Bagel on the Rise

The Valley, like many other communities in Southern California, has been inflicted with bagelmania, with new bagel stores cropping up all over the place. Apparently not everyone has noticed.

“I always go to Barney Greengrass in Beverly Hills to buy my bagels,” confided a Sherman Oaks balabosta I’ve known for years, in response to a question regarding her favorite Valley bagel bakery. “I don’t like chain stores,” she huffed, “and that’s all you can get in the Valley.”

My research tells me this is pointedly not the case, but I must agree that the newer bagel chains put out products I find uninspiring.

Maybe I’m spoiled. During my childhood, my mother’s sister Frances, secretary to a fish broker, supplied our family with wonderful bagels, along with sizable platters of smoked fish: lox, sable, whitefish and sturgeon--briny, buttery fish cut into thick slices and hefty chunks--and huge scoops of Philadelphia-style cream cheese.

In those days, bagels came in three varieties--water, onion and egg. Water bagels were eggshell white, with a hard, crisp outer crust. Onion bagels were water bagels with long, blackened onion strings baked onto the bread surface the way polyurethane goes onto a hardwood floor. Egg bagels, which I have never fancied, had a soft texture and a pale orange sheen, the color of melted Creamsicles.

If you want to get technical, there was also the bialy, an un-boiled flat bread named for Bialystock, a once predominantly Jewish city in eastern Poland. The bagel probably has a Polish pedigree, too. It is reputed to have originated circa 1683 when a Polish baker created something to pay tribute to his king, Jan Sobiesky. How the word “bagel” became part of our language is sketchy. We know that beugel is an old Austrian word for stirrup, and also that beugen is Middle High German for “to bend.”

The best bagels were--and still are, when you can find them--hand rolled by bakers skilled at pinching together elongated strips of dough. Punching or stamping a hole in the dough was considered chicanery to a purist; steaming the dough instead of boiling it--a common way to mass produce the buns that pass for bagels today--would have been a sacrilege.

And no bagel ever achieved popularity because it was low in fat. In my childhood, bagels were conduits for fatty, salty foods, functioning like cones do for ice cream. Then some genius figured out that bagels were complex carbohydrates, fuel for runners, triathletes and business people on the run (at around 150 to 200 calories per 3 1/2-ounce bagel, without butter or cream cheese).

What’s in a bagel? Well, recipes vary, but the ingredients are as follows: high gluten flour, salt, yeast, sugar and, occasionally, malt, plus who knows how many additives in commercial recipes. The ‘90s bagel also comes gussied up in 31 flavors, laced with exotic substances like chocolate chips, cranberries, jalapenos and sun-dried tomatoes baked into the dough.

Feh is what my grandmother would have said.

I recently conducted a rather free-form bagel tasting in the Valley, visiting several bagel outlets over a three-day period. As I gathered up the bagfuls, it became clear that uniformity of judgment would not be easy. Bagels taste best about one hour after they are baked, just after they are cool, and it’s hard to know how long a bagel has been out of the oven. Another problem is rating criteria. Chewiness, for instance, something I like, is not a quality everyone relishes.

Here is what I found, with a few outside opinions kneaded in. In the end, bagels were evaluated on crispness, chewiness and overall quality. Feel free to take these opinions with a grain of salt. (Or just order a salt bagel.)

And happy noshing, but remember to slice that bagel away from yourself. Bagel injuries are a leading cause of weekend visits to the emergency room.

*

Goldstein’s Bagel Bakery was started in Pasadena eight years ago by Michael and Bridget Goldstein. Those living in Glendale can drive up Verdugo Road to the La Canada Flintridge city line, where a newly opened Goldstein’s outlet is putting out some of the best bagels east of Fairfax.

The secret may be in the recipe, which the employees protect with the zeal of bodyguards at a rock concert. I was able to discern that the dough is mixed in a roller, hand stretched on a table and then finished in a machine, before being boiled, first, and then baked. There are no preservatives in these bagels, and all of them are made on the premises. On a busy day, this Goldstein’s sells more than 2,500 bagels.

I’m not surprised. These are chewy, crisp-crusted rounds, with a softness to the centers that is genuine, not the result of undercooking. Varieties like rye, whole wheat and sesame are all exemplary, and the chain makes a terrific crusty bialy, topped with a flurry of chopped onion and poppy seed. I do not share the enthusiasm for specialty bagels like peanut butter chocolate chip, which tastes weird to a purist like me, or for banana nut, which reminds me of banana bread that someone forgot to put the sugar in. Nonetheless, these are top-notch bagels and worth a drive up the hill any morning.

* Goldstein’s Bagel Bakery, 1939 Verdugo Road, La Canada Flintridge. (818) 952-BGLS. Bagels are 50 to 75 cents.

*

I & Joy/Manhattan Bagels: Don’t be confused by the sign written with the names of two bagel companies rather than a single one. I & Joy was a long-standing (30-year) Los Angeles-area bagel chain that last year was completely acquired by national bagel giant Manhattan Bagels. I & Joy is effectively gone, recipe and all, except for the remnant signs. Sometime this summer the signs will read Manhattan Bagel, and that’s that.

We’re talking huge here, folks. Manhattan, really based in Eatontown, N.J., has over 250 outlets nationwide and claims to be the fastest percentage-growth bagel company in the entire nation. And why not? These bagels are also boiled and baked individually in the traditional New York style, not steamed and rack baked, with a hard outer crust and a soft, almost creamy interior. The chain’s 20 varieties are displayed on the brown paper bags the bagels are packaged in, varieties like pumpernickel, blueberry, banana nut, plus all the usual suspects.

