nosh nook #188 - wednesday, december 2, 2009

montreal's bagels square off against new york's (link)
12.1.09 - the ny times - by jennifer 8 lee

the summer after my freshman year of college, i met a few friends up in burlington, VT & we headed up to montreal for an evening of drunken, strip club hoppin' good times. just after we crossed the border into canada, we picked up a bunch of molson xxx & quickly thereafter got to consuming it in all its enhanced alcohol content glory. oh canada! better alcohol content! better drinking age! after a series of follies, we somehow eventually made it to club super sexe & although i've only been to one other strip club in my life & that one was stateside, i can clearly say...oh canada! better strippers! better lap dances! we already know they have a better health care system, so i won't even get into that.

so wait? does their bagel capital (montreal) also have better bagels than our bagel capital (nyc)? there's no way. our bagels rule. jennifer 8 lee (who is quickly becoming one of my favorite times writers) & the ny times city room had heard rumors that montreal had legendarily delectable & different bagels, so they decided to find out for themselves. as lee explains, "montreal, which saw an influx of jewish immigrants both before and after world war II, had become one of the main world centers of distinctive jewish cuisine." that, of course, means good bagels. with that in mind, city room took a trip up to a bagel joint way up in montreal--st-viateur's bagels. it seems like a bit of a hike for a bagel, but i guess we are talking the ny times here. they still have lots of money to throw around, right?

the first thing that lee & city room learned was that "montreal bagel makers had no problem trash-talking new york bagels, which they found to be too gargantuan and too salty. they even talked to one of st-viateur's employees & he asked "why do they even call it a bagel? it's like having bread." oh snap! he says that because their bagels are skinnier & have a more pronounced hole. as for the taste, they're "hand-rolled and baked in wood-burning ovens," so they have a "crisp and smoky crust." they're also made with malt flour & "are boiled in water with honey," so they're sweeter on the inside. there's no salt either, which is just crazy talk.

city room brought some of the bagels back for their times co-workers & the overall consensus was that "the new york bagel clearly won out among those who had an opinion to offer," as the montreal ones were "like new york pretzels without salt," "completely flavorless" and "dense, a little tough, and totally bland." they don't sound all that bad, but since i'm not heading up to montreal any time soon, for now, i'm going to have to take their word for it. that's okay with me though. the bagels we've got down here in nyc will do me just fine for now.