In my recent efforts to lose weight and get in better physical shape generally, I've made a concerted effort to replace the junk food in my diet with more nutritious stuff. As a result, I've developed over a short period of time a fondness -- you could almost say an addiction -- to bagels as a snack food. Since I haven't been doing bagels for very long, though, I feel that I don't really know that much about them and that I could use some education on the subject. Like, what kinds of bagels are out there? Are there different branches of the bagel family, or are all bagels more or less alike? What are the best places to get bagels around Ann Arbor or, for that matter, around the world? What is the folklore of bagels? Please use this item to ask questions or enlighten us about bagels.168 responses total.
The best bagels are out east of cours but around here you can get ripped off at a place in Haslett.
If you want good bagels, ya gots to follow the Jews! I wouldn't eat at a Cantonese-food restaurant if there weren't any members of the Chinese-American community there!
The best bagels are made in Brooklyn or by someone from Brooklyn (Jewish of course). My dad grew up in Brooklyn when it was a nicer place to live. I love bagels, especially freshly baked. I'm not jewish, but in the NY metro area the Jewish bakeries are outstanding. Makes me hungry thinking about it. They also make the best rye and pumpernickle bread. Loaves like footballs with a great crust (never sold in a plastic bag!). What a great subject! Time for a snack :-)
I just ate supper and still you're making me hungry :)
Ahh, Bagels... a subject close to my heart. But I will rely on an expert to provide information on this subject. And he is Leo Rosten. I quote: bagel Pronounced BAY-g'l, to rhyme with "Nagel." From German, /Beugel/, "a round loaf of bread." A hard doughnut-shape roll, simmered in hot water for two minutes before baking, then glazed with egg white. If you have never tasted a /bagel/, I feel sorry for you. /Bagels/ are known as doughnuts with a college education--and the college is probably Yeshiva. Because Bagels were made of white flour, they were considered great deicacies in Eastern Europe, where the poor Jews (and most Jews were very poor, indeed) ate black bread except on the Sabbath, when the queen of breads, /challah/ was eaten. A /bagel/ was supposed to be lucky because it is round. Don't laugh at the Jews: The wise Greeks thought a circle "the perfect" form, because it had neither beginning nor end; therefore, God, being perfect, chose the circle as the basic form in constructing the universe. The orbits of the stars and planets were assumed to be circular. Even Aristotle thought so, and so did Ptolemy, and so did Copernicus, who nearly drove himself crazy trying to rearrange Ptolemy's elaborate observations into a new set of circles with epicenters. (The mystic assumption about circles plagued and stymied astronomers until Kepler.) /Bagels/ and hard-boiled eggs were traditionally served in Jewish homes after a funeral, for they were thought to symbolize the unending "round" processes of life and the world. The custom may have developed from interpretations of the passage in Ecclesiastes: "One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh; but the earth abideth for ever." The first printed mention of /bagels/, by the way, is to be found in the Community Regulations of Cracow, Poland for the year 1610 -- which stated that /bagels/ would be given as a gift to any woman in childbirth. I suppose that you, like most people, think that a /bagel/ and lox (smoked salmon) is the traditional Sunday morning breakfast for Jews. It is certainly widespread, but not traditional: it is a triumph of cuisine invented by American Jews. Slices of tender lox, topping a layer of sweet butter on which cream cheese has been lathered, the whole enclosed by a toasted /bagel/, is so delicious that, to stop the watering in my mouth, I am going out to lunch.
Wonderful, Steve. I've been a bagel person since I first tasted them, sometime when I was something like 8 years old. I remember that I was with a frienda family, and we were in Oak Park; we stopped at a deli and that was my first taste of bagels. When the Bagel Factory opened up in Ann Arbor (in 1969?), I was estatic. I remember chewing on a resurrected frozen bagel procured from Krogers and wondered who put the golf cart tires in a bagel package. Ugh. Since those days I've made it a point to observe smell (and eat) bagels when I'm somewhere else. But the Bagel Factory is still consistently in the top 5% of such places that I have been to. If someone thinks they can find me better bagels, I'd love a sample.
This weekend seems to be the time for one of our (greenops & I) semi-regular Sunday brunch trips to Barry's Bagels. (raisin). The rest of the week will feature the occasional treat of toasted Barry's with peanut butter. The strangest bagel I ever tasted (excluding the odd Kroger teething ring), was from a place in downtown Oreno, Me. Greenops has told me several times about the strange bagels she grew to like after her initial "what's that?" bite, back when she was mastering at some other U-M up that way. We visited Maine this past summer and stopped at the bagel place of her memory. Yes, the bagel served was a perfect taste-cross between croissant and bagel. Uck. Yum. Maybe it's a Stephen King recipe.
