We got a local and a British tourist to find New York's best bagel
"Food Wars" hosts Harry Kersh and Joe Avella travel across NYC to find the best bagel in the city. They'll be visiting four different locations in just one day to see what the city has to offer. This is "Food Tours."
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00:00 I lived in New York for years, and I think it has some of the best food in the world.
00:05 I've invited my friend Harry Kirsch over from the UK to teach him how we do things slightly
00:09 differently over here.
00:11 We'll be visiting four of the top rated bagel spots across the city all in one day to see
00:16 if we can find New York's best bagel.
00:19 This is Food Tours.
00:23 Our first stop of the day is at Utopia Bagels in Queens.
00:26 Utopia Bagels in Queens on Utopia Parkway, second best Fountains of Wayne album.
00:32 The reason I took you here is because this place has dynamite bagels.
00:36 Although we're out of the beaten path, so maybe not a lot of tourists come out here,
00:39 don't get me wrong, buddy, they make so many bagels here, over 100,000 a week.
00:43 That's a lot of bagels.
00:45 They go through two tons of flour a day.
00:49 So many bagels.
00:50 The oven they got in there was 1947, which of course was during World War II?
00:56 Just after.
00:57 Yes.
00:58 So I figured for the day, every place we go we're getting the traditional New York City
01:02 bagels and lox.
01:03 Perfect.
01:04 Have you ever had bagels and lox before?
01:05 I have.
01:06 In the UK we call it a salmon and cream cheese bagel.
01:09 Oh my god.
01:10 You have a lot to learn, my friend.
01:12 What do you think makes a good bagel?
01:14 So I'm looking for a nice golden brown bagel.
01:17 I want it seasoned on both sides.
01:18 So if we got like everything bagel, we need toppings on the top and the bottom.
01:22 Don't be skimping on it.
01:23 Broccoli crust on the outside, nice and chewy inside.
01:27 And then the toppings have got to be good as well.
01:28 We need the salmon to be good, the cream cheese to be good.
01:31 Everything's got to work together.
01:32 Nice.
01:33 I agree.
01:34 For me, what I look for is what tastes the best.
01:36 That helps on a food show.
01:38 Some places are tempted to just overfill for the sake of overfilling it.
01:41 Whereas actually I don't want that.
01:43 I'd rather have like fewer toppings and therefore it holds together much better when you eat
01:47 it.
01:48 I want everything in one bite.
01:49 So don't be stacking.
01:51 Interesting thing about bagels and lox, which I've heard before and I cannot confirm or
01:55 deny, but it sounds like it's true.
01:57 And that's all we need for the internet.
01:59 Is that bagels and lox became popular because it was a reaction to eggs benedict, which
02:04 wasn't kosher.
02:05 And you're half Jewish.
02:06 I am half Jewish.
02:07 Have you ever gone kosher or done anything like that?
02:09 No, I'm not a very good Jew.
02:10 I'm 50% Ashkenazi Jewish, which is the type of Jewish where we kind of moved to Eastern
02:16 Europe.
02:17 And then many people then came to the US.
02:19 So honestly, they've kind of brought the bagels with them.
02:22 So I feel like I'm experiencing like a spiritual homecoming with this episode.
02:25 I'm very excited.
02:26 I'm starving.
02:27 I'm so hungry.
02:28 All right.
02:29 Hold the table.
02:30 I'm going to get some bagels.
02:31 I got it.
02:32 Look at this beast.
02:33 Mama.
02:34 There you go.
02:35 Man, look at this thing.
02:36 Look how much lox they gave us.
02:37 Bogdan.
02:38 What a thick.
02:49 This is a good right?
02:52 Incredible amount of lox.
02:53 As you can see, tomatoes, capers, cream cheese.
02:56 Also got raw red onion on there.
02:58 All on and everything bagel.
03:00 First impressions.
03:01 What do you think?
03:02 This looks fantastic.
03:03 Very like pretty to look at.
03:04 Like you say, nice, generous with the salmon.
03:07 I will say the tomato kind of blends in with the salmon.
03:10 So for a second, I thought it was just like a pure wedge of salmon.
03:14 Some of it is tomato.
03:15 That's pretty good.
