OMG BAGEL ARMAGEDDON NYC V MTL !!!

cloud v rock

what's MTL bagel like?

rock

they're fairly sweet and less dense, a bit more like a bread roll.

In NYC, sometimes a bagel just isn't sour or chewy ENOUGH: hence the bialy.

not like a rock!! you have to eat them within 5 min of buying fresh & warm or keep in paper bag inside of plastic bag inside of maybe other plastic bag. i managed to bring some on the plane all the way to vancouver at christmas and they still were good on arrival. but really eaten right away fresh on location mtl bagels kick all other bagels to the curb sayin

yeah, you do not want one after it's cooled off.

maybe i will give nyc bagels another chance when in nyc this wkend!

recommended

http://www.menupages.com/restaurantdetails.asp?neighborhoodid=0&restaurantid=2743

http://www.ess-a-bagel.com

x=post Interesting. My English husband doesn't understand the appeal of NY style bagels which he insists are just bland chewy bread. Maybe he'd like MTL ones better. If I'd known, we could have gotten some when we were there last year. :-(

Voted MTL. But I haven't had one in years so maybe time is increasing their flavor for me.

<3 ess. last year we measured a particularly robust specimen from there - over 4 inches high at its zenith.

english bagels/beigels are nothing to brag about, though.

No, he was talking about American ones. I don't think he ever had one in England!

both of the pictures above seem to be NYC bagels... VOTE RIGGED.

i am told that bialys are very much like mtl bagels but what do i know.

whatevs theres no point in trying to talk to britishes abt food - just give him a "biscuit" and send him on his way

bialys aren't like mtl bagels at all. they're very sour and usually have a bit of onion.

I've never had a great bagel in NY.

They're all in NJ.

ah yr right i may hav fukd up the images there

here u go

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/8/8c/Bagels-Montreal-REAL.jpg/200px-Bagels-Montreal-REAL.jpg

I've never had a great bagel in NY.

They're all in NJ.

-- dan selzer, Wednesday, April 16, 2008 10:26 AM (52 seconds ago) Bookmark Link

challenging opinion

haha, one way to put it.

this place: http://www.nyc.com/Restaurants/Bagel_Boys_Express_Inc.60704/editorial.aspx

you know tracer despite it being blocks from my home i have never been there - it just never looookd good - will investigate!

bialys aren't like mtl bagels at all. they're very sour and usually have a bit of onion.

omg i want one of these right now!

yeah from the street it looks HORRIBLE and once inside the impression doesn't improve but god their bagels are good

xpost

Bialys are even more sour than NY bagels, and way, way chewy. Usu with a bit of mushy onion in the middle as Lauren said (tho I scrape it out). If MTL bagels are "sweet and bready" as was said up-thread, they're the opposite of bialys...?

There's bagels, and then there's beigels. I don't like the American ones that are on steroids but I grew up in a town which still has a salt water bagel bakery run by people who founded it 60 years ago.

In London on Leather Lane is a bakery that does the closest to NYC I have tasted, fresh from the oven and 'rocky' later. An ilx beigel enthusiast tried to tell me the dough was a little sweet, but he was wrongo mc wrongington. It has the right consistency of chew. Although Sainsburys, which does the best Britisher supermarket bagels in that I deign to eat them and no others, is doing bialys now for stupid money, and they have peppers on some of them, gross.

yeah i really love onion bagels but i think it's b/c of the sweetness + onion, tho i like sour too. there are these onion croissants you can get here and they are like DAMN

i get them from the same place i buy giant poppyseed rugala etc

I've never had a great bagel in NY.

They're all in NJ.

-- dan selzer, Wednesday, April 16, 2008 10:26 AM (52 seconds ago) Bookmark Link

this may be true

Suzy, when we lived in London the two food items I missed most were good bagels and pizza - ha typical. I never quite found anything that was just right. Wish I knew about the place on Leather Lane then. I'll bear it in mind for when we move back!

I'm gonna wager its the city with ~800,000 Heebs.

NJ bagels are definitely better ... the same with pizza and Italian food, aside from the 2 or 3 oldtime places still around in Broklyn.

more challenging opinions I absolutely agree with.

they have jews in canada?

oh wait slocki lol

http://www.chow.com/assets/2007/02/61_23_290x210.jpg

AAAAAAAAAAAAA must get some tonight

Is it true there are only TWO kinds of bagels in MTL?

no

no

but only two worth eating imo

anyway... fresh mtl wins any day.

though i really only ever get sesame or poppyseed b/c they are usually right outta the oven
xpost yep

of course i'd say that. but is true. xp

i resent the photo mix-up at the top

the problem is i always go buy six but i eat them too slowly, so by the time i get to like #3 it's sorta like "what's the point"

if you freeze 'em in time it's all good.

