Montreal Part 3: Montreal Bagels

Madison has the long and stellar tradition of great bagels with Bagels Forever. One of the few places outside of New York you can get a real bagel. Don't get me wrong, the pretenders Einstein's. Brugger's, Panera, etc. make great hamburger buns with holes in the middle.

Sometimes they even forget the hole

Montreal does bagels a little differently then anyone else. They are closer to a New York or Bagels Forever's style in that they are properly dense and have a nice chewy crust.

Lets get down to the basics what makes a bagel a bagel? It's a yeast dough made with malt which is shaped into a ring and boiled in salted water to form the distinctive bagel crust.

The exact time that you boil, how much you allow it to raise before the boil, how you handle your dough all make a huge difference in how a the final product ends up. This is why there are so few
great bagel places, and why so many "Bagel" places exist.

Montreal bagels are different from the rest in one very interesting feature. They don't boil their bagels in salt water, they boil them in honey water. This gives the crust a distinctive sweet flavor which we don't have in the US. They also tend to be quite generous with the toppings.

One of the best bagel shops in Montreal!

Onion Bagel

This was quite a disappointment, the onions had actually burnt in the oven giving it a distinctly carbonized and bitter flavor which did absolutely nothing for the bagel, they also appeared to be less then perfectly fresh. Always ask about what's fresh out of the oven!

Cinnamon Raisin

This was a great bagel, the sweetness of the cinnamon raisin bagel combined with the sweetness of the boil was good. A little slightly sour cream cheese and this is bagel perfection!

The Everything Bagel

My favorite was the everything bagel. They aren't screwing around when they say everything, Sesame seeds, garlic, onions, fennel seed, poppy seeds. It all blends surprisingly well with the sweet Montreal crust. I always judge a bagel shop by their everything bagel and this was one of my favorites around!

-NOM!