In Ann Arbor, I don't think you can top them. The main competition is Barry Bagels and Zingermans. Barry's is not quite as good. Zingerman's in my opinion is selling something else. They have two products: Their own bagels and Bagels from the Manhattan Bagel Company. These are good products, but they are not traditional bagels. They're much too large, and have a consistency more like bread. Anyway, I'm sure some will disagree, but I much prefer the Bagel Factory, too. Sometimes, when I'm in Oak Park (MI), I go to the Bagel Store next to the Farmer Jack's at the SE corner of Coolidge and 10 Mile Road. It reminds me of the bagel factories* of New York when I was a kid, and so do the bagels. Very traditional. In those days, of course, there was only one flavor of bagel. Somehow, that was quite enough for us then. *We called all bagel stores "factories". Do not confuse this with the Bagel Factory (a trade name). We called them that not because they were big - they were small storefronts, but because they made everything they sold right in the store, and they could make an awful lot in their big ovens. It is a bygone era, but I remember 5 cent bagels.
8 was a response to 6 as 7 slipped in.
I see the Bagel Factory mentioned - is it still on South U. close to Washtenaw? That used to be a Sunday evening staple (dorms didn't [still don't?] serve a Sunday evening meal). I *really* liked the fragels! :-)
Yes it is. The remodeled it a few years ago, but it didn't move.
The Bagel Factory and Barry Bagels are related, kinda. Two guys originally owed The Bagel Factory, but when they decided to no longer be partners, one was bought out and opened what is now Barry Bagels in the Westgate shopping center. Both kept the bagel recipe as part of the agreement but only the Bagel Factory can use the Fragel name or recipe.
I've been getting my bagels mostly from Barry's, since it's close to where I live. Their bagels are quite good, to my (admittedly untutored) taste. I'll have to check out The Bagel Factory -- the only thing I've ever tried there are fragels, which are now off-limits due to my weight loss goals.
Interesting to hear about the two stores. If Barry's has the same recipe as the BF, they aren't using it correctly. For example, try an onion bagel at each place. I think the BF is distinctly better. I'm interested to hear the response of the author of this item, a bagel newcommer... ;-)
I'll let you know, when I've tried some BF products.
re #8: Bagel Factory bagels always remind me of wonderbread in their
consistency. Light and airy -- a "bagel for the masses" -- not
the real thing.
Zingerman's doesn't make its own bagels -- it buys them out of
Detroit.
re #12: Let's rewrite that history a little bit. Barry, owner of The
Bagel Place of Ohio, d/b/a Barry Bagel's Place (or The Bagel
Place), was a manager at The Bagel Factory when he was attending
college (sort of) at EMU. It was Barry who found a use for the
deep friers, when The Bagel Factory discovered that nobody wanted
to eat french fries, by making himself a creative dessert from
raisin bagel dough. One day the owner overheard Barry telling
another employee how easy it would be to open a new bagel store,
and fired him. Barry, who had no money, found a partner and opened
a store in Toledo. He gradually expanded to have a number of
stores in Toledo, over almost twenty years, then opened up a store
in Ann Arbor. His dough recipe has always been distinct from
that of the Bagel Factory. He used to make "fragels" at some of
his Toledo stores, but didn't care for the after-effects of deep
frying (it is messy) and the fact that they were really only good
when served hot (which meant the friers had to be on constantly),
so he stopped. The name "Fragel" is a registered trademark of The
Bagel Factory.
Barry Bagel's changed its cooking techniques a couple of years
ago. As a result its bagels are somewhat larger and softer, and
have a longer shelf-life, but the searing effect that brings out
the flavor of an onion bagel is lost. Toasting helps a lot.
On the other hand, the garlic bagels are quite flavorful due to
the use of kosher garlic particles as a topping as opposed to
garlic powder or garlic salt.
Listen, I don't claim to know everything about anything. . .but BAGELS, I know! The very best bagels in this woman's world can be gotten from H&H Bagels in New York. (Like no other bagel in the world.) You may order by calling: 1-800NY Bagel or fax 212 799-6765. Minimu order is 2 dozen bagels (and believe it or not, they come warm.) Each dozen costs $7.20. If anyone wants to order a batch I'll split an order with them. They have:Plain, onion, sesame, poppy, salt, garlic, whole wheat, cin-raisin, sourdough, oat bran and bialys. You can charge to Amex, Visa or Mastercard, and I promise, these bagels will render all others obsolete. (the author is in no way related to, or receives any kicj backs from H&H.)
Born in Brooklyn I can tell you that it is the only place to get a real bagel. But where you get it isn't as important as how you get it and how you eat it. The most important thing is to get them HOT (frozen is a joke.) After a half a day it's just not a bagel anymore. Next, don't rush eating it. Sit down a newspaper (the New York Sunday Times is recommended) and just forget about everything. Enjoy
If others prefer Barry's, that's fine with me. I really don't care for Barry's bagles and much prefer the Bagel Factory.
I just eat.
Audrey said what I was going to say. I learned at my mother's knee that the best bagels in the universe come from H&H's. Mom lives a block away from H&H. She visited Ann Arbor a few weeks ago and brought us some H&H bagels. They're in the freezer. I'm content to eat bagels that have been frozen and thawed, as long as they're not *over*thawed in the microwave, which turns them into rocks. To be honest, while NYC really does have the best pizza in the universe, I'd say Bagel Factory bagels from right here in Ann Arbor are just as good. I made bagels, twice, with my breadmaker, a pot of water, and an oven. They came out pretty good, but I haven't made any in two years. I had some strange bagels in California. They were good, but they tasted kind of like little round wonder bread loaves. Someone told me this store didn't boil their bagels, but rather they baked them straight up. They had some special technique they used to get more sesame/poppy/whatever seeds to stick to the bagel. It worked, but something was lost in the translation. Lenders frozen bagels should be used as hockey pucks, not eaten. The weirdest bagel experience I've ever had was when I visited my cousin Frank in Australia. When I arrived, his roommate asked me if I'd like a bagel. I said sure. The roommate laughed his head off. I asked what I'd said that was so funny. Frank explained that they don't have bagels in Australia but they'd heard of them in the movies. Some shopping malls were starting to carry them. What was so funny was that I'd reacted to this mythical food as if it were something ordinary people eat everyday.