Send me some, S1ocki. NZ needs 'em. I need 'em. Now. It's time for breakfast here. Oh, and some Liberté cream cheese, too. Please.

NYC. I love MTL bagels and if this was smoked meat vs. corned beef vs. pastrami, I'd take the MTL side in a second, but NYC bagels are still the best.

Fuck Noahs I would just like to say. Destroyed an entire nation's concept of the bagel.

i think the rack of baby back ribs is doomed :(

important lists to be aware of (disregard the date - they're updated as of may08)
http://endlessbanquet.blogspot.com/2005/05/list-pt-1-m.html
&
http://endlessbanquet.blogspot.com/2005/05/list-pt-2-n-z.html

-- rrrobyn, Sunday, June 1, 2008 4:58 PM (1 month ago) Bookmark Link

I've never been to NYC, but I'll vote for it on all future NYC v MTL polls because food in MTL is disgusting. I'd argue that the Endless Banquet is the culinary equivalent of a long-term care facility (it aims for the palliative, not the palatable).

If I need to print out a blog and carry it around with me just to ensure that I won't poison myself, something is wrong.

you are insane

oh, i was having it out last night with some fools from Montreal trying to rep their shit. i wasn't having it!

s1ocki OTM

yeah srsly what the f
it's no new york, it's not vancouver, it's not etc etc but there are plenty of good inexpensive places to eat in this town and plenty of crappy places too. i have noticed that for a lot of people who move here, it takes a while to figure out the signs/symbols of what a good place to eat or hang out or whatever - it's kinda different than in the rest of canada or in the states - i mean obv this is a cultural issue ya gotta stay open to and just get used to and figure out. then it's all taaadaaa look at all these great things. which applies to a lot of stuff. in life.

i did go out to eat way more when i lived in vancouver but i had a decent income/no loans and also if i had my way i wld eat any form of 'asian food' every night of the week, which is basically what vancouver rules at

ya vancouver is great for asian but i wouldnt be all, oh montreal's no vancouver when it comes to other stuff.

yeah exactly, that's my point! no city is no other city, by definition, but even then really, montreal's got a lot of decent stuff to choose from. it's not like our only choices are like family chain restaurants and fast food or even casse croutes or falafel places. i mean even st henri and verdun have upped their food games lately.

and also there are a lot of good groceries too for making food at home! how quaint we are

thanks for clarifying, i definitely thought that montreal was vancouver!

you americans

fields of salmon are you still eating at places that serve egg rolls and burgers?

jean-talon market is cause for serious envy.

lol max
but like on some other thread where someone was saying they couldn't live without burritos and we're all like try something else b/c montreal is not a burrito town and they're like NO! i mean what can a person do but continue to clarify the obvious

tho btw i ate chicken quesidillas at taqueria mex on st laurent yesterday and they were really good. tho to the haters i wld like to point out that apparently montreal is not southern california either!

Dear MTL:

1. In future, please clean all seafood properly.
2. Poultry can be trimmed prior to cooking so as to remove any tendons, gristle, or other unpalatable elements. This can have the additional side-benefit of enhancing the appearance of a dish.
3. All ground meat is best served fully cooked.
4. Some customers may be offended if served lettuce that is significantly discoloured, particularly if it is apparent effort has been made to conceal discoloured lettuce by folding fresh lettuce over the top.

I found a place near me (in TO) that sells "Montreal-style bagels", and while I realize that it is not the same thing, I gave one a try. I guess I wasn't reading this thread carefully enough; I was surprised by the malty sweetness. It tasted a lot like a pretzel. So, hunh. I liked it well enough, even though it still went into the "not really a bagel" slot; when I finally make it up to MTL, I will look forward to eating the real thing.

dont trust any toronto bagels claiming to be mtl

A lifetime of "NY-style bagels" has taught me that lesson. Still, it seemed like it might offer a hint.

That experience is a placeholder, written in light pencil, until I taste the real thing.

i guess one of the great/frustrating things abt mtl also is that it has many secrets that perhaps shld not be secrets and are not nec secrets in other towns. like how to actually drive in this town in order to get anywhere in decent time w/o accidents or huge diversions. and where to get great clothes/jewellery/etc. and i guess it wld seem, where to eat. tho a little research goes a long way.

casuistry you will tell us when you visit, right??

No, it will be one of those MTL secrets!

Welllll, ok. I will.

