Have you ever eaten more than 70 bagels in a month? I can’t recommend it, gastrointestinally, but duty called: I was putting together our list of the best bagels in New York City.
A huge part of researching the list involved reading up on the current state of the bagel art — turns out, it’s contentious.
In the last few years, New York has gone through what has been called “a bagel renaissance,” but what others consider a crisis of tradition. Many of the city’s more popular bagels aren’t made in the traditional manner. Some can be fluffy, sandwich bread-y orbs, while others are dense, sourdough-leavened and nearly scorched. All bagel heresies in some quarters.
On the far side of those, even, lies a land of bagel abstractions. Sometimes, in my travels, I ventured there. It felt good to expand my horizons, if not for science, then for a laugh. When compelled, I ordered something blasphemous or off-the-wall — a bagel made with prosciutto in the dough, for example (which was not good).
Some of these Franken-bagels were quite good, but let this be a warning to purists: The following is going to be a disturbing, bizarro bagel jump scare. Luckily, it’s just in time for Halloween!
Bagels with a literal twist
I went to Bagel Oasis on the recommendation of Jonathan Frishtick from King Arthur, who generously explained bagel making to me in great detail when I started reporting the bagel list. He told me he’s been going to Bagel Oasis since bagels were 7 cents apiece. I loved the bagels there, but I was also charmed by the shop’s bagel twists, which are stretchy and chewy and coated in an appropriate amount of seasoning (read: No bald spots!)
Spicy bagel, spicy cream cheese
Shelsky’s Brooklyn Bagels prides itself on using traditional bagel-making techniques, and has vowed to never make a rainbow bagel or a blueberry bagel. What Shelsky’s does make, though, is an excellent Sichuan peppercorn bagel, with tingly ground peppercorns in the dough and sesame seeds on top. They also make a surprisingly great chile crisp cream cheese, which they serve on the peppercorn bagel, along with cilantro and cucumbers. “Jewish Christmas,” they call it.
Will it Bagel?: English muffin edition
What makes this a bagel, you might wonder? Maybe nothing, maybe it’s just a large English muffin with a hole. But this Unidentifiable Round Object at Knickerbocker Bagel in Bushwick has that dusty, crusty exterior and nooks-and-crannies interior, and, bizarre as it is, I found it kind of impossible to not fall in love with.
A truly out-of-pocket order
This may be the first time I’ve ever had a sweet bagel, aside from a couple of errant cinnamon-raisins as a child. But I am no match for a flirtatious cashier, and when the one at Terrace Bagels in Park Slope suggested I try their French toast bagel, I caved. And, hey, this isn’t a bagel, really, but it’s something completely different and delicious in its own goyish way. Egg bagel coated in cinnamon sugar, plus cream cheese? Blasphemy feels good in a place like this.
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