Jeanette Friedman

Unedited: Jewish Standard Celebrations: Bagels that Brunch

May 27

Jeanette Friedmanfood, holidays, life cycle events and celebrations, local stories/community No Comments

BAGELS THAT BRUNCH
By Jeanette Friedman

For Sunday or any morning gatherings, business meetings, religious festivals, and celebrations like brissim, nothing beats a brunch that features bagels in all their many-splendored flavors and shapes—with spreads to match.

In addition to the traditional holey bagel, there are bagel stix and bagel flagels—flattened bagels invented in Brooklyn in the 1990s—that come in a host of flavors. There are the traditional standbys—Black Russian, egg, everything, garlic, onion, plain, poppy, pumpernickel, rye, salt, and sesame—and cranberry, cinnamon crunch, chocolate chip, maple syrup, banana-nut, sun dried tomato, spinach, jalapeno pepper and many more. This trendy bagel fare is very unlike those tough old Polish bagels our ancestors ate in the Old Country—or the ones our parents brought home on Sunday mornings. Our great-grandparents didn’t even rate a “shmear” of plain cream cheese. And where paupers in Poland sold bagels on street corners in order to survive, the American bagel business grossed more than half a billion dollars last year.

Today’s “fruity” flavors, unimaginable to the bagel bakers of olden times, are produced by some of the biggest food purveyors on the planet, and are meant to be eaten for breakfast, sliced and toasted, making purists cringe. They remember stopping at the local coffee shop on the way to work or school to grab a hot salt or poppy bagel with a “shmear.” Maybe sometimes you’d ask for homemade scallion or veggie cheese for a change, always with a coffee, regular, in a blue cup with a Greek motif, stuck into a little brown bag with a scrap of napkin, a plastic stick, and two envelopes of sugar. You couldn’t wait to sit down at your desk, sink your teeth in to the crunch and dense, doughy delight that went down just right with a swallow of pungent hot coffee.

Based purely on anecdotal evidence, it seems bagel brunches originated on Sunday mornings in the 1950’s. Lots of dads would come home from morning services around 10 a.m. with a big brown bag of hot bagels from which a delicious aroma wafted through the kitchen. Out came a package of cream cheese and lox or Novi (aka Nova Scotia smoked salmon, which is less salty). Mom had fresh perked coffee on the stove; there was cold orange juice on the table, and she would slice some onions and tomatoes, put them on a plate, and a feast would be had by all. It would be an even better if Dad brought home a chub—a fat smoked white fish, which greedy little fingers would pick apart, right down to the bone.

Times have changed. The variety is infinite. And you can make your own “shmears” by simply adding your favorite flavorings like pimento olives, sun-dried tomatoes, walnuts and raisins, garlic and fresh herbs like cilantro or dill, jalapeno peppers, sweet pickles, black and red peppercorns and garlic, strawberry or other fruit preserves, blending them into cream cheese or tofu cheese in a food processor. (Duh. Not all at the same time.) The old favorites, bits of smoked salmon; scallions, celery and carrots, or all three veggies mixed together, are now commercially available, along with a selection of fresh bagels at numerous places scattered around Bergen County.

THE CLASSIC BAGEL BRUNCHERAI

When planning your outdoor or indoor bagel brunch, your best bet is to set up a “Bagel Bar” that keeps ingredients separate and allows guests “build their own” bagels. Decide if your food purveyor will cater for you, or if you will do the plating and prep yourself. (If you do it yourself, you try Glatt Express, the superduper kosher supermarket on Queen Anne Road in Teaneck. Tammy will be glad to offer advice!

Here’s a checklist of what you will need:

1. Lots of baskets for piling on the bagels, one for each flavor (nothing tastes worse than sautéed garlic on a “contaminated” cinnamon raisin bagel). Make sure the bagels are pre-sliced. You don’t want guests cutting themselves, and having them cut bagels with plastic knives is a chore. Keep the bagels wrapped in cellophane or plastic until ready to serve. You don’t want them drying out or, conversely, getting soggy.

