The main reason I can't quite call any of the Seattle bagel shops "legit" is that I've never found one that has a proper tofu spread. Tofutti does not count.
I spoke with AJ at Hey Bagel about it, and apparently there's simply no distribution out here. I hold on to hope that this changes soon.
I do have an issue with a bagel without a hole (*cough-heybagel*) as it can appear to be just a ball of dough. This same thing has been dragged out into the streets in the mud and the blood and the beer with regards to square pizzas...pie are square?...or only round?
Bagels must have certain basic factors and elements:
1) Circular
2) Hole
3) Boiled
Not square, not NOT boiled, not rings of baked bread dough (*sneeze!-safeway*).
Toppings? I'm open. Is a bulgogi filled tortilla not a taco? Who am I to say.
Ess-a-Bagel in Ye Olde New York City would beg to differ on the hole size question. I feel they do a great job of making bagels though. I'll also say that a bialy actually IS a ball of dough, albeit with the center flattened.
If I may be so bold, I would love to see more bagels made with better flour. I know where Bagel Oasis stands in the Shanda rankings, but I walked in there and they had no idea what I was talking about when I asked about flour (like it's all purpose flour [possibly not enough gluten, but I digress]... but where's it coming from...?). I say this about all bakeries (as unless gluten-free, flour is the main ingredient), not just bagels, but it's something I appreciate about this area. Even though it was a joke on Portlandia, we can trace flour back to the farmer, and it's better that way! I think.
Also, better flour tastes better and therefore makes a better bagel. Which is why I frequent Hey Bagel and not Backyard Bagel, not to get overly repetitive.
I know I heard Andrew talk a lot about sourcing so that makes a lot of sense. I'll try to pay attention to who is doing local sourcing like that as well, because, yeah, it's definitely appreciated.
As the descendent of Pennsylvania Quakers who grew up in the suburbs of Detroit and came to love the bagels that we got at the local store—I don’t remember the name, I was a kid, but I can tell you, I don’t remember there being a single thing Jewish where I grew up—I can claim NO bagel street cred whatsoever. Once I moved out of the house, I ate Lender’s Bagels for fuck’s sake. But somewhere along the line I started making my own bagels and, because I’m a little obsessive, I tried to make them better and better and better. Somehow, I ended up making bagels that were better than what I could get from some of the local bagel shops (Blazing Bagels, I’m talking about you.)
Anyway, I started to feel like I knew what a decent bagel was … and then I ran into your newsletter Sean, and I started to think a lot more about bagels and what makes them good, and I started to visit the bagel shops you were reviewing. When I ran into one of Andrew’s Hey Bagel pop ups, I knew there were people out there making bagels better than I could make at home. I’ve adopted your bagel standard as basically my own, though I think your Cornmeal Ring of Doom is a little much (as you know 😉). I’ve never had a bagel at one of your top 10 places that has disappointed me. Now, if you can only inspire someone to open a good bagel shop up in the Snohomish area …
Keep up the good work, Sean. You’re a real mensch. (Did I do that right?)
A tortilla is a crepe is a moo shu pancake is a palacsinta is blini is a wonton skin is a wrap.
A tortilla is not a crepe which is not a moo shu pancake which is not a palacsinta which is not a blini which is not a wonton skin which is not a wrap.
The a thing may be what it claims to be and it may not be what it claims to be. While some may claim we should think of bagels as another case for a famous physics thought experiment, I do not accept the premise of Schroedinger's Bagel. As Justice Potter Stewart said in the famous US Supreme Court case Jacobagless vs. Ohio (a state with a certain claim to appreciating the importance of roundnesss):
"I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description ["bagelness"], and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so, but I know it when I taste it. . .
(I believe that is the appropriate case citation and quotation.)
As a start I hope we can all agree that not all roughly hand-sized breadlike objects with a dimple or hole in the middle are worthy of the honorable and ancient title "bagel". The line between bagel and donut has held firm for generations despite a few sorties by heretics and other transgressors of the laws of nature.
At a personal level I can abide a hole which can be anywhere from almost not there to an inch or so. As a native New Yorker born in Mt. Sinai Hospital I am a traditionalist when it comes to toppings believing the core line-up consists of plain, sesame, poppyseed, onion, salt, pumpernickel and (for kids and the occasional step in to an alternative lifestyle) cinnamon raisin. I am at most equivocal about the everything bagel - c'mon, pick a lane. Garlic can be tasty but often overwhelms its bag mates and everyone at the table. Jalapeño, asagio, pizza, etc have crossed the border into something not a bagel.
The true essence of bageldom, however, is that it should be a round, dense piece of bread with a crispy crust that crackles when you bite into it, has flavor throughout, brings a gentle, happy smile to your face if you eat it shortly after it leaves the oven and, of course, has enough substance to be used as a weapon if caught off-guard during a mugging or other up-close confrontation.
Finally, bialys are cousins but not bagels. Mimi Sheraton, former restaurant critic for the New York Times, once wrote a very personal and delightful book called "The Bialy Eaters". It is short, charming and worth the few hours it take to read. It would be shanda to raise bialy awareness in the Pacific Northwest.
The main reason I can't quite call any of the Seattle bagel shops "legit" is that I've never found one that has a proper tofu spread. Tofutti does not count.