03:16 Still pretty generous.
03:17 Yeah.
03:18 I'm not complaining.
03:19 Bagels still like a little bit warm, which excites me a lot.
03:20 You feeling that?
03:21 Fresh.
03:22 I mean, these are straight out of the oven.
03:23 The 1947 oven.
03:24 Should we give it a try?
03:25 Yeah.
03:26 Oh yeah.
03:27 Oh man.
03:28 The crunch.
03:29 That tastes like a bagel you get over there in London.
03:38 This is the first bagel I've had in New York.
03:40 And it already might be better than any bagel I've had in London.
03:43 Believe it.
03:44 You guys normally get it with the capers and raw red onion and that stuff?
03:47 Not really.
03:48 Some delis might do it to order.
03:49 I'd say the standard one in the UK, if you ask for like a bagel and lox or a bagel with
03:54 salmon and cream cheese, will just be salmon and cream cheese.
03:57 Without the onion, without the tomato, without the capers, it's very much just a plain sandwich.
04:01 But I'm liking these toppings.
04:02 I do think they work together.
04:03 Yeah, it's great.
04:04 It seems I would have never thought before having this that like fish for breakfast would
04:09 kind of turn me off, but that's amazing, right?
04:12 It's like so delicious.
04:13 I'd say fish for breakfast isn't something that's super uncommon to Europeans.
04:17 I think in Jewish culture, in Eastern European culture, and even in Scottish culture, like
04:21 kippers for breakfast, you will find fish on the menu at a breakfast place.
04:24 So that's not super weird to us.
04:25 But yeah, this really, really works.
04:27 Yeah.
04:28 I was worried when I saw that tomatoes in this.
04:30 Generally speaking, not a huge fan of tomatoes in sandwiches, but this really works.
04:34 Right?
04:35 It's actually got some crunch to it, a little bit of flavor.
04:39 I think they've actually seasoned it, which is crucial.
04:41 Yeah.
04:42 As you can tell, it's clutch for places like this, the fact that they make the bagels.
04:45 They're just making them all day, getting them right out of the oven.
04:49 At other places, they got them in the morning or the night before.
04:52 It's amazing how great these bagels are.
04:55 You can really, really taste the freshness.
04:57 You bite into it and there's steam coming out of it.
05:00 They're making 15,000 of these a day.
05:02 That's so many.
05:03 Right?
05:04 Yeah.
05:05 That's a lot.
05:06 That's really good to know that you can come in pretty much any time of day and get a fresh
05:07 bagel though.
05:08 It does make a difference.
05:09 That's how they do it here.
05:10 Yeah.
05:11 And then we'll tell you, the breakfast meal, you got to pair with a beverage.
05:14 I of course went with coffee and you of course got...
05:18 How does that pair with the blue Gatorade?
05:20 Perfectly.
05:21 So well.
05:22 Went in Rome, you know?
05:24 Is this a European thing right here, Gatorade for breakfast?
05:27 This is not, no.
05:28 This is just me being a little bit sleepy.
05:29 We're like pro athletes, man.
05:30 We've got to eat our way through New York today.
05:32 We need as many electrolytes as we can get.
05:34 Yeah, yeah.
05:35 I agree.
05:36 I will say, I think this is a very, very good bagel.
05:39 It had all the elements that I wanted.
05:40 The bagel itself was fantastic.
05:42 Crunchy on the outside, chewy on the inside.
05:45 Everything held together pretty well, despite the fact that they were generous, but not
05:48 too generous.
05:49 They didn't stack.
05:50 They didn't stack.
05:51 No stacking.
05:52 So yeah, I think this might be one to beat, you know?
05:55 It's a good start.
05:56 Well, I'm ready to hit it.
05:57 Want to go to the next place?
05:58 I think so.
05:59 Let's go.
06:00 Our next location has been in the New York bagel game for over 32 years.
06:05 Liberty Bagels.
06:06 All right, look at me.
06:09 Liberty Bagel Queens.
06:11 Not to be confused with the location that's in Manhattan.
06:14 This is the other one.
06:15 Or the Statue of Liberty.
06:16 Different place.
06:17 We're currently not inside the Statue of Liberty.
06:20 I want to make it clear that I know you'd ask if I'd gone there.
