The original bagel

THE FOOD CLUB

If I ever go again to the United States of America, it will be to overdose on bagels. New Yorkers would probably laugh at my naivete, but I thought that the ones in Florida were the last word in excellence. First was the shape: like Polo, the mint with the hole, bagels have more hole than flour.

The second was the crust: not crisp, yet not as soft as the inside, they invariably had a soft dusting of salt, so that even when the bagels were coated with sesame seed, you could taste the gritty saltiness. The third aspect of the real McCoy was the inside: chewy and light with a markedly airy texture, bagels have as much to do with ordinary bread as chalk has to do with cheese.

Pavlov's dogs learnt their lesson in time, but I haven't. Not yet, anyway. Every time I hear that a restaurant has put bagels on their menu, I go haring there and come back disillusioned every time. The reason, I have figured out, is that the chefs/cooks/kitchen assistants who actually make the bagels have never tasted or even seen the original, so they don't quite know exactly what result they're supposed to achieve.

A Delhi-based American-Jewish friend puts it down to the fact that only Jewish people make good bagels. She may have a point: the only places in Florida that I ever had them were run by members of that community.

Last week, I had my most recent bout with disillusionment. A fancy restaurant has gone to town advertising the fact that its lunch menu consists of croissants and bagels with fillings such as cream cheese and smoked salmon.

However, not only the chefs, but the owner too did not seem to be clued in to exactly what a bagel should look like. I did have better luck at Vasant Continental Hotel where the menu in Eggspectation has one bagel on the menu that comprises a hundred items.

Chef Jameel Ahmed from Tehri Garhwal (the hunting ground for India's best pastry chefs) at least had the advantage of knowing what a bagel should look like, and knew that the dough should be popped into boiling salted water.

He was kind enough to make me two bagels "" one with the dunking into water and the other without "" to compare with each other. The one which had been given the bath was lighter inside and the crust was nearly the same as the American places, with the same salty tang.

I was fascinated by the fact that though the second bagel had not been given ten seconds in boiling water, it had gone through what is called a steam injection, in the oven, yet failed to acquire the same result.

My advisor in all matters foodie, Mumbai-based Vikram Doctor, assures me that The Bagel Shop in Bandra's Pali Market has as close to the real thing as you will ever get in India. And guess what? It is owned by a Jewish person "" Matan Schabracq.

marryamhreshii@yahoo.co.in