Sounds like they were picking on you for being a Jew!
Where I live we have Bruegger's Bagel bakeries. Walk in anytime of day and the dozen or so bins with the different bagel flavors have "HOT" signs to show which ones are literally still hot from the oven. I hate to seem to be approving of a franchise that seems hellbent on world bagel domination (three new stores here in the past year ala Espresso Royale or Barnes & Noble), but it's hard to resist. In AA I had problems with Barry bagels, which always seemed stale by the time I got them. I often fell back on Meijer's frozen ACME bagels, which were pretty good for frozen, and hard to beat at about a dime apiece.
I remember when Barry changed the recipe. They are now too soft to satisfy
as bagels, in my opinion. Re: Zingermans, I know they used to buy them
out of Detroit, but I thought they started baking their own when they
opened their bakery and began baking their own bread. They haven't
improved, though, so I may be mistaken.
I'll stick with BF bagels in Ann Arbor, but there were many places in NY
that made better bagels when I used to live there. I completely agree
with moti that the bagel is best when still warm, and eaten slowly.
I have also found that the Sunday Times brings out the flavor.
Here is some more from Leo Rosten on Bagels:
-
A Yiddish expression: "Er ligt in drerd und bakt bagel." is readily
translated as "He lies in the ground and bakes bagels." But what does
that mean? "He's not doing so well, poor chap."
-
A man from Mars landed on Second Avenue and looked into a store window,
fascinated. Finally, he entered the shop and asked the owner: "What are
those little wheels in the window?"
"Wheels? What Wheels?"
The Martian pointed.
"But those aren't wheels," smiled the baleboss [owner] "They're called
/bagels/. We eat them . . . Here, Try one."
The Martian bit into a bagel and smacked his lips. "Man! This would
go great with cream cheese and lox."
-
On St. Patrick's day, 1968, Macy's ran an advertisement in the New York
papers such as I had never thought I'd see:
BAGELS
BEGORRAH!
(green ones, yet)
The ad ended: "Cream cheese and lox . . . eighth floor."
Of such is the history of human culture compounded. Begorrah.
Hey Steve? How come you keep putting /slashes/ around the word bagel? Re 22: I doubt it. For being an American is more like it.
Two bagel shops are a block away... I think I'm taking a walk this morning!
There is a sign near the cash register at Zing's announcing an upcoming bagel symposium and tasting. It's sounds like their bakery will be using the preferences from this event in deciding which bagel they'll be baking.
The current issue of the King Arthur Flour Baker's Catalog has a page devoted to bagels, including a book called _The Bagel Bible_, two types of bagel slicer, an Italian bagel skimmer, a bagel dough cutter, and malt powder (which is supposed to be the key ingredient in NY bagels). If you want a catalog, call 1-800-827-6836. Disclaimer: I've never ordered from them. People on the Bread Maker Digest mailing list seem very happy with this company. This is linked from Agora item 10 to Kitchen item 87.
The slashes are my feeble attempt to represent the italics that were in the original that I was quoting. Sorry I didn't make that clear. Now that I think about it, they were only italicized, because they appeared in the alphabetic entry for "bagel".
You people are so boring. Like we needed all that about bagels.
Although I am from the Midwest, I know a thing or two about bagels. One thing not mentioned to our weight-watching comrade is that the damage to one's waistline is directly proportional to the toppings applied. I.e. a toasted bagel with melted butter (MUCH better than toast) IS fattening. Most cream cheese is fattening. Etc. Most self-respecting bagels in themselves are low-fat and healthy. The best bagels are fresh, warm, and without preservatives. I am new in town, so I cannot help you here, but you can get a pretty decent bagel at Marx bagel factory in Cincinnati (if you are ever down that way.
Whats wrong with talking about bagels? Or brick laying, for that matter? There are few boring subjects...
I got my introduction to bagels in HS. Been hooked on em ever since.
Can we talk about bagel laying, then?
Is boredom a boring subject?
What's boring about bagels is the holes.
I don't think the holes are bored. One of my favorite things to eat from the Bagel Factory is their Veggie Pesto bagel, which consists of tomato, onion, pesto, and smoked mozzarella on a sesame bagel. It smells and tastes delicious!
You're right Carson, they aren't bored. Boring holes in bagels is unnecessary, because they are made with a hole in them already. Actually they are formed by rolling the dough into a cylinder, and then winding the cylinder around your finger to form a bagel-shape (torus).
yet another reason why I fail to understand the Bagel Factory's "help needed for punching holes in bagels" sign...