06:23 We're nowhere near it, I don't think.
06:25 This spot, fantastic bagels.
06:27 I love this place.
06:28 Also, I noticed on the menu they have a rainbow bagel.
06:31 You probably saw that all over the grams of Insta.
06:33 Yeah, I mean, I'm seeing posters that says the home of the rainbow bagel.
06:36 Were these guys like one of the first to do it?
06:39 No clue.
06:40 Kind of like how you see the signs that's like, "Best in New York City."
06:44 And the bagel shops, a lot of them are like, "Home of the rainbow bagel."
06:46 We're definitely getting another bagel with the lox, the cream cheese, the capers, the
06:49 whole thing.
06:50 We're definitely going to get a rainbow bagel for you to try.
06:53 It's like it became a New York City institution for better or for worse, so we'll get one
06:56 of those as well.
06:57 Yeah, the rainbow bagel is kind of like a 2017 gimmick.
07:01 But you know, I feel like Insider specifically owns a lot to that.
07:04 Yes, they do.
07:05 And I was part of that.
07:06 And you're welcome and I'm sorry.
07:07 Whatever.
07:08 We can tell the viewers at home, we actually have a conference room in our office called
07:11 Rainbow Bagel.
07:12 That is how deeply the Insider connection with Rainbow Bagel runs.
07:15 So yeah, I guess we can try one of those as well.
07:17 The lox is the main event.
07:18 Yeah.
07:19 So I'm going on what's on the picture, right?
07:21 So for this one, I want to point out it has scallions and scallion cream cheese, a favorite
07:25 of mine, but it does not have red onions.
07:27 Okay.
07:28 Okay with that?
07:29 Also, it comes on the poppy seed bun, so all urine tests are off.
07:34 Good.
07:35 I will not let anyone test my pee in the next few days just to be on the safe side.
07:39 Yeah.
07:40 I'm excited.
07:41 I picked this location because like their other location in Manhattan is considered
07:46 the best bagel in New York City by TripAdvisor.
07:51 And I couldn't imagine it tasting that much different there than here.
07:54 Okay.
07:55 The people at TripAdvisor said that Liberty Bagels are number one.
07:59 We're going to see if Joe Public knows their stuff when it comes to bagels then.
08:02 If there's one thing I've learned in my years on this planet is that what everyone says
08:08 on the internet is probably correct all the time.
08:11 I think that is absolutely true.
08:13 I like it in here.
08:14 Nice vibe.
08:15 Friendly staff.
08:16 I'm excited to try the bagels.
08:17 Face your eyes in this, my guy.
08:23 They definitely made it more obvious that the tomato and the salmon are two different
08:29 zones.
08:30 Yeah.
08:31 Distinct layers.
08:32 Again, a lot of people, they think it's quality if it's piled high on the fish.
08:36 You want everything in one bite.
08:37 I don't want just one bite of fish.
08:38 I don't want to OD on the fish.
08:40 I want a taste of everything.
08:41 Quality over quantity, I think.
08:42 Yeah, yeah, yeah.
08:43 It's important.
08:44 I think that's why, and very generous with the cream cheese, also what I like.
08:47 Capers and scallions.
08:48 And the scallion cream cheese.
08:49 And this thing is covered in poppy seeds.
08:52 Top and bottom.
08:54 Good coverage.
08:55 Yeah, see that, man?
08:56 Ready to jump in?
08:57 I'm so ready.
08:58 Let's do it.
08:59 Let's go, man.
09:00 Uh-oh.
09:01 Had a bit of a smush.
09:09 Might just smush a little bit.
09:12 Little bit of smushing.
09:13 I'm also getting poppy seeds everywhere.
09:17 Tomato is good.
09:18 Quite firm.
09:19 Good bite to the tomato.
09:20 The bagel's fantastic.
09:22 The bagel is really good.
09:23 It's a fresh bagel.
09:24 Yeah.
09:25 I'd say maybe not the crunchiest on the outside, but the inner texture is really, really good.
09:30 That's got that chew that you know and love.
09:32 Now that we've had a bite, I want to say that I'm a bit biased towards scallion cream cheese
09:37 and the scallion versus the red onion.