I have this crazy notion of wanting to first go to MTL with someone. I have this notion that it would be romantic to explore the city.

Therefore I shall never go.

Dear MTL: All ground meat is best served fully cooked.

where are you getting poorly cooked ground meat, the sexy breakfasts or something?

but yeah the produce is a little shit, that's not the resto's fault so much as the suppliers.

field of salmon i really cant imagine where you are eating.

maybe fields of salmon lives montreal, wisconsin

imagine all this time he was hahaha

where has jhoshea been?

i know, eh
i wld feel a fool
xpost

hm, yeah

:(

http://www.montrealwisconsin.com/map.jpg

i live at The Inn
btw

lol montreal, wisconsin.

but yeah the produce is a little shit, that's not the resto's fault so much as the suppliers.

I actually find the fruit and veg quite nice (and cheap!) when purchased from a market and prepared at home. But when the same produce finds its way into a restaurant kitchen, bad things happen.

Also, général Tao, anyone? MTL should name a street after this asshole.

I should just give up the restaurants and eat at home all the time. I'd save a ton of money, but it wouldn't really solve the nagging feeling that there is edible food somewhere in this city.

they charge fucking 3 bucks for low fat veggie cream cheese at the deli. but i mean like ON THE BAGEL, not on the side. THREE DOLLARS. my bagel and coffee came to OVER FIVE BUCKS I LOVE NEW YORK THANKS

It's $2.60ish at my neighbourhood chain bagel place. And that is not even for NYC bagels.

I'm actually more alarmed that a deli coffee is over $2?

i don't know, i don't know. something was wrong. i called them when i got back to my desk. the deli. i called the deli and asked them wtf

Delis so rarely get such customer feedback. What did they say?

he was giving me some bullshit about the veggie bit. "oh yea, yea, is VEGGIE cream cheese. veggie, yea"

bitch please

A MTL update:

The results of our bagel poll were so close that I had to try both St-Viateur Bagel (which won 46% of the votes) and Fairmount Bagel Bakery (44%) while here in Montreal.

First, thanks to reader Squeezebottle for this suggestion: "Montreal bagels are best eaten fresh from the oven or warmed up a bit before eating. They go stale very quickly so time is of the essence." Without this advice, I might have waited until we got back to our apartment before trying them--in both cases, the bagels were best enjoyed right outside the store.I made sure to visit the original St Viateur location and Fairmount within minutes of each other, in each case sampling a sesame bagel both with and without cream cheese. While both Fairmount and St Viatuer have several varieties, like chocolate chip, multi-grain, cinnamon raisin, etc., I found it best to stick to the bagels that were coming down the long metal chute next to the oven (at both shops, these were sesame)

Photos and more at the link etc.

got a hookup. canadian bro is bringing me back some mtl bagels next month (although i guess they'll be stale ;_;).

he's right about the winner

and you're right about the staleness

they charge fucking 3 bucks for low fat veggie cream cheese at the deli. but i mean like ON THE BAGEL, not on the side. THREE DOLLARS. my bagel and coffee came to OVER FIVE BUCKS I LOVE NEW YORK THANKS

― Surmounter, Thursday, August 21, 2008 12:47 PM (10 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Have you lived here, like, five minutes or something?

nonono he is wrong. i stand by my post from last year:

1) st-viateur bagels are the best bagels if you are eating a (whole) plain hot bagel.

^ this i am certain of and has been scientifically proven by my belly.

2) fairmount bagels are the best bagels if you are eating them (vvvv fresh) with cream cheese. (also they do a good 'first bite'!)

3) st-viateur bagels are the best bagels if being eaten (hot/vvvv fresh) with peanut-butter.

also s1ocki i got an email from a friend who is travelling with the Atlantic dude to do the poutine uh survey. he invited me along! but i am not there. :(

god what i meant to say in that post was not "oh wow i am awesome" but s1ocki, hit me up if you are free in the next couple days so i can try to put you guys in touch.

was sure this revive was going to be about the soon to open Montreal Bagel and Poutine place in brooklyn...

http://www.blackbookmag.com/article/mile-end-brings-montreal-cuisine-to-brooklyn/8842

that's noah! i met him! he seems to have his heart in the right place and uh is loaded.

A new front:

http://www.themorningnews.org/article/bagels-toasted

(Overall history, obligatory NY/Montreal section towards the middle.)

Also I regret not weighing in on this thread when I visited MTL in 2010. Suffice to say that yes, I would eat all these Montreal bagels.

While the sentiments of the article cannot be faulted, it is heavily overwritten.