My own clear favorite is Barry Bagel's honey-wheat. They used to be even better, and went through a period when they often didn't seem to be thoroughly done - almost sufficient to turn me away permanently, & if it weren't so much out of the way (& so rare) for me to go by there I'd have demanded a refund a few times. (Thanks very much for the history lesson, BTW, Aaron. Strongly agreed that toasting now greatly helps on the onion ones, and on a number of others too even when they're fresh. <frown>)
RE 39 :said sign having been posted for at least the last 20 years:)
I helped certify that big, goofy looking guy that works at Barry's as an Open-Water SCUBA diver last month.
I check with Zingerman's tonight while I was in the area. I was wrong when I posted that they started baking their own bagels when they opened their bakehouse. They are still buying bagels. They plan to expand to baking their own in 2 years. I think they should be able to top anything baked in A^2 today if they go about it in a traditional way.
There's such a thing as "donut holes" - is there such a thing as "bagel holes" ??? :-)
hmm... probably wouldn't be as versatile as a regular bagel... awfully difficult to slice... you could always fry it and roll it in cinnmon and sugar, though. ;)
re #40: New cooks have problems with honey-wheat bagels, due to their
darker color. They "look done" before they are done. (They
are also the fastest of all of the bagel types to burn, due to
the honey.)
I would venture that the difference between "old" and "recent"
HW bagels emerges from the cooking method (as with the onion
bagels). As much of a chore as wet board baking is, it makes
for the best bagels.
Some places sell bagel chips: slices of bagel that are cooked to be like Zweiback (how do you spell that?) toast. Sounds like bagel holes would lend themselves nicely to becoming bagel chips. Now if only I could figure out how to bite into a bagel chip without having it explode all over the place or hurt someone....
Okay, I stopped by the Bagel Factory yesterday and picked up a dozen assorted bagels. Preliminary findings are favorable -- the first one I tried, a salt bagel, was quite tasty and had a nice texture. I preferred it to Barry's salt bagels.
Bagels rule!!
They are horrible and boring to have for breakfast if you're like me and get invited to your Jewish relatives for breakfast and that's all they ever eat. Yesterday was employee appreciation day and to show us how much we are appreciated, our department head brought in bagels.
The Bagel Factory bagels didn't hold their freshness very long. Two days old and they're stale stale stale. Barry's bagles hold up better.
bagels, even.
Or beagles?
woof.
I don't like anybody's two-day-old bagels. Bagels should be fresh. Still warm from the oven is best.
Ja, they get hard fast. It's like corn on the cob: ya gotta eat it right away or get it into the freezer right away, otherwise it loses quality *fast*.
Valerie is correct. Bagels should be eaten fresh or immediately frozen. Try splitting them before freezing, and thawing/toasting them in a toaster oven. Don't try to store salt bagels in plastic bags....
Bagels are "soft rocks" and must be eaten fresh, or they turn back into rocks.
Hey! Splitting them before freezing -- what a great idea!! Thanks Aaron! I always freeze them first, then try to thaw and split them at about the same time, which doesn't work very well. Never over-thaw bagels in the microwave or they turn into *serious* rocks.
<remmers sees that he still has a lot to learn about bagel culture.>
No, no, you don't *culture* them except to the extent that all yeast breads are cultured.
Yogurt? Did somebody mention yogurt?
<he>
Had a salt bagel the other day at Stucchi's in Twelve Oaks Mall. It had the taste and texture of a bagel-shaped piece of French bread. Now, if I want French bread, I'll order French bread, thank you.
Are there enough bagel joints in the Ann Arbor area that Grex could hold it's own bagel tasting event? I'd especially like to participate in a blind tasting where one wouldn't know the store until after the judging was completed. Any interest?
A Grex bagel party! I love it!
(Correction to #64: I believe it was Grazi's, not Stucchi's.)
I'd love to participate in a testing.
I just came from Zingerman's. They said they had a bagel tasting and Barry's bagels were judge the best. They will be carrying them as of 10/24/94. So, Remmers, make sure you get on down there, sample, and give us a report.
Hey! We saw that bagel tasting! Cool! On this morning's walk, the walkers talked about having another debriefing at Barry's Bagels. Maybe we could sweep remmers along in the tide of walkers headed over there some Saturday....
I cannot believe any group of people said that Barry's Bagels were better than the Bagel Factory. Because of this item, I went back to Barry's and tried a couple. They wern't bad, but I cannot compare them to the Bagel Factory. I wonder if they have more sugar in them? Americans love sugar, seemingly above all else, so perhaps thats the reason?
Re # 21. You can have H&H bagels sent FedEx overnight and still get them practically warm. There's an "800" number, but I can't find the card at this time. I'll keep looking. I think you need to order a minimum of one or two dozen to make it worthwhile.
keep looking.............
re #71: I have a hard time thinking of Bagel Factory products as
"bagels," save for the shape. That doesn't mean I don't
appreciate them for what they are; just that they are too
light for my tastes as a "bagel" as opposed to a "bread
product." Having had bagels in NY, I find it hard to believe
popcorn can't tell the difference. ;)
I guess I should state an opinion on bagels.... Best I have had were in NY. Second-best were from a place in Seattle; sorry, but I don't recall the name. A2 bagels are good. On the low end of the scale, Jacob's Brothers in Chicago... okay, but nothing to write home about. The worst? Meijer's doughy factory-formed "from the freezer to the shelf in 10 minutes" bagels. (Unless we count the occasional, "if we take this kaiser roll dough and make it into a circle..." bagels, which don't really count.)