09:39 Sure.
09:40 I think that is my favorite everywhere, but knowing that that made this more of an enjoyable
09:44 bite for me.
09:45 I do love red onion.
09:46 Don't get me wrong.
09:47 Scallions I like.
09:48 Yeah, I don't think I miss the red onion at all, to be honest.
09:52 Because you're getting that onioniness, that savoriness from two locations.
09:57 Two ingredients.
09:59 Little one-two Allium punch there.
10:02 There's no lack of want when it comes to oniony flavor.
10:06 Is that what I'm trying to say?
10:07 What I'm tasting the least, though, is the fish.
10:09 I'm not getting a lot of the salmon in here.
10:11 I'm going to get another bite.
10:12 I kind of disagree.
10:13 I feel like it's got a reasonably strong flavor.
10:15 I don't know.
10:16 So in the UK, if you ever get a salmon and cream cheese bagel, you're going to get smoked
10:20 salmon.
10:21 Is that an everywhere thing in the US?
10:23 Or is that kind of optional?
10:24 It's not.
10:25 It's at a place of discretion.
10:26 I'm glad you asked that.
10:27 So it's not always going to be smoked.
10:28 I don't think it's smoked here, is it?
10:29 Maybe quite mildly.
10:30 Definitely not a strong, smoky flavor.
10:32 But I do think it's got a good flavor to it.
10:36 Maybe it's getting slightly lost in the scallion cream cheese, for example.
10:39 Yeah, it could be.
10:40 And like I said, they were quite generous on the capers, which does mean that when you
10:42 bite into one of those for a second, it's like, boom.
10:44 That's what you can taste.
10:45 I feel the capers stand out more on this one.
10:47 I'm not quite sure why or how I feel about that.
10:49 I think in general, the ratio is pretty good, though.
10:52 I'm not that mad about the ratio.
10:53 Look at the cream cheese, man.
10:54 Yeah, yeah.
10:55 Generous.
10:56 They were generous with the cream cheese, which is always nice.
10:57 But that's making it squishy, man.
10:59 You're squishing.
11:00 I quite like when you get a cream cheese and it's quite sour and a bit tangy.
11:03 But it's also this one's more on the mild, creamy side.
11:07 That's really funny because I'm the exact opposite.
11:09 I want the cream cheese to be just fine because to me, I want the bagel to be the star of
11:12 the show.
11:13 Right.
11:14 So is this more up your street than you're quite happy with, the way that this cream
11:16 cheese works?
11:17 I am.
11:18 As far as the way that the cream cheese does or does not stand out, I think I'm like a
11:23 savory onion.
11:24 I'm an onion-y boy.
11:25 Sure.
11:26 All right?
11:27 Yep.
11:28 My persona is just onion.
11:29 So you're an onion-y boy.
11:30 I'm more of a tang boy, I'd say.
11:31 I'm more of a tangy boy.
11:32 Fair enough.
11:33 I want a bit of tang from the cream cheese.
11:35 The capers I like, extra tang, you know.
11:38 You ate them?
11:39 I couldn't stop myself, man.
11:40 I couldn't stop myself.
11:41 It was a good bagel.
11:43 RIP the last place we have to go to because you're just going to be like, "How is it?"
11:46 Fine, let's go home.
11:47 All right.
11:48 You couldn't come to New York without trying a rainbow bagel.
11:53 Hang on.
11:54 I didn't say the rainbow bagel's good.
11:56 Sure.
11:57 It just became uniquely New York for maybe the wrong reasons.
12:00 It was a viral sensation.
12:02 So wapow.
12:03 There we go.
12:04 And also, I got sweet birthday cake.
12:07 Oh, that's like vibrant.
12:08 I know, right?
12:09 Oh, man.
12:10 Look at this thing.
12:11 All of those colors are found in the UK.
12:15 Yeah.
12:16 You're going to eat this and then be like really aggressive for some unknown reason.
12:20 All right?
12:21 That red.
12:22 More hyperactive than I've ever been.
12:23 You can't get this red in your country.
12:24 So you've had this before?
12:25 Yeah, I have.
12:26 And this is the birthday cake cream cheese?
12:28 Yeah, yeah.
12:29 More food coloring for you, my guy.
