat them, then bake them, but boy oh boy are they ever good.
I once worked a half block from a frozen bagel bakery, maybe a step up from Lenders, but not much. They had a store out front and I learned to ask for “whatever’s hot” because it was magnificent. I’ve had bagels from all sorts of bakeries (a plus for working in Skokie) and, once they reach room temperature, they could all have been baked by Wonder Bread.
I agree 100% - there’s nothing like a fresh bagel. And the smell of a bagel bakery is unworldly. My great uncle worked in a bagel factory in Queens.
Ray’s are 10 steps up from Lenders, and IMO, Lenders beats Einstein Bagels hands down. Check out the “About” tab on Ray’s page…explains how they don’t cook them all the way.
Yeowch; I can only assume you’re not too picky with your pies or have, sadly, never had a very good one. Unless I’m getting brand names confused, I would have said those Calender’s frozen pies are one step down from Baker’s Square, which is itself about a dozen seps down from “decent pie.” To each their own, I guess, but your post makes me want to send you a half-decent pie.
Frozen pierogis are great, though. I’ve only had non-frozen ones a couple times, and they’re definitely better, but frozen pierogis are still better than 99% of stuff you can buy frozen.
