Buzzy buzzfeed piece on Mtl vs NY bagels
A woman writing buzzily for Buzzfeed compared New York vs Montreal bagels. She creates several categories, and the tl;dr is that the New York ones function well as a bread roll as a basis to build something else, while Montreal’s are better simply as a thing unto itself.
BobR 09:48 on 2024-05-28 Permalink
Truth.
jeather 09:53 on 2024-05-28 Permalink
Yeah, I eat bagel sandwiches all the time, and though it’s fine, it’s definitely less ideal than a NY bagel shape — especially if it’s got egg in it. (Not egg salad, egg.) But I’m intrigued that her third bagel choice was Dizz’s — what a weird option.
Meezly 10:12 on 2024-05-28 Permalink
I really like both, but nothing beats a Montreal bagel fresh out of the oven and biting through the crispy outer layer into the soft steamy dough.
Did you know you can almost recreate that fresh-out-of-the-oven feeling with day-olds by heating the whole bagel in a toaster oven? I never understood why people would slice the bagel in half and then toast it, as it completely dries out the inside! but if you warm up the whole bagel, the outer layer gets crispy again and the interior gets soft and steamy again!
carswell 10:48 on 2024-05-28 Permalink
That was painful to read.
Have never come close to choking on a Montreal bagel. Has happened twice eating a NY bagel, the closest I’ve ever come to experiencing a Heimlich manoeuvre.
IMHO, there is no such thing as a best cinnamon-raisin bagel, only a less bad.
Ian 11:44 on 2024-05-28 Permalink
Having come from Ontario originally I am well-acquainted with the big dense bagels. We were always told that Toronto’s bagels were “Phildelphia” style. My stepdad called them lead doughnuts, he wasn’t far from wrong.
Ephraim 13:52 on 2024-05-28 Permalink
When she says that the best bagels are cinnamon-raisin and everything bagels, she lost me. Cinnamon-raisin… a shanda! (I admit, I had to look that up)
And you can only get onion, garlic, and kimmel at Fairmount. Fairmount also don’t have “Everything” only All-Dressed, which includes kimmel (caraway for the uncultured!)
Ian 14:02 on 2024-05-28 Permalink
Another thing that rarely gets brought up is bagel store matzoh. Not to be confused with regular cracker-style matzoh. The ones they have at Fairmount are crisp, packed with seeds, and delicous. The ones at St Viateur are just … weird. They have the texture of graham crackers, and taste like… I dunno, sadness? Regret?
jeather 14:23 on 2024-05-28 Permalink
Are you talking about bagel boards (the rectangular ones) or bagel crisps/chips (the ones that are sliced from a bagel)? I love bagel boards, though I got them from Dizz’s (it was convenient) and it was . . . not good.
All dressed is just the Montreal term for everything wrt bagels, I thought?
CE 15:01 on 2024-05-28 Permalink
Fairmount has cinnamon raisin bagels. I know this not because I’ve eaten them but because sometimes batches of them must come into contact with my beloved all dressed bagels and gives them a terrible flavour and smell.
All dressed is everything everywhere else. I imagine we got it from “tout garni.”
Ian 18:04 on 2024-05-28 Permalink
@jeather yes, the boards. Not to be confused with crisps – but I like those too.
I akways thought all dressed was the anglicization of tout garni, or “the works” in most of the rest of North America. You can get everything bagel seasoning at the Jewish grocers, its not a Montreal thing per se.