On Sat, 9 Sep 2006, Jesse Lemisch wrote:
> H & H (Hispanic) are highly sugared; Absolute (Thai) -- along
> with most other sources -- lacks the traditional hardness on the surface
IMHO, Absolute Bagels are the best bagels in the world. And if you want a hard crust all you have to do is ask them for one that is "very well done" or "very dark." They'll be glad to dig one out for you. You can ask what variety is hardest the way others choose the one that is hottest. They can get plenty crusty. They only reason they take most of them out when they are soft is because that's the way most people prefer them.
> (during WWII there were jokes about Jewish bombardiers dropping bagels on
> the enemy).
Yeah, but back then, bagels were hard all the way through. They were chewy as all get out and the real joke was about how heavy they were and how they lay on your stomach all day. They still make them that way at Yonah Schmimel's Knishery, down by Katz's, which hasn't changed its recipe in almost 100 years ,and also farther down the lower Lower East Side (which is having an orthodox Jewish expansion out of Brooklyn) on Grand Street.
Personally I find those bagels inferior in both taste and texture, and in my experience, champions of old style bagels are perfectly willing to concede those points. As my old professor Silver would retort "Taste is not the point of a bagel!" (I will admit, however, that it is only in shops like those on Grand Street that that you can get fresh bialies, which are great.)
If you don't want to go out of the neighborhood, traditionalists such him tended to prefer Columbia Bagels at 110th Street to Absolute. It's temporarily closed because of new construction, but according to rumor, both it and the West Side Market will be reinstalled shortly.
Michael