2. Set up a bagel toaster or a George Forman type grill for warming them up or toasting, if that’s what guests want. Bagels are allergic to microwave ovens.

3. Set up beverages: Regular coffee, de-caf, hot water kettle, a variety of teas, sugar, Splenda, sliced lemon, half and half, milk, lowfat milk, cold juices of your choice, from apple and orange to tomato and pomegranate, and don’t forget the sodas. If serving alcohol, stick to chilled light wines like Baternura Moscato or Champagne. They mix well with orange juice to make mimosas, a perfect brunch beverage.

4. Platters of fixings and deserts
a. Smoked fish—lox, Nova, sable, white fish, tuna fish, egg and other salad choices
b. Thinly sliced tomato, cucumber, bell pepper and onion platters
c. Assorted pickle and olive platters with little cups of capers. PickeLicious has a vast selection.
d. Chopped Israeli salad, potato salad and cole slaw
e. Crudites and dipping sauces—hummus, tehina,
f. Sliced fresh fruit platters
g. Mini Danish platters
h. Platter of sliced hard cheeses
i. Platters of “shmears.” Use a small ice cream or melon scoop to put your “shmears” into little cupcake cups, so guests can lift them onto their plates. Don’t forget butter or almost butter, which you can flavor as well. Make sure you have enough spreaders so guests won’t tear their bagels when applying their “shmears.” If allergies are not an issue, don’t forget the peanut butter and jelly.
j. Have plenty of napkins, drinking cups and flatware on hand. Don’t forget coffee whiteners.
k. Have lots of ice stocked for beverages and for keeping fish dishes and salads cold. Make sure the caterer ices his platters, and if you do it yourself, place your platters atop aluminum baking pans filled with ice to keep them cool.

MEGILLAT HA BAGEL: WHAT THEY ARE AND WHERE THEY COME FROM

There’s lots of bagel lore on the net, including the stories of how bagel making machines were invented. One version of the story has a Jew inventing the bagel to honor Polish king Jan III Sobieski, who defeated the Ottoman Turks in Vienna in 1683. But another source says “not so.” The bagel, from the German word ring, was invented earlier than that, in Krakow, as competition to Russian bublichkes—the same ones the Barry Sisters sang about. Only the original bagels weren’t at all Jewish. They were a lean bread of wheat flour designed for Lent, the Christian austere weeks before Easter, and then they became part of the Polish national diet in the late 16th and first half of the 17th centuries.

The word bagel is also Yiddish for what a Yeshiva boy does when he sleeps for 12 solid hours. “I slept a bagel last night,” is how the expression goes. They think it comes from one of two things…it takes 12 hours to proof a bagel before boiling and it takes 12 hours for a watch hand to circle a bagel-like ring.

Bagels came to North America at the turn of the 20th century, and were popular in Montreal and New York. Montreal bagels are sweeter and crisper because they are made with malt and sugar and boiled in honey water before being baked in a wood-fired oven. New York bagels are made with salt and malt and boiled in that special New York City tap water before being baked in conventional ovens. Today many commercial bakeries don’t bother boiling their bagels—they steam them, leaving them soft and mushy, the bane of true bagel lovers.

Bagel fans prefer “authentic” hand rolled bagels. That’s why there’s huge demand for New York-style bagels. People ship everywhere, even to California, where the fastest producing bagel making machines were invented in the 1950s. Lender’s perfected the frozen bagel in the 1960s, and New York City kosher bagels were introduced to Japan for the first time in 1989. Now the Japanese import approximately 3,000,000 bagels annually, and have created their own special flavors like green tea, chocolate and maple nut. Gregory Chamitoff, a native Canadian astronaut, took 18 sesame bagels into outer space on an International Space Station mission in 2008. Even the Chinese eat bagels, and no one really knows whether or not they invented them first!

