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remmers
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The Bagel Item
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Sep 23 21:11 UTC 1994 |
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.
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| 168 responses total. |
victum
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response 1 of 168:
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Sep 23 23:40 UTC 1994 |
The best bagels are out east of cours but around here you can get ripped off at
a place in Haslett.
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tnt
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response 2 of 168:
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Sep 23 23:53 UTC 1994 |
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!
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andyv
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response 3 of 168:
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Sep 24 00:41 UTC 1994 |
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 :-)
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kentn
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response 4 of 168:
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Sep 24 00:45 UTC 1994 |
I just ate supper and still you're making me hungry :)
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srw
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response 5 of 168:
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Sep 24 02:22 UTC 1994 |
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.
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steve
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response 6 of 168:
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Sep 24 03:11 UTC 1994 |
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.
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mwarner
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response 7 of 168:
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Sep 24 04:34 UTC 1994 |
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.
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srw
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response 8 of 168:
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Sep 24 04:43 UTC 1994 |
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.
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srw
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response 9 of 168:
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Sep 24 04:44 UTC 1994 |
8 was a response to 6 as 7 slipped in.
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albaugh
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response 10 of 168:
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Sep 24 04:46 UTC 1994 |
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! :-)
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srw
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response 11 of 168:
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Sep 24 05:56 UTC 1994 |
Yes it is. The remodeled it a few years ago, but it didn't move.
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chelsea
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response 12 of 168:
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Sep 24 12:29 UTC 1994 |
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.
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remmers
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response 13 of 168:
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Sep 24 12:33 UTC 1994 |
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.
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steve
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response 14 of 168:
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Sep 24 13:13 UTC 1994 |
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... ;-)
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remmers
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response 15 of 168:
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Sep 24 17:41 UTC 1994 |
I'll let you know, when I've tried some BF products.
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aaron
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response 16 of 168:
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Sep 24 18:33 UTC 1994 |
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.
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