The Salt Bagel. It’s a Magical Carb.
Growing up in the boroughs of New York, bagels have always been a staple in my diet. I’d eat them for breakfast, I’d eat them for lunch, I’d eat them for dinner. Nice, chewy and satisfying, you could give them a good schmear of anything you wanted, think cream cheese or butter, to whitefish salad and jelly. Or we’d use them to house thick BLT’s or egg and cheese sandwich fillings. The water we have here is what makes them so great I think, because I had a couple of bagels outside of the New York and New England area and I’m pretty sure that I spit it out.
My favorite of all of them isn’t plain, cinnamon raisin or the one everyone seems to covet, the everything bagel. Rather mine is the salt bagel. A chewy bagel is covered in big salt crystals that add extra salt and that are balanced out beautifully by whatever you will it with. My favorite ways to eat a salt bagel are as follows:
- In high school we called it a Heartstopper. The Heartstopper bagel was one that was filled with so much cream cheese or butter, that the method one would think on how they decided to portion the filling was going one step past, I put too much on.
- Slathering one side with cream cheese and the other with butter. This way I get a lot of both worlds.
I’m starting to think that I am of a girl of excess when it comes to bagels, cream cheese and butter.
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Joyce Huang
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Joyce, I never leave comments, but I loved your article. In the 80s, during my high school days in Miami, the morning bagel was like a student fundraiser item someone always sold from a bag for $1 until they were gone (gained at a stop on the way to school at a bakery I suppose). Any plain bagel for someone so used to the toasted w/ big amount of cream cheese kind of bagel was daunting, so I opted for the salt bagel which reminded me of a pretzel. That’s where my love of salt bagels began…that crispy crust and chewy middle, hot from an oven but not toasted, just perfectly fresh and done right, one pinch of a bite at a time. Perfect bread.
Haha, I love them so much. But now that I’m older I have to brush off some of the salt otherwise I’d probably retain 10 lbs of water for who knows how long. Thank you for stopping by!
I would love to send my friend who lives in Colorado some salt bagels. They are her favorite and it would make a great surprise gift. Do you have any recommendations on who has the best ones and ships??? I live in Illinois so I don’t have any option except shipping them to her. Thanks!
Hi Courtney! So sorry for the late reply. Ess-a-bagel, Murray’s, and The Bagel Shop have very good bagels, but I’m not sure if they ship. Your best bet might be to try Gold Belly and see what is on there. I hope that all is well!