"bagels" news and stories

If the hubbub around the bready beast was any indication, New York bagels would seem to be the only ones out there -- chewy behemoths with small holes and lots of room for toppings. Gotham has a competitor in the Montreal-style bagel, however. These tasty rounds are distinguished by larger holes, flatter, denser bodies and a slightly sweet flavor (from a dash of malt and a quick boil in honey-sweetened water).

Above is the first video in a 3-part series detailing how to make Montreal-style bagels. Some say there should be no salt in these babies, but many recipes call for it, so it's your choice. (It's worth noting fellow makes his bagels plumper than the usual slim version, so the fluffiness quotient is also up to you.)

Tip: An easy way to add sesame or poppy seeds to bagels is to pour seeds on to a plate or in a bowl and dip the bagel in post-boil. Sprinkling them on also works, but more coverage can be snagged via a quick roll.

• Gorgeous culinary discovery ideal for springtime: pasta fiocchi that look like daffodils.
• A writer's love of artichokes and her memories of ex-mother-in-laws.
• And you thought Hemingway was brief -- a British Columbia native is tweeting nothing but recipes.
  
• An interview with Paul Liebrandt, chef at Tribeca's Corton.
• Randall Grahm on his Bonny Doon Vineyard and on the importance of paring back: "What matters is that we make wines of originality that have a reason for being."
• The Minimalist finesses flatbread.
• A look at Jon Rosen, agent to the food stars.
• All about Mezcal -- like tequila, a liquid treat distilled from agave.
• Restaurant Girl hires lawyers to take down an imitator Twitterer.
• The ins and outs of the post-Passover bagel rush.
• 230 Fifth, a lounge near Madison Square Park, transports a palm tree to and from Florida every year.
  
• Reviews of theatrical new Japanese restaurant ResInakaya, the "steady, precise" cooking at La Fonda del Sol, and the Basque eats at Txikito (cheek-ee-toe).
• The Times heads down under to hotspots in Sydney, Australia and examines Uruguay's boutique wineries.

For the last few weeks, I've been meaning to write up a post about flagels, the tastiest thing I've had tried this year, but Serious Eats beat me to it. If you like bagels, you must try one.

A flagel is, quite simply, a smushed bagel. After the bagel is boiled, but before it goes into the oven, it gets flattened. This might sound silly, but it offers its own set of rewards. Since it's thinner, it's easier to eat as a sandwich. It also means more outside bits to nibble on and less fluffy insides -- much chewier. I find flagels a great thing to snack on, and I'm dying to make some grilled cheese on it, as well as test it out with usual baguette dishes like tapenade and bruschetta. The thinness just opens the bagel up to a bunch of added food opportunities.

And no, although a commenter on the original post said it was bialy, the two are a bit different. While a flagel is a bagel smushed half-way through it's cooking process, a bialy skips the boiling step and makes a middle impression rather than a distinct hole.

• There is trouble in Gordon Ramsay paradise as Marcus Wareing lashes out at the man he's worked with for almost two decades.
• Although it's a bit out of the way for most of the hordes of up-all-night Torontonians, the city is getting its first 24-hour Montreal bagel shop.
• What happens when you merge tacos and pizza? You get Say `Olé' Pizza.
• With the Olympics on the way, street meat just can't be seen in China!
• Beer straight out of East Germany -- Kostritzer Schwarzbier.
• Streets get a bite of Tasty Thursdays.
• The low-down on the sweetsop and the soursop.
• Grass-fed meats are making their way to Trinity Bellwoods.
• Recipe: Thai Tofu Salad.

Bagels are one of my favorite breakfast items. They're so easy and tasty, and they travel well. Usually if I want to make a special weekend breakfast, though, it's not bagels- for all the previously mentioned reasons. But what if I made them from scratch? Well, that'd be a different story.

Joe Pastry, one of my favorite baking blogs, has been talking a lot about bagels this week. Joe talks about everything from high gluten flour to how much sugar and baking soda go into his boiling water. There is a step by step photo guide to making bagels from scratch. The only thing Joe doesn't offer is a recipe for the dough, but you can find some here and here.

Unfortunately, I can't link directly to individual posts on Joe Pastry. All of the above mentioned posts are very recent, though, and you can get to them by scrolling down just a little bit. That is, if you're going to make bagels this weekend!