I spoke with AJ at Hey Bagel about it, and apparently there's simply no distribution out here. I hold on to hope that this changes soon.
I haven't done a real vegan CC review so far but that's probably a good thing to do. Are there any that you think are good enough right now?
I do have an issue with a bagel without a hole (*cough-heybagel*) as it can appear to be just a ball of dough. This same thing has been dragged out into the streets in the mud and the blood and the beer with regards to square pizzas...pie are square?...or only round?
Bagels must have certain basic factors and elements:
1) Circular
2) Hole
3) Boiled
Not square, not NOT boiled, not rings of baked bread dough (*sneeze!-safeway*).
Toppings? I'm open. Is a bulgogi filled tortilla not a taco? Who am I to say.
Very zen
Ess-a-Bagel in Ye Olde New York City would beg to differ on the hole size question. I feel they do a great job of making bagels though. I'll also say that a bialy actually IS a ball of dough, albeit with the center flattened.
If I may be so bold, I would love to see more bagels made with better flour. I know where Bagel Oasis stands in the Shanda rankings, but I walked in there and they had no idea what I was talking about when I asked about flour (like it's all purpose flour [possibly not enough gluten, but I digress]... but where's it coming from...?). I say this about all bakeries (as unless gluten-free, flour is the main ingredient), not just bagels, but it's something I appreciate about this area. Even though it was a joke on Portlandia, we can trace flour back to the farmer, and it's better that way! I think.
Also, better flour tastes better and therefore makes a better bagel. Which is why I frequent Hey Bagel and not Backyard Bagel, not to get overly repetitive.
I know I heard Andrew talk a lot about sourcing so that makes a lot of sense. I'll try to pay attention to who is doing local sourcing like that as well, because, yeah, it's definitely appreciated.
As the descendent of Pennsylvania Quakers who grew up in the suburbs of Detroit and came to love the bagels that we got at the local store—I don’t remember the name, I was a kid, but I can tell you, I don’t remember there being a single thing Jewish where I grew up—I can claim NO bagel street cred whatsoever. Once I moved out of the house, I ate Lender’s Bagels for fuck’s sake. But somewhere along the line I started making my own bagels and, because I’m a little obsessive, I tried to make them better and better and better. Somehow, I ended up making bagels that were better than what I could get from some of the local bagel shops (Blazing Bagels, I’m talking about you.)
Anyway, I started to feel like I knew what a decent bagel was … and then I ran into your newsletter Sean, and I started to think a lot more about bagels and what makes them good, and I started to visit the bagel shops you were reviewing. When I ran into one of Andrew’s Hey Bagel pop ups, I knew there were people out there making bagels better than I could make at home. I’ve adopted your bagel standard as basically my own, though I think your Cornmeal Ring of Doom is a little much (as you know 😉). I’ve never had a bagel at one of your top 10 places that has disappointed me. Now, if you can only inspire someone to open a good bagel shop up in the Snohomish area …
Keep up the good work, Sean. You’re a real mensch. (Did I do that right?)
A tortilla is a crepe is a moo shu pancake is a palacsinta is blini is a wonton skin is a wrap.
A tortilla is not a crepe which is not a moo shu pancake which is not a palacsinta which is not a blini which is not a wonton skin which is not a wrap.
The a thing may be what it claims to be and it may not be what it claims to be. While some may claim we should think of bagels as another case for a famous physics thought experiment, I do not accept the premise of Schroedinger's Bagel. As Justice Potter Stewart said in the famous US Supreme Court case Jacobagless vs. Ohio (a state with a certain claim to appreciating the importance of roundnesss):
"I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description ["bagelness"], and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so, but I know it when I taste it. . .
(I believe that is the appropriate case citation and quotation.)
As a start I hope we can all agree that not all roughly hand-sized breadlike objects with a dimple or hole in the middle are worthy of the honorable and ancient title "bagel". The line between bagel and donut has held firm for generations despite a few sorties by heretics and other transgressors of the laws of nature.
At a personal level I can abide a hole which can be anywhere from almost not there to an inch or so. As a native New Yorker born in Mt. Sinai Hospital I am a traditionalist when it comes to toppings believing the core line-up consists of plain, sesame, poppyseed, onion, salt, pumpernickel and (for kids and the occasional step in to an alternative lifestyle) cinnamon raisin. I am at most equivocal about the everything bagel - c'mon, pick a lane. Garlic can be tasty but often overwhelms its bag mates and everyone at the table. Jalapeño, asagio, pizza, etc have crossed the border into something not a bagel.
The true essence of bageldom, however, is that it should be a round, dense piece of bread with a crispy crust that crackles when you bite into it, has flavor throughout, brings a gentle, happy smile to your face if you eat it shortly after it leaves the oven and, of course, has enough substance to be used as a weapon if caught off-guard during a mugging or other up-close confrontation.
Finally, bialys are cousins but not bagels. Mimi Sheraton, former restaurant critic for the New York Times, once wrote a very personal and delightful book called "The Bialy Eaters". It is short, charming and worth the few hours it take to read. It would be shanda to raise bialy awareness in the Pacific Northwest.
you summed it up, Peter!
I am honored