FIRST AID FOR YOUR BAGELS

Nothing beats a fresh hot bagel. But when bagels have to travel great distances, or you’re storing them in the freezer because they are imported from New York or New Jersey, they need special care. Here are some tips for getting the best from your bagels.

When you bring your hot bagels home, don’t pull them out and pack them in plastic. Keep them in the bag until they cool off. If you don’t want to freeze them, and think they’ll be eaten over the next few days, put the paper bag they are in into a plastic bag, seal it and put it in the refrigerator.

Bagels can be frozen for up to six months without damage if you take the cooled-off bagels, pre-slice them and put them in individual zip lock bags, making sure you press as much air out of the bag as you can before you zip it closed.

When you are ready to indulge, moisten the bagel with a wet paper towel and pop into the toaster oven until heated through. Never reheat a bagel in a microwave oven unless you want to eat doughy rubber.

SAMMY’S NEW YORK BAGELS
1439 Queen Anne Road
Bagels, Deli, Pizzeria
201-837-0515
Sammy’s New York Bagels on Queen Anne Road offers a huge selection of bagels and catering packages. Sammy’s will happily cater a bagel brunch for you—they do many business breakfasts, brissim and sadly, but conveniently, platters for families who are sitting shiva. There’s homemade tuna salad, egg salad and assorted smoked fish imported from Brooklyn, along with six choices of homemade cream cheese flavors. Sammy’s is more than just bagels—there’s a glatt kosher deli and pizzeria, too. Full service catering is available.

CRESSKILL HOT BAGELS
23 Union Ave
Cresskill, NJ
201-569-3909

http://www.cresskillbagels.com/

No event is too big or small for Cresskill Hot Bagels and Café on Union Avenue in Cresskill. They offer complete office and corporate packages, packages to fit any budget, Bar & Bat Mitzvahs, Kiddushim, brissim, baby-namings, confirmations, birthday parties, Sweet 16s, baby showers, graduations, communions, and brunches, you get the idea. In addition to an array of bagels, bagels baskets, party bagels and spreads, they offer wraps, Paninis, assorted cream cheeses, fruit bowls, berry platters, crudités, sliced and chunk cheeses, homemade salads, croissants, fresh salad bars, a variety of smoked fish and appetizers. The meat department offers cold cuts, 6 Foot Hero’s. And there’s a wide assortment of beverages. You can also get coupons from their website.

BINGHAMPTON BAGEL CAFÉ
725 River Road
Edgewater, NJ
(201) 945-0122
New location: 2151 Lemoine Ave.
Washington Bridge Shopping Plaza
Fort Lee
201-947-0003

Fresh tuna salad homemade, lox imported daily from Brooklyn, rated best bagels in New Jersey. Their bagels are hand-rolled and baked on the premises, and flavors go beyond the basics. sundried tomato. They cater all sorts of celebrations and even shivas, including the perfect, pre-packaged bagel brunch with platters and all. There’s plenty of room for a sit down meal, and you can have a coffee and a sandwich, too. Specializing beyond bagels, with wraps, soups, paninis and more. Free delivery.

TEANECK BAGELS
976 Teaneck Road, Teaneck, NJ
201-833-0410

Teaneck Bagels keeps it pure and basic. No spreads, no catering, and no website. If you want hot, fresh, traditional bagels, call in your order then just go and pick them up.

GLATT EXPRESS, THE KOSHER COMMUNITY SUPERMARKET
GLATT EXPRESS SUPERMARKET
1400 Queen Anne Road
Teaneck, NJ 07666
(201) 837-8110
www.glattexpresssupermarket.com

Platters and catering are not their thing, but there’s so much to choose from at Glatt Express on Queen Anne Road when you are the person doing the food prep for your event. It’s one stop shopping, and everything you need is right there.

