Bagels in Montreal: the final battle
MONTREAL – When you’re invited to participate in Metropolis Bleu, this city’s wonderful international literary festival , you naturally expect heated debates about English versus French, books as the ultimate expression of humanity, geopolitical and religious issues, or how much (and when) artificial intelligence will replace writers .
But outside the conference rooms, among local friends and invited guests—because no one, no one can resist the challenge—the big question is something else. St-Viateur or Fairmount? Which of these two iconic establishments makes the perfect bagel? That's the real question.
Ingrid Bejerman, the festival's director of Spanish and Portuguese programming (and attentive to even the smallest details) , immediately brought up the Jewish Museum, which organizes specialized tours of this classic dish brought over by Eastern European immigrants at the beginning of the 20th century. She also presented, with great timing , Rafael Osío Cabrices , author of the acclaimed Venezuela: Memories of a Lost Future , a book in which he writes about his country with the complexity, problems—and joy—that only rum can offer as a kick-off. He lives in Montreal and knows the Plateau and Mile End like few others, areas where culinary debates are as intense as an ice hockey final between the local Canadiens and the Toronto Maple Leafs .
The New York bagel often ends up as a monumental sandwich, typically with layers of smoked salmon or pastrami, and now also in creative versions such as the “birthday cheesecake” filling, a sponge cake-flavored cream cheese with colorful sprinkles.
Between the roundtable discussion and the conference, Osío Cabrices agreed to lead the South American bagel tasting expedition. The differences were subtle: Fairmount bagels are somewhat denser and sweeter; St-Viateur bagels are fluffier, with a more "elastic" crumb. What they share—and what makes Montreal proud—is the secret of their preparation: they are boiled in water with honey before being baked in wood-fired ovens , which gives them their golden color and that slightly caramelized texture.
“Look, choose whichever you want; any alternative will be respected. But you're from New York... The real issue is the comparison with the bagels from the Big Apple. And if you end up preferring the ones from Montreal, it's like saying you like Uruguayan beef more than Argentinian beef,” Osío Cabrices summed up. As they would say around here: no pressure, pas de pressure . For Montrealers, he explained, the New York bagel borders on heresy : bigger, puffier, less golden, and—the ultimate sacrilege—often served toasted. In Montreal, on the other hand, the bagel is eaten fresh, ideally minutes after coming out of the oven, still steaming in its brown paper bag. If you want cream cheese, the employee throws a package of Philadelphia cream cheese into the bag, not without a certain air of disdain . Those in the know here eat it straight: warm and perfect.
In Montreal, however, the bagel is eaten fresh, ideally minutes after coming out of the oven, still steaming in its brown paper bag.
The New York bagel often ends up transformed into a monumental sandwich, typically with layers of smoked salmon or pastrami, and now also in creative versions like the "birthday cheesecake" filling, a sponge-cake-flavored cream cheese with colorful sprinkles. In Montreal, the bagel remains the absolute protagonist: small, concentrated, proudly self-sufficient. Perhaps that's why, in this city, one can engage in dialectical duels over whether the softness of St-Viateur surpasses the intensity of Fairmount, or vice versa. But at the mere mention of a New York bagel, all differences are forgotten. Some battles are internal; others, existential . And it was time to vote. The verdict? Between St-Viateur and Fairmount, personally—horror—it was more or less the same. But between the local bagels and the New York ones, there was no doubt: a clear preference for the Montreal ones.
Of course, when it comes to meats, this columnist couldn't compare too many, since she eats chivitos in Uruguay and asados in Buenos Aires. But when it comes to bagels, the choice was easy. Perhaps not so much due to a taste, but rather pure pragmatism: the Montreal version, even with its touch of honey, has about a hundred fewer calories . And summer is approaching.
lanacion
