I agree, Print the legend. I always say never let the details get in the way of a great story. You always have a great story in your art, Marco! Be it, writing, songs, photographs, or cooking. Thanks for sharing :)
I love the poppyseed tidbit because I love poppyseed. I'd be the one buying that bialy for the poppyseed and then be horrified to find garlic. Alas, now I can't buy them anyway as I have to eat gluten-free. However, if you were to share your recipe, I could try my new GF breadflour on it...
Yes, the practical poppy seed wrinkle in the story really blew me away Been eating them my whole life and assumed they were there for taste. So, I have three or four recipes I have been using, and testing and I am not thrilled or sold on any one of them, they are more just information that helps me get started. I know how they should taste, and so far, they are not there (yet).
This is the one recipe I would share, even though is uses barley malt in it, which is scandalous. The originals in Poland emphatically had no sugar of any kind in them. That said, the preferment is a great technique. Lots of flavor and complexity for it. This is high-hydration, very sticky dough by the way, and it needs to be.
Let me know how it goes with gluten-free flour. I have used some ancient Georgian grains that have no gluten and they are VERY hard to work with, I ended up mixing them with normal, strong gluten flour at one point.
The barley malt should not be there in the first place, according to aficionados (no sugar of any kind should be in them). It adds complexity, helps them brown nicely and helps the yeast bloom, so deleting it is not a huge deal.
Oh, my goodness. Such a beautiful piece of writing - and oh! did it bring back memories. For a winter, back when I was an aspiring actress, in my early 20's, I lived in a bed-sit on 3rd St. near Avenue B. I caught a bus, or a subway? on 14th St. and quite near was a bagel place that reminds me so much of the one you describe (so much so that I've just spent twenty minutes trying to find "mine" on google maps. No luck. My main memory was that unbelievable smell that foreshadowed the heavenly satisfaction of the first (and even subsequent) bites of those plain white bagels (my preference). But I also recall the steamed up windows and the light dusting of flour that was on EVERYTHING including the elderly gentlemen (as I recall) in their white clothing and caps, who seemed to be doing everything from baking to ringing up change with speedy efficiency. Truly one of my favorite NY memories. Like nothing I've experienced since.
I'm trying to think of a bagel place in Stuytown around 14th street and am not remembering anything obvious. I will say that if I ever did eat a bagel made in Manhattan, it was from Ess-a-bagel on 1st ave and 21st and you could indeed get one hot more the oven, the windows were perpetually steamed over too.
I love it when food takes you back. Whenever I taste a dish made with trout and it's prepared really well with very fresh fish I go back to my youth when the family spent summer vacations in the Sierra Nevada mountains where my dad and I would fish for "Golden Trout" in the lakes up there. Golden trout are much like rainbows except the stripe is a goldish yellow rather than purple/pink. Back then the only place you could catch them was in the Sierras. They've been farmed out a bit since.
I thought this scene from a Disney film captured that feeling perfectly.
OH MAN, I have major childhood memories of my dad coming back from fishing our stream with a string of rainbow trout, sometimes brown ones too. He would gut them outside, and they would be dropping blood on the floor, as he dredged them in flour and threw them into the pan still moving they were so fresh.
I never got to taste a golden rainbow, you are lucky.
Both of my kids LOVE Ratatouille by the way (both the film and the dish).
thank you Janet! If you are are goofy for bialys as I am, you must read "The Bialy Eaters" by Mimi Sheraton. She used to write for the Food section of the NYT.
I am almost done reading Mimi Sheraton's lovely book called The Bialy Eaters. I think she mentioned an acceptable place in LA, not as good as Kossars, but no place can ever be as good as them. Points for trying!
I agree, Print the legend. I always say never let the details get in the way of a great story. You always have a great story in your art, Marco! Be it, writing, songs, photographs, or cooking. Thanks for sharing :)
Thank you, Joe. What murky times we live in!
