On the 12th day of Christmas, I’m craving a dozen Montreal-style bagels
1 Comment
Karen Hamilton
December 21, 2011
On the twelfth day of Christmas, Foodsters drove to me
Twelve Montreal-style bagels
Eleven empanadas
Ten Bella gelatos
Nine Napoli pizzas
Eight deep-fried winglets
Seven meat-filled ‘wiches
Six buns a-steaming
Five Memphis Feasts!
Four poutines
Three Peking Ducks
Two Japadogs
And a steaming bowl of chicken congee.
One of the reasons I accepted Van Houtte’s invite to fly a Foodist to Montreal last month was so that I can see, first-hand, what the bagel fuss is all about. I came home armed with 2 dozen samples from St-Viateur, whose bagels are rumoured to be quintessentially Montrealesque.
Not convinced, I called Foodsters to pick up contenders at a couple of bagel shops for a good ol’ fashioned Bagel Smackdown.
We then served the remainder to our Foodists guests when we invited them chez nous for a Montreal-themed potluck. The results? Our local bagel purveyors stood up quite well to the benchmark from Montreal, to the point where our guests couldn’t identify the supposedly superlative ones from St-Viateur.
Here’s where to start if you’re looking for Montreal-style bagels in town.
Solly’s: eat ‘em au naturel
Look at the photo above and decide which you’d pick up first. We thought that the bagel in the upper-right corner satisfied the hunger in our eyes best, and our readers on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagr.am heartily agreed. The cake-like interior was moist and springy; this translated to the most enjoyable chew before bagel met toaster. If you like to eat your bagel fresh from the shop and without dressings, head on over to Solly’s.
Siegel’s: lover of cream cheese
Siegel’s was our top pick for a toasty treat. The bagels were a little too bland and yeasty to eat straight out of the bag, but get them crispy and slathered with cream cheese and they couldn’t be beat. The smoked salmon cream cheese that you can grab at the shop was pretty memorable, too.
PHAT Deli: smoked meat and benny bagel delights
PHAT Deli wasn’t part of Bagel Smackdown but it gets honorary mention here. It’s the first place I wrote about when Tiny Bites began nearly 4 years ago, and it’s the first place that made me fall in love with the bagel. I’m still drawn in every now and then for an Everything bagel with freshly made dill cream cheese.
It’s is also the first place that comes to mind when I’m in the mood for a bagel-style Eggs Benedict. My favourite style of benny at PHAT is chock full of tomato and avocado. The replacement of bagel for biscuit makes this dish a lot more filling than usual, so split it with a friend if you’re a small eater like me.
Where do you go for a bagel fix?
From December 10-22nd, I’m a media sponsor for Foodsters’ 12 Days of Christmas Food Drive. Follow along as I share what my top 12 food and restaurant cravings are this season (with some poetic license to boot).
Categories: Broadway, Downtown, Food, Food Purveyors, Kitsilano, Restaurants, Yaletown
On the 6th day of Christmas, I’m craving buns: steamed, pan-fried, or XLB’ed
4 Comments Karen HamiltonDecember 15, 2011
On the sixth day of Christmas, Foodsters drove to me
Six buns a-steaming
Five Memphis Feasts!
Four poutines
Three Peking Ducks
Two Japadogs
And a steaming bowl of chicken congee.
The Chinese way of making meat-filled pastries are so assorted and delicious that I’ve decided to put my Top Three variations under the same umbrella of craving. Here we go!
New Town Bakery: the king of steamed buns
You can find steamed buns in nearly every dim sum restaurant in this city. Those tiny, snow-white puffs of sweet, steamed bread hugging a rich core of stewed BBQ pork appeal to many a dim sum enthusiast…but not me. I much prefer what Chinatown’s New Town Bakery has been hawking for years: steamed buns of various meat and vegetable incarnations, as massive as the size of your fist.
New Town Bakery is a Filipino’s steamed bun mecca, so I’ve been a patron since I was a kid. My latest favourite is the $1.70 chicken steamed bun. Unlike the best-selling $1.50 pork asado, which I loved as a kid and whose centre oozes with meat glaze much like its dim sum counterpart, the chicken bun is filled simply with chicken, fine and minimally spiced, allowing the airy sweetness of its freshly steamed bun to be on equal footing in your mouth.
