The Big Kvetch: Cornmeal, challah, and cream cheese

The first It's a Shanda mailbag is here...

Welcome to It’s A Shanda, one Northeastern Jew’s quest to find a decent bagel in Seattle (and beyond). Along with free bagel reviews every Sunday, we also offer bonus posts (like this one) each week. If you’re already subscribed, I hope you’ll consider upgrading to a paid subscription! Thank you for reading.

Credit: Mike Mozart

Welcome to the first It’s a Shanda mailbag. Thanks to everyone who sent in a question or query. I did my best to answer them below and there are more mailbags ahead (so keep your questions coming). The first answer is free to all but the full post is only available to paid subscribers. Enjoy!

“What's at the root of your concern for cornmeal? Does it represent a failure in process on the part of the baker or do you think it imparts some texture or flavor that's off-putting? And why ‘cornmeal ring of death’ (I'm quoting that from memory).” - Tom

I have a lot of preexisting food assumptions from when I was a kid that I’m still working through. Growing up in suburban New Jersey, I like to tell the story about how I was working under the assumption there was only one kind of radish (the red round one) until I started shopping at West Coast farmers markets (whaddya mean radishes come in pink and white?). 

Another one of those assumptions came with bagels. Sometimes when perusing the bagels at the supermarket, I would notice that their bottoms were caked in cornmeal. I knew that when I grabbed a dozen from Eli’s Hot Bagels, they certainly didn’t have that. And I didn’t remember ever seeing the cornmeal on the bottoms of any of the bagels I’d get at a good bagel shop. But if someone got store-bought bagels or picked up a dozen from a place that didn’t specialize in the bagels, the ring of cornmeal would be there. And invariably, those bagels weren’t very good.

Now in sticker form…

And so, early on, I created a mental note that if you see cornmeal ringing the bottom of a bagel, it must be bad. It’s a sign that whoever made these bagels didn’t put a lot of care into it.

Hence, the Cornmeal Ring of Doom^TM. 

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve come to understand the role that cornmeal plays in the bagel-making process, and how it doesn’t necessarily mean that the bagel will be bad. In fact, I’ve had plenty of good bagels that feature a CRoD. But it’s a correlation that is, no pun intended, baked into my psyche, and I’ll never not notice it. 

“My wife is very particular about the source of Shabbat challah. There are several choices in Seattle. It might be interesting to consider a weekly review of challah.” - Ned

It’s a slippery slope, Ned. If I start reviewing challah every week, then I’ll have to review babka every week, and then it’ll be weekly matzo, weekly bialys, and weekly kubaneh. And while there’s a part of me that would love nothing more than to dedicate my life to eating bread products, that might be a bit much even for me.

That said, I want to start using the mid-week post to identify some other items (like bialys) in the region, where to find them, and which ones are worth the schlep. Challah will be on the list. Stay tuned!

I recently paid $11 for a tub of cream cheese at Salmonberry Goods...and then I saw cream cheese at Macrina for $8. Better but still high. What is up with cream cheese prices lately!? - Aylin

When I tried to chart out the best and worst Seattle bagel values last year, it became pretty evident that schmears are usually where they get you. And since a lot of the pop-ups and smaller bagel places only sell schmears by container, they can suck you in with a reasonably priced bagel (by Seattle standards) and zing you with the za’atar cream cheese. 

If you’ve eaten enough cream cheese, you start to appreciate the really good stuff from the gooey crap. So the key, I think, is to find a quality cream cheese that doesn’t break the bank. In turn, you can avoid the ones you know probably aren’t going to be high quality. 

loxsmithseattle

A post shared by @loxsmithseattle

I did a quick look around at everyone’s pricing for standalone schmear containers, usually coming in at 8 oz.

• Bean’s Bagels - $4-$7

• Einstein’s - $5.29

• Blazing Bagels - $5.50-$7.50

• Mt. Bagel - $6-$9

• Bagel Oasis - $6-$12

• Loxsmith - $6-$12

• Oxbow - $6.15 - $12.60

• Macrina - $7

• Aaron’s Bagels - $7-$9

• Eltana - $7.50 - $10.50

• Rachel’s $8-$10

• Hey Bagel - $9

• Rubinstein’s - $9-$10

• Westman’s - $9-$16

• Salmonberry Goods - $10-$11

• Old Salt - $10-$14

• Zylberschtein’s - $11-$12

• Dingfelder’s - $18

The ones that jumped out to me are Bean’s Bagels (very sturdy schmear), Mt. Bagel (they could charge so much more for their wares but don’t), Bagel Oasis (The 👑), and Aaron’s Bagels (quality schmear). If you’re trying to maximize your cream cheese value, I’d start with them. 

More mailbag answers to come. In the meantime, if you’ve got a question of your own, submit it at seanmatthewkeeley@gmail.com.

Thanks for actually reading this far. If you enjoyed my bagel review and want to read more of them, make sure you’re subscribed to It’s A Shanda. Know someone in the Greater Seattle Area (or beyond) who would appreciate way-too-detailed reviews of local bagels? Please forward the link their way.