I love the poppyseed tidbit because I love poppyseed. I'd be the one buying that bialy for the poppyseed and then be horrified to find garlic. Alas, now I can't buy them anyway as I have to eat gluten-free. However, if you were to share your recipe, I could try my new GF breadflour on it...
Yes, the practical poppy seed wrinkle in the story really blew me away Been eating them my whole life and assumed they were there for taste. So, I have three or four recipes I have been using, and testing and I am not thrilled or sold on any one of them, they are more just information that helps me get started. I know how they should taste, and so far, they are not there (yet).
This is the one recipe I would share, even though is uses barley malt in it, which is scandalous. The originals in Poland emphatically had no sugar of any kind in them. That said, the preferment is a great technique. Lots of flavor and complexity for it. This is high-hydration, very sticky dough by the way, and it needs to be.
https://justonebiteplease.com/2018/10/11/bialys/
Let me know how it goes with gluten-free flour. I have used some ancient Georgian grains that have no gluten and they are VERY hard to work with, I ended up mixing them with normal, strong gluten flour at one point.
Thank you! Barley malt syrup, unfortunately, contains gluten. 😞
The barley malt should not be there in the first place, according to aficionados (no sugar of any kind should be in them). It adds complexity, helps them brown nicely and helps the yeast bloom, so deleting it is not a huge deal.
Oh, my goodness. Such a beautiful piece of writing - and oh! did it bring back memories. For a winter, back when I was an aspiring actress, in my early 20's, I lived in a bed-sit on 3rd St. near Avenue B. I caught a bus, or a subway? on 14th St. and quite near was a bagel place that reminds me so much of the one you describe (so much so that I've just spent twenty minutes trying to find "mine" on google maps. No luck. My main memory was that unbelievable smell that foreshadowed the heavenly satisfaction of the first (and even subsequent) bites of those plain white bagels (my preference). But I also recall the steamed up windows and the light dusting of flour that was on EVERYTHING including the elderly gentlemen (as I recall) in their white clothing and caps, who seemed to be doing everything from baking to ringing up change with speedy efficiency. Truly one of my favorite NY memories. Like nothing I've experienced since.
I'm trying to think of a bagel place in Stuytown around 14th street and am not remembering anything obvious. I will say that if I ever did eat a bagel made in Manhattan, it was from Ess-a-bagel on 1st ave and 21st and you could indeed get one hot more the oven, the windows were perpetually steamed over too.
Here's an archival bagel short that will make you crack a smile https://youtu.be/cPCOJAm5L2U?si=xqZ6R_Aq_-lv_oyU
I love it when food takes you back. Whenever I taste a dish made with trout and it's prepared really well with very fresh fish I go back to my youth when the family spent summer vacations in the Sierra Nevada mountains where my dad and I would fish for "Golden Trout" in the lakes up there. Golden trout are much like rainbows except the stripe is a goldish yellow rather than purple/pink. Back then the only place you could catch them was in the Sierras. They've been farmed out a bit since.
I thought this scene from a Disney film captured that feeling perfectly.
https://youtu.be/4ld9EP5yAX4?si=SzUMWZfKgEEurICR
OH MAN, I have major childhood memories of my dad coming back from fishing our stream with a string of rainbow trout, sometimes brown ones too. He would gut them outside, and they would be dropping blood on the floor, as he dredged them in flour and threw them into the pan still moving they were so fresh.
I never got to taste a golden rainbow, you are lucky.
Both of my kids LOVE Ratatouille by the way (both the film and the dish).
Love this. Bravo!
thank you Janet! If you are are goofy for bialys as I am, you must read "The Bialy Eaters" by Mimi Sheraton. She used to write for the Food section of the NYT.
I can't remember the last time I had one. This is L.A., not NY, after all, but when the smoke clears, literally and not, I will venture forth.
I am almost done reading Mimi Sheraton's lovely book called The Bialy Eaters. I think she mentioned an acceptable place in LA, not as good as Kossars, but no place can ever be as good as them. Points for trying!