12:30 I can't say I'm thrilled about this, but let's give it a try.
12:33 It's like frosting.
12:34 Mm-hmm.
12:35 It's just like a bagel with frosting.
12:41 I don't actually hate it as much as I thought I would.
12:45 It's like a dessert bagel, right?
12:46 Yeah, it's bread and frosting.
12:47 It's like a slice of cake.
12:49 I certainly couldn't handle one in the morning.
12:51 I certainly would not be like having that on the way to work.
12:54 Walk into the office like flipping tables.
12:56 Let's go!
12:57 Like that sugar high would just go right to my brain.
13:01 And then 20 minutes later, asleep at my desk.
13:05 Americans love dessert for breakfast.
13:06 We do, don't we?
13:08 You guys love pancakes, waffles, donuts for breakfast.
13:10 Our cereal is really sweet, right?
13:11 So I don't know if you can really draw the line at a rainbow bagel with cream cheese.
13:15 I will say, texture on this bagel, really good.
13:19 I would say this one has maybe even more of a crispy outside.
13:25 Than what?
13:26 Than the previous one we just tried.
13:27 So if you were to order again, you'd get this with the rainbow bagel?
13:30 No, I think maybe.
13:32 I just hope that they had a fresh puppy seed.
13:34 Let me cleanse my palate with a real bagel.
13:40 Get some savory back in you.
13:41 A couple of capers.
13:42 All right, back on line.
13:43 No time to waste, my man.
13:44 Ready for the next bagel?
13:45 I am, yeah.
13:46 Can we run there so that I can burn off this energy high?
13:48 That was the plan.
13:49 Cool, sweet, let's go.
13:50 Let's go.
13:51 No.
13:52 Immediately not working.
13:58 From Queens, we made our way into Manhattan to continue our bagel tour.
14:02 Next stop, Tompkins Square Bagels.
14:05 I'm at Tompkins Square Bagels, right by the Tompkins Square in the East Village.
14:09 This place is amazing.
14:11 Also another spot that does the kettle boil for the bagels.
14:14 I haven't explained that to you yet, but I will now.
14:17 Take the dough, throw in some boiling water, and before they bake it, it gives the outside
14:20 of it that really nice, crisp, almost crackery crust.
14:24 Nice.
14:25 All I know about this place is that it's Timothee Chalamet's favorite bagel in New York.
14:28 And who is that?
14:29 He's a guy.
14:30 Okay.
14:31 Hit me with some bagel facts.
14:32 All right, bagel facts.
14:33 You ready?
14:34 I'm so ready.
14:35 All right.
14:36 Created by Eastern European Jewish communities, originated in Poland.
14:37 This food, often given to women in childbirth, the circle shape represents life cycle and
14:43 good luck.
14:44 There you go.
14:45 Truly is everything in a bagel, you know?
14:47 Yeah.
14:48 Yeah.
14:49 They made a reference to the whole circle of life or death and everything everyone all
14:55 wants.
14:56 Yes, and the Lion King.
14:57 There's bagels in the Lion King?
14:58 No, but there's a circle of life.
14:59 Oh.
15:00 Yeah, close enough.
15:01 But there's everything bagel and everything everyone all wants.
15:03 There is, correct.
15:04 Everything.
15:05 She puts everything in a bagel.
15:06 I just made the connection as the everything.
15:07 I can't help it.
15:09 I can't watch anything without having two other screens in front of me.
15:12 You need family guy clips playing while you're watching a movie.
15:14 Yeah, yeah.
15:15 And at the end, I'm like, "Yeah, yeah, I got it.
15:16 Totally got it."
15:17 I got the gist.
15:18 It's fine.
15:19 Man, it's been, what, like an hour since we last ate a bagel?
15:20 I don't know about you, but I'm starving.
15:21 I could go for a bagel right now.
15:22 Oh, there it is.
15:27 Oh, what the hell?
15:33 Are you kidding me?
15:34 I think it's stacked.
15:37 Thank you.
15:38 Here we go.
15:39 All right, so I don't know if you've noticed, but this one has got a lot of stuff.
15:42 This is a packed out bagel.
15:43 Cream cheese, sesame bagel.