H&H's phone number is something like 1-800-BAGELS (but that doesn't have enough digits). You can call 1-800-555-1212 to locate any toll free number, for free. Or, I'll be in NY in a few weeks, so I can look up the number when I'm there. Hm... I just checked in my bag closet, found a shopping bag from H&H, and it didn't have their phone number on it. <sigh>
The H&H Bagel number is: 1-800-NYBagel.
My highly placed source has indicated to me that the winner of the Zingerman's bagel taste-off was a bakery from Detroit. (Not sure which one.) If Barry's is taking over delivery to Zingerman's, it is because of their high runner-up status, not their victory.
Re 71: STeve, I'm no bagel purist - never tasted the things until I was in college, & have fairly narrow experience, & am not a purist about food of any kind anyway - & I much prefer Barry's. Those who want to argue about what is the most traditionally-correct are welcome to do so, but outside that it's a matter of taste, & there will be tastes on both sides in this one.
Sweets for the sweetest: I see that Barry Bagel's does offer the new "sweet honey brown sugar cream cheese" yummmmm. But then I understand that the Bagel Factory sells something called Fragel wish is deep fried and rolled in powdered sugar. I wouldn't like either confection because I usually have my bagels with about a gallon of Pepsi and all that sweet taste would clash. (or Nutrasweet taste, as the case may be).
More on H&H Bagels. The telephone number is 1 800 NY Bagel. The minimum order is 2 dozen, (8 pounds). Each dozen cost $7.20. They ship overnight, FedEx, Express mail and UPS. The accept American Express, Visa, & MC. I hope this helps.
Working across the street from the Bagel Factory, I've become quite addicted to fragels. As somebody was saying in Party recently, fragels are god's gift to man.
fragels are wonderful! the best, though, is a fresh pumpernikle bagel, (from barry's!), and have WAY TOO MUCH cream cheese on it! :)
fragels are not good, they're incredible. there is going to be a new contestant in the great bagle debate-- they're over in the mall where Busch's are, off Ann Arbor-Saline road. I went in, seeing activity, but it was really just the construction folk. One of them came up to me and said they wern't open yet, and gave me a coupon good for three free bagels. The name is someting like Brugelman's Bagels.
I was by there today too. The folks at the Y&S next door seemed *awfully* friendly today. :)
i saw it,. is it open yet?
re #84: I think it is called Breugger's. It is part of a national
chain, out of Vermont, now headquartered in New York. (I don't
go out of my way to pick up this stuff.... I read about the
place in last month's Observer.)
Another update.... Zingerman's will be buying its bagels from
a bakery in Detroit, quite possibly the one that won its
contest.
re #85: Direct competition, in a lot of ways. Sandwiches and ice cream
at the new place, which has a much larger organization behind it,
versus sandwiches and a broader variety of frozen dessert options
at Y&S.
I am a bit curious as to whether the new place will run TV ads.
I am also curious as to how they will bake their bagels. My
guess is that they will get half-baked frozen "from the freezer
to the counter in ten minutes"-type bagels; but it would be nice
if they bake their own on wet boards -- the traditional baking
method.
Zingerman's is now selling "Brother's Bagels". Brother's did indeed win the taste test.
There's a Brueger's Bagels here in NC that sells a variety of bagels and a variety of cream cheeses. And of course, sandwiches, soup, etc.
i think that we should go to bruegers one of these days...you know, for expermientation and such...:)
I went last Friday. It was pretty good. The bagel was warm, the scallion and bacon cream cheese was delicious. Hey, the coffee was good too!
Sounds like this calls for a Saturday Morning post-walk debriefing....
Yup. I'll add it to the "proposed" list.
it's got my vote!
Come on down, on a field trip, to a Brueger's near my home!! We can do it after one of my Saturday morning group walks... :-)
I checked out the new Brueger's in Ann Arbor today and sampled the bagels. Not bad, but Barry's is still my favorite.
I did the same, and I like Brueger's better than the others.
Interesting. I tried Brurgger's too, and I'm Not Impressed at all. They don't have flavor. The onion and garlic bagles had onion and garlic on the *outside* of the bagel! Horrors! In the case of the garlic, it broke down into only the allin enzyme, which isn't nearly as flavorful as the alasyn (sp?) enzyme. The onion on the outside was just burned. On the inside they were the same bagel. Eechh. The sesame bagle was better, but only by a little.
I love Brueger's. There is one by my parents' house and every time I go home I have to get a bagle from there.
I just had a blueberry bagel from Barry's Bagels yesterday. It was excellant!
