Hey, if my substantive Boston-bagel analyses don’t match anything ever produced by any New Yorker ever, whose fault is it if this thread gets diverted?
I want you to appreciate the consideration I’ve shown the delicate sensibilities of you New Yorkers, you who cry when your casseroles crumble, that I’ve resisted responding to the assault on Boston bagels on this thread till after the OP had gotten whatever advice they deserved.
Note:
I’m a New Yorker at heart and a Hell’s-Kitchener for 1/4-ish of the year (tax-man, who’s counting?).
I’ll take any square population-inch of whatever NY neighborhood you choose, and match it to Cambridge.
Nobel-prizes? Pulitzers? Beards?
New York is, of course, fantastically, unimaginably great in ways that is hard to easily document. But, if interesting-per-square inch is a criterion, I offer Cambridge, MA, as the easy winner.
I’d also suggest heading further up broadway from zabars and trying some square slice of pepperoni pizza from mama’s too @ 2750 broadway - not your typical ny style but so good
Because they’re better (get out your smelling salts).
I assert that as fact, living as I do in both places. I’ve had many bagels in both cities. If you wish to frivolously tangle with me, get your facts in order. What bagel in NYC do you hold up against a Cambridge bagel you’ve had?
That’s just weird and not nice! They were apologizing to the extreme crowd on Christmas morning that they weren’t making sandwiches that day only slicing. I thought they made sandwiches every other day! I’ll check this when I get home, though and report back…Zabar’s recently very irritating selling half gallon milk for a whopping $8. I complained about price gouging, and they brought it down to $7.50. Math, not my strong suit, but that’s still $15/gallon milk!
Hm, not sure I understand why you say Boston bagels are better than NY bagels since after measuring and weighing and photographing six different local (Boston) bagels, it was one that tasted like sourdough, the Forge, (is this really a bagel?) and the other, the Mamaleh, that was “closest ‘to a traditional New York bagel’” that were your favorites. Quoting here from the Boston board:
"Observations:
The Bagelsaurus bagel is neither as overly-expensive nor as big/hefty as it's been accused of being. It's slightly bigger than the others, but is not the weight champion.
Both it and the Forge (even more so) had a sourdough taste and crackly crust. Although the two bagels looked different, they were similar in weight and taste.
The Somerville bagel was very dense, and bready with a moist crumb. It was the heaviest.
The Mariposa bagel has, as I've observed above, a pretzel-like taste, possibly from being boiled in water that's heavily dosed with baking soda, not lightly dosed with lye.
Iggy's had the least distinctive taste.
Mamaleh's probably comes closest to a "traditional NY bagel," but opinions on what that even is diverge.
Somerville (strongly), Mariposa and Mamaleh's (possibly) gave evidence of having been formed traditionally from a rope of dough formed into a circle with the ends lightly twisted together. Iggy's looks as if it was cut into a ring by a machine."
After reading your descriptions, I’m not sure how you can say that Boston bagels are better than New York’s. I will, however, absolutely concede that your Boston analyses far outweigh any such analysis that any New Yorker I know would ever think to produce. In defense of my neighbors, however, I would also like to add that this is not due to any lack of imagination on our part, but rather that “interesting,” like “tasty” and “beauty” are in the eyes of the beholder.
I would also opine that there is nowhere in the world where you get a baguette or a croissant like those found in Paris. I think we New Yorkers would give credit where credit is due, and I have to say that there isn’t a particular kind of food that I would run to Boston to try, and alas, I’m with @small_h, that certainly wouldn’t be bagels, even if I could think of something!
Forgot about that!
