why you should only buy sesame bagels
Yes, hostels are good for having roommates that might fart loudly without caring or peeing with the door open, but hostels are also amazing for meeting diverse people that you only hear about in some hip city. But then again, Montreal is a hip city so maybe this is why there were so many cool people. One particular group of guys that we met while on a bar crawl with our hostel was Andrew, Uri, Josh, and Sammy. Jewish boys from Chicago, ranging from 18-22 with such different personalities, I was surprised they chose to travel together. But our American-ness brought us close and they very nicely invited us out on their adventures. Pretty bold considering we knew them for maybe 4 hours? (proooobably the beer, but who knows).
So they invited us to go with them to search for the perfect bagel. While I am a fan of bagels, who isn’t a fan of carbs tbh, I didn’t realize that this was a bit of Jewish culture. Quick history lesson: Making bagels is a Polish tradition, in fact, its where they originated (in the 1600s!!). As the Polish Jews emmigrated, they ended up in NYC selling what they know best. Eventually, the bagel craze spread to a lot of big cities and now we find the boiled bread in almost all of our early morning American coffee runs. It is quite the tradition and bagel makers really take pride in their businesses. And the boys were on a quest to find the best bagel in Montreal.
The first shop “La Maison de L’Orginal Fairmount Bagel”
Our first bagel shop reminded me of a Seinfeld episode. Just the smallest shop possible, with 6 of us smushed inside, barely knowing French to order, clearly awkward. I, being the naive rookie, didn’t know that the traditional choice is sesame or poppyseed so I went with my favorite, the Everything. This was mistake #1 because the most popular traditional ones are made more fresh and are hot and doughy. And honestly, my Everything was only a small step above the ones I get at Starbucks. Lesson learned at our next shop, which was covered in newspapers of bagel achievements. A hot oven pumped out the seeded bread and a long line clearly showed popularity. The hot sesame bagel was everything I needed to warm me up from the negative Artic wind blowing us around the neighborhood. My verdict? The second place won, although I was biased with such fresh bread.
The second shop
“La Maison du Bagel Boulangerie”
Inside the bagel shop
The best part about our bagel hunt was that both shops were nestled in an Jewish Orthodox neighborhood. There were synagogues smushed between rows and rows of houses. The boys were excited to read to us the Hebrew signs they were taught in school. We also ran into a few residents, all dressed in long black coats. I learned that they always wear these, men and women, winter or summer. I could tell they were proud of their religion. Another new thing to me was that they grew out their sideburns so that it curled past their chins. This practice is taken directly from religious texts, where God leaves strength in a man who doesn’t cut his hair. It was quite interesting learning about bagels and Judaisim, as well as seeing the little kids running around speaking Hebrew-French-English (maybe.. Hefranglais).
In conclusion:
- Go out with new people. Why read a history book when you can just talk about different backgrounds.
- Check out the Orthodox neighborhoods in Montreal. Very pretty, cultural, and full of bagels.
- Always buy sesame, it will change your view on bagels. (#byeStarbucks)
BroadsAbroad 