Well I don't normally eat onion or garlic bagels, but I had a plain bagel. Now in my opinion plain unadulterated bagels are the ultimate test. The Bruegger's bagel had more taste than any other in Ann Arbor. I really think thay have a more traditional bagel than the stores we're used to. It reminded me of the bagels I used to eat as a kid. Bagel's are clearly a matter of taste, so I'm not shocked to find a great deal of dissension here, but I'm real glad there's another choice in town. Bruegger's is a chain, but this is not always a bad thing. This bagel item has been so Ann Arbor oriented, it's nice to get a viewpoint from elsewhere. Lefty, what town is that Bruegger's in?
I think most of the bagel places discussed here (the AA ones, anyway) are chains. Small, fairly localized ones, admittedly.
Bruegger's is a more national chain, but I have no idea what parts of the nation they cover. I didn't know that Barry's and Bagel factory were chains. How many stores do they have?
Last I noticed (quite a while back), I think Barry's listed 3 or 4. My memories on Bagel Factory are too vague to be reliable, but I *thought* they had at least one other location somewhere.
Ja, I don't think Bagel Factory has a lot more than one other location, if that.
Barry Bagel's is in Grand Rapids, Bowling Green, Ann Arbor and Toledo. Bagel Factory has several outlets through michigan (five or six, as I recall).
For what it's worth, there was a Bruegger's or two in Iowa City, IA.
Apparently, there is a "new" bagel store on Washtenaw, somewhere between A2 and Ypsi.
Indeed there is. It's in the strip mall that houses Builders Square, across from the Toyota dealership. I noticed it driving home from work the other night, but it was closed.
Tonight's Ann Arbor News has a story on the booming business in bagels. It talks about the new Great Bagel! store on Washtenaw, the new Bruegger's Bagels, the recent contest to be the Zingerman bagel supplier. A spokes- man for the Bruegger chain is quoted as saying "Bagels have become a very hot category." Today's health consciousness is often cited as a reason for the bagel bonanza. Bagels are low in fat (1 or 2 grams in a plain bagel) and are boiled and baked rather than fried.
Hmm, that's very confusing. I thought Bruegger's was on Ann Arbor Saline Road, and I thought Brother's Bagels won the Zingerman's contest.
Yeah--I thought the Zingerman's winner was from Toledo?
Hmm, my grammar, though unambiguous, appears to have confused. Perhaps I should have said "the new Bruegger's Bagels, *AND* the recent contest to be the Zingerman bagel supplier." Omitting the "and" made it sound like there was a connection between the two, I guess.
Has anybody made it to "Great Bagel!" A comparison would be interesting.
Where is that?
It's in Fountain Plaza or whatever that strip mall is called that has Builders Square in it. Right across from the Toyota dealership.
That's near the eastern end of my range. I'll give it a try if I'm out in that direction someday though, and I'll post the results.
Saw an ad for H&H bagles in a little teeny tiny ad on the front page of Sundays New York Times.
Barry Bagels gives out a nice little leaflet on the nutritional content of bagels. According to it, a 4 oz. plain bagel has calories 280 (15%) carbohydrates 60 gm (20%) protein 8 gm (15%) fat <1 gm (0%) cholesterol 0 gm (0%) fiber 3 gm (10%) sodium 570 mg (20%) The figures for the other flavors of bagels are listed and are very close to the above. Interestingly, a salt bagel has only 25% more sodium than a plain bagel. The percentages are of Daily Reference Value, based on a 2000 calorie daily intake. A quote from the leaflet: Nutritional scientists now know that the body used carbohydrates to burn fat. During mild to moderate physical exertion muscle cells burn both fat and carbohydrates at the same time. Indeed, it is said that fat burns in the flame of carbohydrates. During extreme exertion the body stops using fat and switches entirely to carbo- hydrates. So if you are trying to lose fat by exercising you need to keep your exertion at a moderate level and you need to supply your body with high carbohydrate low fat foods, like bagels. It would appear that a bagel is a pretty healthy snack.
The analysis is probably based upon a list of ingredients, as opposed to the more expensive laboratory blending and burning of samples to determine caloric content, with further analysis to determine such things as sodium content. I would not count on that 25% figure being accurate.
How accurate does it have to be to be "accurate"? I'm quite sure Aaron is right, especially given the variance observable even to the casual consumer.
20% of daily requirement of sodium doesn't sound too good for someone trying to cut down. While that's probably not outrageous compared to some other foods, it still looks excessive...
570mg of sodium seems like a lot to me, too. Less than a can of soup (2 gm for typical soup), but more than two slices of bread (100-200mg, depending on brand).
Hey, I thought doctors weren't allowed to know anything about nutrition. ;)
There is also an allowable variability of 20% on food labels, per FDA regulations.
The frozen bagels (never touch 'em) that I saw in Krogers claim to have 410mg Na in an 85g bagel. That's less than Barry's, but still more than I thought.
I don't (hence the waistline).
I like Brueggers bagels
<valerie totally fails to remember zook having an excessively large waistline>
<zook thanks Valerie for her memory lapse>
<valerie thinks that in this case her memory hasn't lapsed>
<aruba thinks there's an awful lot of angle brackets and speaking in the third person going on here>
>>> (just to close off angle bracket mode...) Stopped by Great Bagels, the new bagel place on Washtenaw Avenue, to sample their wares. They have an "everything bagel" that's pretty tasty -- a bit of onion, a bit of garlic, some salt, sesame seeds, poppy seeds. Picked up a few of their others and will report back here after I've tried them. Somebody way back there suggested slicing bagels in half and freezing them for long term storage. I have been doing this and find that it works great. Nuking a half bagel in the microwave on 50% power for about a minute restores it to a state of tasty warm freshness.
