Many New Yorkers take them for granted. Everyone else around the world tries to emulate them. I spend my breakfast hour dreaming of them. Say hello to the humble bagel.
Murray’s Bagels
After chatting with our lovely host, and grilling him for bagel recommendations, he suggested we check out Murray’s. He assured me it would definitely be worth the trip, as he watched me poring over our subway map.
I’m so glad we listened to this advice, because enjoying this fluffy on the inside, crisp-yet-chewy on the outside bacon and egg bagel is one of the most enduring New York memories I have.
Standing in line, I began to ponder the menu. Luckily it was long, as I needed time to grapple with the options. Schmear, or no schmear? Filled? Soy-cheese? White fish or lox? Forget asking for your bagel toasted, as the signs inside remind you ‘we don’t toast‘.
Not that any toasting is necessary here. I think a big part of the joy of these bagels is in the fluffy innards, which are soft yet substantial.
Each mouthful was made just that little bit more special because I chose an onion bagel over plain or salt … because I figured, when in New York…. bad breath be damned.
I pretty much had to pry this away from J’s clutches and gnashing jaws. But it was worth the effort.
J’s choice of bagel (onion) was packed full of smoked lake sturgeon, juicy sliced tomato, cream cheese, red onion and capers.
We washed down our breakfast with freshly squeezed orange juice.
Brooklyn Bagel and coffee company
It was a moment of serious excitement when I realised our arrival in New York coincided with the influx of Halloween and Thanksgiving themed items in stores.
There were goofy masks and wigs in every Ricky’s I visited, people on the street spruiking for costume stores, candy corn (which I love!) and pumpkin-flavoured everything, from chai lattes to cream cheese.
For my first ever New York bagel experence, I went for this plain bagel (toasted) with pumpkin cream cheese. I am still deeply wishing I had gone back for more. Pumpkin just isn’t celebrated enough in Australia.
J couldn’t go past the Philly cheese steak breakfast burrito. For him, it was a moment to celebrate the existence of a real-deal breakfast burrito, in addition to the fact that it was chock full of tender steak and American cheese! At home, breakfast burritos are an extremely rare occurence, much to our collective sadness.
Coffee and Manhattan? Well, let’s just say it’s often not worth paying the extra to have yours barista style. Filtered is generally the easiest option as it’s cheap and accessible.
Even though it’s always lacking in body, it usually doesn’t taste like it’s been burnt within an inch of its life.
We were surprised to find the coffee at Brooklyn Bagel was top notch, after being disappointed by coffee in our neighbourhood day after day.
A cold-brew Americano was my idea of heaven, after too much non-dairy creamer, while J enjoyed his first decent Macchiato.