It’s been a year under new management and you can see the sparkling clean difference. Tammy is happy to help the do-it-yourselfers put together the ingredients for a bagel brunch or other event. Her bagels are delivered fresh daily and are baked just for her. The aisles are packed with kosher goodies from around the world, and the array is enormous. The meats and fish are brought in fresh daily, the produce is handpicked, and if you want something special, like a marinated brisket or to experiment with new spices and herbs, ask Tammy. She cares. The Lazy Bean Café next door is part of the supermarket, giving shoppers a chance to grab a cappuccino or café au lait. It’s comfortable lounge that offers a variety of coffees from around the world. In addition to lattes and cappuccinos, the cafe offers tea, salads, fresh-made soups and panini sandwiches. WiFi is free and outdoor seating is available on nice days.

PICKELICIOUS
384 Cedar Lane,
Teaneck, NJ 07666
Phone: 201-833-0100
http ://picklelicious.com/
ROBYN SAMRA
Family Day Sunday`s (10am-5pm)
Come on down with your family for sampling and every family member gets a FREE pickle-on a- stick)

PickleLicious is the place for pickle platters/gift baskets/gift cards: Robyn sells at many farmers’ markets around the region and has a handle on the hot and trendy, including very spicy, mildly spicy and unusual flavored pickled treats and olives. Platters and displays are a specialty, a perfect accent for your drop-off or catered brunches from other purveyors.

SHELLY’S CAFE
482 Cedar Lane
Teaneck
Shelly and Noam Sokolow
(201) 692-0001
Dairy. RCBC
www.shellyscafe.net
A favorite vegetarian cafe, won “Best Brunch” in New Jersey’s 201 Magazine ’Best of Begen’ edition a few years ago. Shelly’s offers innovative fish dishes, pastas and salads, favorites like French onion soup and brick oven gourmet pizza, cappuccino, coffees and assorted pastries and cakes.
The classic prix fixe brunch buffet: smoked fish, fresh bagels, pancakes, French toast, home fries, all kinds of salads and omelets made to order. Just $19 ($12 for children under 10). 10:30 am-2:30 pm., every Sunday. Tuesday night offers prix fixe specials, too. Mediterranean bouillabaisse, spinach ravioli in tomato cream sauce, sushi…always something different and inventive. Reasonably priced at $21 ($13 for children under 10). Includes dessert and choice of soup.

ARIEL’S
18 Engle Street
Englewood
201-569-1202
Craig Solomon
crms99@aol.com
www.arielskosher.com
questions@arielskosher.com
Catering@arielskosher.com
Follow them on Twitter: Arielskosher
DAIRY Cholov Yisroel, RCBC
From tamales to the smoked salmon, Craig Solomon’s kitchen ensures that you get sophisticated and wholesome food prepared fresh, from scratch. There are menu items perfect for brunching on site, taking home, or for catering a huge brunch for family and friends. Four kinds of omelets, eggs Hollandaise, double-decker grilled cheese, pancakes, four varieties of French toast and a slew of interesting pizzas are only a fraction of choices you can make for your event.

REUBEN’S GLATT SPOT CATERING
659 Eagle Rock Avenue
West Orange, NJ 07052
973-736-0060
Fax 973-736-8026
Reubensglattspot@aol.com

http://www.reubensglattspot.com/

Reuben’s Glatt Spot offers a brunch menu to suit every need. Sunday brunch consists of assorted sliced bagels, assorted sliced cheeses and cream cheeses, orzo pilaf or pasta primavera, a sliced vegetable garnish platter {red onions, lettuce, cucumbers and tomatoes}, a seven-section platter of tuna, egg, whitefish salad, salmon salad. Minimum 15 people: $13.99 per person. Super Sunday brunch adds penne pasta with roasted peppers and sun dried tomatoes and Chef’s special salad OR broccoli salad with Portobello mushrooms and Health Salad OR Spring Garden Salad, a seven-section platter of babaganoush, veggie liver, tabouli, hummus, and Spanish eggplant. Dessert is mini-pastries.
Minimum 15 people: $18.99 per person. Deluxe Sunday brunch is the Sunday brunch with the addition of garnished platters of filleted whitefish, nova, lox, sable and kippered salmon. Minimum 20 people: $24.99 per person.