I popped into New Town this week with my daughter and Tiny Bites contributor, Bruce. They’ve recently moved to a new location–2 doors west of their old digs–and are slashing 10% off their entire menu from now until December 18th. Come in and grab lunch for as little as $3, order a dozen to go, or save even more by choosing bags of frozen buns by the half-dozen for your leisurely enjoyment at home.
Peaceful Restaurant: for pan-fried pork bun lovers
Photo courtesy © Melody of Gourmet Fury
When I’m not in a steamy mood, I stop by Peaceful Restaurant for their Huang Jing pan-fried buns. Pan frying the bun adds a layer of colour and crisp that contrasts wonderfully with the chew of its wrapper and the delicacy of its pork and scallion filling. You can also ask for steamed pork buns–the salted pork interior is similarly mild and I find that it’s a hit with the kids…especially mine.
I once had to commute outside of downtown to satisfy my pan-fried bun cravings at their Broadway and Cambie location, but the opening of their second restaurant on Davie and Seymour has turned the occasional foray into nearly weekly visits. Sadly, there is no Peaceful Restaurant within walking distance when we move to Marpole next month, so I will rely on Foodsters to get their fare to my doorstep.
Lin’s: the best xiao long bao in the world?
If neither of the bun varieties above are floating your boat, then surely xiao long bao will. They can be found at Peaceful Restaurant and most Shanghainese eateries too, but I believe that they’re best experienced in Vancouver at Lin’s Chinese Cuisine and Tea House. There, you’ll find that the sheer flour wrapper, hot bursts of pork stock, and ethereal dumpling meat will intersect in mouthfuls of bliss.
And according to some–*cough* Condé Nast *cough*–Lin’s might just be serving the best xiao long bao on Earth.
What kind of bun are you craving today, and how are you getting it to your door?
From December 10-22nd, I’m a media sponsor for Foodsters’ 12 Days of Christmas Food Drive. Follow along as I share what my top 12 food and restaurant cravings are this season (with some poetic license to boot).
Categories: Blogging for Social Change, Broadway, Chinatown, Downtown, Food, Food Purveyors, Restaurants, South Granville, Yaletown
On the 5th day of Christmas, I’m craving a Memphis Feast from Memphis Blues BBQ House
1 Comment Karen HamiltonDecember 14, 2011
On the fifth day of Christmas, Foodsters drove to me
Five Memphis Feasts!
Four poutines
Three Peking Ducks
Two Japadogs
And a steaming bowl of chicken congee.
The Hamilton household loves its meat, particularly in the form of pulled pork or brisket slathered in BBQ sauce. And this is why we love Memphis Blues.
Any of the Feasts offered by Memphis Blues makes for great game day fare. The Memphis Feast–the smallest of the options but by no means meagre–contains enough pulled pork, brisket, beef ribs, riblets, sausage, and BBQ chicken to feed four or a very hungry duo. Comes with all the fixins’, too: fries, cornbread, coleslaw, baked BBQ beans, and a cupful of BBQ sauce for dunking. If you didn’t stock up on booze ahead of time, add on the Bucket O’Beer for $9.95.
Memphis Blues does their own delivery out of the Commercial Drive, South Surrey, Hillcrest Village, and Kelowna locations, between 5-9pm at $2 a pop with a $20-25 order minimum. Outside of those time zones and locations or below that budget, ask Foodsters to help out. They may even grab you the Bucket O’Beer as long as you can produce your ID at the door.
From December 10-22nd, I’m a media sponsor for Foodsters’ 12 Days of Christmas Food Drive. Follow along as I share what my top 12 food and restaurant cravings are this season (with some poetic license to boot).
Categories: Blogging for Social Change, Broadway, Commercial Drive, Food, Food Purveyors, Restaurants
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Tiny Bites is a food blog that explores all things edible and imbibable in Vancouver, British Columbia. More >
Articles by Karen Hamilton
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