Yep, freezing bagels does work for having fresh-like bagels later on!
Great Bagels bagels have turned out to be mediocre. Cake-like consistency. Barry Bagels remains my favorite in Ann Arbor, with Breugger a close second, Bagel Factory a somewhat distant third. Haven't tried Zingerman bagels since they switched to the Detroit supplier, but I'll let you know...
You can make some pretty passable bagels in a pasta machine in your very own kitchen-anyone want a recipe?
Sure! This sounds interesting! (I don't personally have a pasta machine, though, so if it's a pain in the neck to type in the recipe, you might wait for someone who actually *has* a pasta machine to request it.)
No problem. Here it is: 2 cups all purpose flour 4 Tbs sugar 4 tsp salt 2/3 c very warm water (120 F) 1 Tbs melted butter 1 egg white beaten with 1 Tbs cold water 2 tsp active dry yeast Set up machine with large circular die (bagel die). Place flour, 3 Tablespoons of the sugar and 2 tsp of salt in machine's mixing bowl. Cover and mix 30 seconds. Using a measuring cup, add yeast and margarine or butter to warm water. Mix slightly. Slowly pour liquid through opening in machine cover. Mix 4 minutes. Cover machine bowl with cloth and allow the dough to rise for 1 hour. Extrude dough through bagel die. Cut extruded dough into lengths 6-7 inches and form into circles. Pinch ends together and place bagels on greased baking sheet. Cover and let rise 1 hour. In large skillet, heat 1 inch of water, 1 Tablespoon of sugar and 2 tsp of salt to a simmer. Drop bagels into simmering water. Cook 3 minutes. Turn and cook 2 minutes. Turn and cook again for 1 minute more. !Drain on towel for 5 minutes. Preheat oven to 375. Place bagels on greased baking sheet. Mix egg white and water together; brush on bagels. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until nicely browned. If de!sired, the usual toppings may be sprinkled before baking; e.g., sesame seed, poppy seed, garlic, onion salt. Makes about 10 bagels. I don't see why you couldn't mix the dough in a food processor or a large mixer with dough hooks and roll it by !hand, then proceed from there. It's worth it, to have these right from the oven. We hafe a new shop called "bagel Stop" in Dearborn which has a decent product. They also give two free with every ddozen. Their cheddar cheese is good but the egg bagels are excellent. Also, it's the only place I know of around here where you can buy fresh lox.
Excerpt from a Washington Post article by Cindy Loose:
Forget the cream cheese - please pass the gauze!
'Bagel injuries' becoming more common as doughy breakfast treat rises
in popularity.
Every weekend they arrive at hospital emergency rooms with blood
dripping from their injuries: upstanding citizens, often leaders in
their fields, sometimes with their pajamas showing beneath their
coats.
It happened one recent Saturday morning to Eric Berman, head of
research for the Democratic National Committee. He tried to hide his
wound, wrapping it in a red kitchen towel. But when his face turned
ashen, his mother-in-law shoved him into a cab and took him to George
Washington University Medical Center.
"When I pulled off the towel, the doctor said, 'Oh, a bagel injury.'
He knew immediately," Berman said of the cut he suffered while slicing
his breakfast. "We get a bunch of these every Saturday morning," the
doctor told him.
Indeed, an informal survey of area hospitals revealed that
bagel-related accidents are, in the words of Mark Smith, head of
George Washington's Department of Emergency Medecine, "the great
underreported injury of our times."
.
.
.
A spokeswoman for Georgetown University Medical Center,
misunderstanding a voice mail message, returned a reporter's call
prepared to discuss fatal injuries. Informed of the real query, she
changed course without missing a beat.
"Oh, *bagel* injuries," Clarie Fiori said. "Oh yes, that's one of
our biggest."
rotfl!
The funny thing is, it is easy to cut a bagel. Place it on a cutting board. Assuming you are right handed, place the palm of your left hand on the bagel, keeping your fingers up. Cut 1/2 way into one side of the bagel. Turn the bagel on its side, with the knife at the top parallel with the counter. Hold the bagel from the top with your left hand, and finish cutting. Of course, there is the "Polly" method. Take the bagel in your left hand, and a butcher knife in your right hand. Swing the knife viciously so it sinks deep into the bagel, then slam the knife down on the counter to finish cutting through the bagel. (Polly has a *lot* of scars on her palm, perhaps inspiring the above story.)
Yesterday, I tried the Brueggel's Bagel shop that just recently opened downtown. They were pretty good. I'll probably be buying them again.
I think the easiest way to cut a bagel is with an electric knife.
An axe *must* be easier!
re #143: Not hardly. Cut a dozen bagels with an electric knife and
tell us how long it takes.