For my money this is a fine product, probably the best of the big-chain bagels and worth a try any time of day. Stix is a seeded baton rolled in poppy, sesame, garlic and salt, and the pumpernickel bagel has that Old World flavor I remember from the Jewish bakeries of my youth.

* I & Joy/Manhattan Bagels, 18539 Devonshire St., Northridge. (818) 363-9879. Also Encino, North Hills, Studio City, Sherman Oaks, West Hills and Woodland Hills. Bagels are 55 cents.

*

Noah’s New York Bagels: Noah’s originated in Berkeley. Today there are more than 50 outlets nationwide, with the number still growing.

Noah’s oven-steams their bagels on a conveyor system, then bakes them, resulting in a dense, bread-y type of bagel. These beautiful and strictly kosher breads are not bagels in the strict sense, but rather buns.

My informal tasting panel tried egg, poppy seed, New York rye and multi-grain, and the consensus was virtually unanimous. Dough flavorings were intense and the outsides were nicely crisp, but the inside texture was not for us. None of the bagels were properly chewy or bagel-like. We found them dense, monotonous and generally not what we expect from a good bagel.

Look for delightful bagel accompaniments, though. There are tempting cuts of smoked salmon, whole smoked whitefish, good cream cheeses called shmears and fine Jewish pastries. I’m especially hooked on their cinnamon babka and hamentaschen, a fruit-filled shortbread.

* Noah’s New York Bagels, 14622 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks. (818) 907-9570. Also Burbank, Studio City and Woodland Hills. Bagels are 55 cents; handmade bialys, 75 cents.

*

I like bagels by East Coast Bagel, and I happen to eat them now and again since one of the company stores is near my house. My friends did not like them quite as much, but we all agreed that these are dense, chewy bagels, especially the pumpernickel and rye, which both are strongly flavored with rye flour and caraway seed.

One of the most delicious items sold here is a sweet, sticky dough stick drizzled with cinnamon and sugar, resulting in a crackling outer crust. The thing I like best here is a strange aberration named the pletzel. This is a tasty alien species, a crisp, hard, flat and round cracker with no more than a hint of softness in the dough, topped with onion, garlic, sesame, poppy and other flavorful bits. Smear one up with the good house lox spread, and don’t break your teeth.

This is also one of the best bagel outlets for sandwiches. Both the pastrami bagel sandwich and the bagel dog are quite good, and there is something called a beggel served mornings, a fluffy egg omelet, cheese and ham, of all things, inside the bagel of your choice.

* East Coast Bagel, 23359 Mulholland Drive, Calabasas. (818) 223-9931. Bagels are 50 to 60 cents.

*

Two years ago, Weby’s Bakery was acquired by baker Norm Nieman, and the longtime Valley pastry shop closed for three months during the transition. This led to some confusion, including the erroneous idea that Weby’s Dely, which shares the space with the bakery, had closed as well. Both businesses are alive and well, thank you.

Weby’s Bakery, in fact, is busier than ever. In addition to a full-fledged array of sweets like a terrific coffee ring, chocolate drop cookies and first-rate danish, Weby’s is now producing more than 24,000 bagels per day from a recipe that relies on high gluten wheat flour, malt, yeast and other goodies. Nieman reports that a few well-known delis on the boulevard, notably Solley’s and Jerry’s Famous, are now serving his bagels (Weby’s Dely has them too, natch.) “When the other chains opened up around here,” crows Nieman, “my business nearly doubled.”

Judge for yourself. These are a dime to 20 cents less than other quality bagels, and no slouch in the taste department. There are only six varieties to chose from; water, onion, egg, poppy, sesame and salt. My grandmother would approve.

* Weby’s Bakery, 12131 Ventura Blvd., Studio City. (818) 761-9391. Bagels are 40 cents.

*

It isn’t really fair to compare the bagels at Trader Joe’s to those of retail bakeries. For one thing, they are not likely to be oven fresh, having been stocked en masse from various commercial dealers. Another reason is the price. These bagels are often as inexpensive as 20 cents apiece, a good value if you don’t mind a cottony, unpleasant texture and a bland, honey-sweetened aftertaste. I’d eat them toasted.

All is not lost. Trader Joe’s is definitely a fine bet for competitively priced lox and salmon and low-priced, good-tasting packaged cream cheeses. Great alder-wood cold smoked salmon is cheaper here than in the Northwest. Lox is half the price, with little or no loss of quality, than it is in many of the aforementioned bagel stores.

* Trader Joe’s, 6600 Topanga Canyon Blvd., Canoga Park. (818) 883-4134. Also Glendale, Encino and Sherman Oaks. A half-dozen bagels are $1.09 and $1.19.

*

A note about pretzels.

Kin to the bagel is the pretzel, differentiated by its twisty shape but little else. Traditionally, the dough is about the same: high gluten flour, a touch of malt, salt, yeast and, yes, a bit of sugar. This last ingredient, incidentally, would never have been found in a traditional bagel. To be a true pretzel, the dough is also supposed to be boiled before baking, a nearly lost practice.

If you long for hard pretzels, a box of malty, palm-sized Snyder’s of Hanover (Pa.) should satisfy the craving. I’m practically addicted to them, and I have the carpet crumbs to prove it. Soft pretzels, the kind you buy at county fairs, sports venues and shopping malls, aren’t boiled, but many people find them more appealing. These pretzels are generally baked at approximately 600 degrees for around six minutes, and the accepted practice is to eat them with mustard.