jimcfsus

Going to be coming to Manhattan for Interop next month, staying in Jersey City. Can anyone point me to a reasonably authentic bagel place that does them without corn meal on the bottoms? I have a corn intolerance and would not like to waste half a bagel. And no, Dunkin Donuts doesn't count, except for coffee.

sbm12

I assume Interop is at the Javits center. If so, H&H is at 46th & 12th, which is a few blocks up from the Javits, but close enough to be worthwhile.

I haven't seen a bagel in NYC with cornmeal on it since, well, ever. I think that folks here know better than to mess around with something as revered as the bagel.

pricklycomedian

H&H is certainly good. Ess a Bagel too. http://www.ess-a-bagel.com/

If you have time to explore, Kossar's Bialys on Grand is my favorite.
http://www.kossarsbialys.com/

Have fun!

pc

nytango

When / where? did you get corn on bagel bottom??

little search may have helped avoiding this question.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...ighlight=bagel

p.s. dont look in Jersey city it is not NY, you might just get corn or whatever.

Landing Gear

I prefer the "headquarters" H&H on Broadway and 80th.

As much as I might like them myself, a bially is not a bagel.

pricklycomedian

True. However, Kossar's sells bagels too.

pc

jimcfsus

I haven't been to NYC since the very early 90s, long before I developed this corn intolerance, so I didn't remember how they made them. It's standard practice in many of the places like Bruggers out here in the rest of the country. Keeps them from sticking. Most of the grocery stores who bake them use corn meal, too, in addition to HFCS instead of sugar.

I went to a place in LAS called Bagels and More, which was a very good breakfast place/deli not far from the airport. Theirs had cornmeal too, but supposedly the place who bakes them also obeys the Jewish law and uses flour instead during Passover, according to their owner.

guv1976

If a Jewish bakery is baking bagels during Passover, cornnmeal is the least of their problems.

dhammer53

At one time, Kossars bagels were H&H.

themicah

I'm pretty sure Kossar's makes their own bagels now (we live right down the street and go there pretty often).

Both Kossar's and H&H are good, but my personal favorite (as stated in the other thread) remains Absolute Bagels on Broadway between 107th and 108th.

I also recommend the NYT story linked from the other thread.

Xyzzy

NY bagels are the best! Other places tend to see bagels as simply round bread. Real bagels are boiled, an important step that is often skipped elsewhere. All the NY places listed above are good IMHO.

craz

Just a Warning alot of Pizza places in NY do use corn meal either on the wooden stick they use to make the pizza and put the pie in the oven or on the slab they spread the dough out on


IMO any Bagel that is isnt Boiled isnt a Bagel, its simply a circled roll and tastes as such ( the Bagels that are Boiled do in fact get baked in an oven with gas rather than an electric oven which also is the reason they taste better. Sort of making a Pizza in a gas oven as most are made compared to an electric oven)

If ever in Brooklyn I find Bagel Hole on Coney Island Ave and Ave K is tops (thats between Ave J & Ave K closer to Ave K)

Analise

Wow, this is news to me. Yet another reason to avoid Bruegers and chains like that. You will love your New York bagel when you get here. ^

jimcfsus

Analise, I can't get a local bagel (or just about any bread/baked item) where I'm at in WV. Kroger and WM both "bake" them, but both use HFCS in most of their baked goods. I haven't seen many grocery store bakeries not use HFCS in their pre-made doughs that they bake. Right now, I'm at my mom's in CAK, and even their big stores here use HFCS and/or other corn ingredients in their large in-store bakery products. There are a couple of local stores and bakeries where I can get corn-free Italian and Rye breads, but no bagels.

I have to travel to GSO, CLT or CMH in order to get corn-free bagels or other breads at places like Whole Paycheck or Trader Joe's. I used to be able to get Pepperidge Farms Rye Breads locally, until they changed the packaging and recipe earlier this year and use dextrose.

themicah

Bruegger's actually makes a pretty decent bagel by non-NYC standards (when I lived in Iowa they were the only bagels our family would eat). They definitely boil their bagels, and they do NOT list cornmeal or HFCS in the ingredients of their plain bagels (PDF), nor in their pumpernickel, everything, poppy, sesame, onion or garlic bagels (I didn't check the others, because I don't consider things like chocolate chip and asiago cheese to be valid bagel flavors). Their basic recipe is just flour, water, malt syrup, salt and yeast.

By contrast, H&H does list cornmeal in their plain bagel ingredients (and they use brown sugar instead of malt syrup).