Well, now it's 1999, the last response in this item was in 1995. Great Bagel has since closed. Brueggers near Busches on Main/A2-Saline is still around and going strong. Brueggers has a second location, on North U, near State St. Right around the corner, on State Street is an Einstein Brother's bagel. Up on plymouth road, there is "Bagel-Fragel" which is some sort of a franchise of the Bagel Factory. Most of the bagels I eat right now come from the North U brueggers. Their sesame bagel is downright tasty. Einstein does not come close. I don't get over to Barry's much, but I didn't like their bagels the last time I had them. Bagel Factory has better raisin bagels than Brueggers, but I prefer fragels. :)
I was disappointed the one time I bought bagels from Einstein. Bruegghers comes the closest to a real New york style bagel in the area. I wish they didn't close at 7 PM, though. That's usually about the time I think about going out to buy bagels.
Breugers seems to be aiming at people buying lunch-type food like sandwiches, just looking at how they've priced things. I imagine they don't do much business in bagels-by-the-dozen.
And now it's a year later and Einstein's is gone. I guess arabella hit the nail on the head in being disappointed in their bagels.
What happens with a lot of chains, particularly when there is a somewhat complicated product to make, is that the franchise provides an initial management team to get the franchise off the ground, followed by the local management assuming responsibility for the operation. Although steam ovens provide what is probably the simplest means of baking bagels, you still need fresh dough. You still cannot let the dough sit out to long, sit in the cooler too long, or sit in the freezer too long. You have to sometimes take a hit on the unused dough, rather than baking dough that won't make good bagels. Given the margins in food service, and the levels of pay usually afforded to baking staff, those aren't small issues.
resp:141 Cutco makes a sandwich spreader knife that is great for cutting bagels.
So where are the good bagel shops in the AA area these days [especially outside the campus/downtown area]? When I was in Durham, there were a number of Bruegger's in the area but I haven't seen any at all since moving back here a year ago.
There is a Bruegger's in that shopping center at the corner of Ann Arbor Saline Road and Main St. I think there is also one on N. University downtown.
There's a Bagel Fragel in Plymouth.
There's a Bagel Fragel on Plymouth (just east of Murfin). Zingerman's makes bagels.
There is something not quite right about Zingerman's bagels but I can never really put my finger on it. There is also Barry's Bagels too. Their bagels are ok but I like Bruegger's better
Zingerman's probably doesn't boil them correctly. I've seen very few bakeries that also did bagels correctly.
That's the problem with the bagels at Panera. They are good but just not bagel enough
We have this line of bagels out here called Chompie's. They are awful. I don't even call them bagels - they are glorified dinner rolls. My only recourse is pretty much Einstein Bagels.
I got some bagels at an Italian bakery in Melvindale one time and they were EXACTLY like italian sandwich rolls in taste and texture. It was my day to get the bagels at Ford and my co-workers laughed for weeks about it.
Well, I know that when I visit my friend Shannon in Sebastopol, California, there isnt a good bagel to be had anywhere. It seems odd too since there are a lot of people who used to live in NYC there. You would think that there would be a market for good bagels there.
The people at the Plymouth/Murfin bagel shop are the legitmate inheritors of the Bagel Factory fragel trademark. Dunno about how well they make bagels, though.
From what I understand, the person at the Plymouth/Murfin bagel shop (The Bagel Fragel?) is the son of the original Bagel Factory owner.
I wrote up the dissertation elsewhere but will have to hunt it down. Don't have time to go into the historics.
re #162 & 163 Here is my response to item 9 on M-Net's Ypsi/A2 cf: #11 I.P. Freehly (tod) Wed, May 2, 2007 (18:04): I worked with Natasha at Bagel Factory back in the early 90's. She opened up Bagel Fragel on Plymouth Rd and continues the tradition. We used to work late all nighters with Mike Kolko. Kolko was managing the place for the owner (and my landlord of the house on Dewey) Peter Johnson (aka Vidouris.) Peter Johnson learned his bagel trade from some of my grandfather's childhood chums from Detroit and opened the original Bagel Factory in Southfield. Then, he got into business with Barry Greenblatt for the one on South U. Barry had brought in Kolko (my boss.) Barry later had a falling out with Peter and opened Barry Bagels. Peter was pissed. He once threatened tsty for calling the housing commission on him because I was living in the basement of one of his rentals and blah blah..long story there. Anyway, Peter moved his franchise to Toledo and Kolko tried a go of it himself for a while. I delivered the bagels (took trex a few times) all around SE Michigan. That was a cool job but it was 7 days a week from 1am to 9am and wore me down. It was fun being a part of bagel history. Those guys were tough mf'ers.
Stopped by the Bagel Fragel a few weeks ago, and there was a sign on the door saying family difficulties, would be closed a few days, and reopen under new managment. Haven been by since then, but I'll try to get there soon for an update.
I havent been there in years
Went by the Bagel Fragel on Plymouth Road again. Good news for bagel purists! It's open again, and still run by the same family. Slight change in some of the accoutrements, but otherwise same menu of handmade, old style bagels. Don't know the address, but it is in the strip shopping mall on the south side of Plymouth Road where the north end of Broadway intersects. Next to the Shell station. Across the street is the bigger mall with all the wonderful Turkish and Middle Eastern bakeries, restaurants, and food stores, Wendy's and Cafe Marie.
You have several choices: