Not every column sees a mystery cleared up so quickly. Two weeks ago I appealed to you for help regarding the origin of the expression “to bagel” in the sense of subtly letting someone know you are Jewish or ascertaining whether he or she is. One of several responses received comes from Montreal-born human rights…
Here’s the formula for a perfect Sunday morning: Take a bagel — preferably seeded — slice it in half, slather it with cream cheese and drape it with paper-thin slices of briny lox, red onion and tomato. Add coffee and The New York Times, and breakfast is complete. While bagels and lox deserve their title…
This comes from the Forward’s Naomi Zeveloff: “I just did a story it appeared in this newspaper’s October 4 issue on how Chabadniks figure out who is Jewish during their Sukkot street outreach. One of them described ‘bageling’ for me, by which he meant the process by which one Jew on the street subtly recognizes…
Montreal’s St-Viateur Bagel has come a long way since Buchenwald survivor Myer Lewkowicz opened his humble storefront bakery in a rundown immigrant neighborhood in 1957. Under the Morena family, its owners since 1994, St-Viateur has ballooned to six retail outlets, a thriving wholesale operation, and a fast-growing delivery business to rabid bagel fans in the…
The Melbourne troika of established bagel bakeries — Glicks, Haymishe and Aviv — each have a strong following, willing to defend their beliefs to the last poppy seed. Variously a substrate for avocado, vegemite (this is Australia after all), smoked salmon, egg-and-onion-dip, herring or chopped liver, each bagel has been a link in the chain…
Dear New York City bagel-lovers, As a Montreal export to New York, I take offense at your treatment of our version of the mouthwatering goodness that is the Montreal bagel. Granted, I’m aware that I’m in the minority on this issue. Any five-second conversation with my colleagues at the Forward combining the word “Montreal” and…
There’s a cell in Jerusalem’s Rimonim Prison that has two inmates. One was convicted of selling dozens of kilograms of dangerous drugs, and sentenced to six years. The second is Zaki Sabah, 54, who sells bagelach (a long, oval shaped bread) and was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment for not paying municipal fines imposed on…
I’ve spent hours — possibly even days — worth of my life debating the perfect bagel and where to find it. Questions like these always arise: Who does it better, Brooklyn or Manhattan? Are seeds essential? Are Montreal bagels worthy of our attention? It seems that the quibbles, questions and criteria surrounding what makes a…
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