15:46 Capers, capers involved again.
15:48 Get them peepy, boys.
15:49 It's got all the key elements.
15:51 It's got the sesame seeds on the top and the bottom.
15:54 Yep.
15:55 You've mentioned that before where you're like, "Oh, the stuff's on the top and the
15:57 bottom."
15:58 Like it always is.
15:59 Is it not like that in the UK?
16:00 Not really, no.
16:01 No.
16:02 So you get a bagel that's just on the top?
16:03 I mean, sesame bagels aren't even that common.
16:04 Some of them will be.
16:05 I feel like if you do get one, often just on one side.
16:08 That's not normal.
16:09 Very hard to come by an everything bagel in the UK as well.
16:10 Yeah.
16:11 So in terms of the actual bagel options, we're pretty limited, whereas over here, you guys
16:15 have got it figured out.
16:16 This is beautiful.
16:17 I just kind of want to stare at this for a bit longer before I'm back to the table.
16:18 I will say, I've said it before and I'll say it again.
16:21 I'm not being on the stack.
16:22 It's an aggressively stacked bagel.
16:23 Which makes it harder to get everything on one bite.
16:25 We'll see how it holds up.
16:26 How big do they think my baw is?
16:28 I mean, I've got a pretty big mouth, so I'll be fine.
16:29 Yeah, not me though.
16:30 Good luck.
16:31 All right.
16:32 Okay.
16:33 The cream cheese is definitely hitting.
16:46 The salmon's fantastic.
16:47 I'm going to do a little less tomato.
16:48 Not a fan of the tomato or just too much of it?
16:49 Not a fan of it.
16:50 Like one slice would have been fine.
16:51 Sure.
16:52 Now, first time we've done sesame bagel.
16:53 I'm liking it.
16:54 The bagel itself, excellent.
16:55 Yeah.
16:56 So like crispy, crunchy on the outside and a good amount of like sponginess on the inside.
17:09 Oh my God.
17:10 And red onion.
17:11 This is like the onion-iest one we've had.
17:13 This is a very onion-y bagel.
17:14 And I'm not complaining, buddy.
17:15 I want to take just a little bit of the salmon and just try that on its own as well.
17:22 So I get more of a smoked salmon flavor from that, which personally I love.
17:27 That's what I'm used to in the UK.
17:28 If you get salmon like this, it's generally going to be smoked.
17:31 I just think it adds such a lovely flavor.
17:32 My thing's going sideways over here, but.
17:34 Oh, it's been to a caper, caper bomb.
17:37 Caper bomb.
17:38 I'm going in.
17:39 I'm going back in.
17:44 Can I get everything in a bite?
17:45 Fantastic.
17:46 I'm really impressed with the bagel.
17:47 Of all the bagels we've had, maybe the crispiest on the outside.
17:50 Yeah, the crackle as you bite into that from the outside is so satisfying.
17:55 It's onion overload, which might be overshadowing the lox ever so slightly.
18:00 I got so much s*** in my teeth right now.
18:02 That's the downside to sesame seeds.
18:04 Zoom in.
18:05 Show me the monitor.
18:06 Oh God.
18:07 I got it.
18:11 One of my few complaints about this is that maybe they've done a little bit too much.
18:14 It's like a slightly messy eat.
18:16 This was the original Xbox thickness of bagel stacking we've had today.
18:21 And I get it.
18:22 Some people, they're like, yeah, I want a lot.
18:24 One thing I wanted you to try they have here is, how can I put this?
18:29 Pastrami lox.
18:30 So those are two words that don't really exist in the UK.
18:32 They've figured out a way to make them together.
18:33 You want to check it out?
18:34 Absolutely.
18:35 So it is, look at it.
18:36 It's salmon that is prepared like pastrami.
18:40 They got the pepper crust.
18:42 Right.
18:43 Okay.
18:44 Get a load of that.
18:45 So as someone who's kind of like, as someone who's pretty new to pastrami, what types of
18:52 flavors can I be expecting here?
18:55 This is a pastrami rub, so it's going to be very pepper heavy, but like kind of like a
18:59 smokiness to it.
19:00 I think that's where you get the smokiness from because this was, this does smell like
19:03 it's been smoked.
19:04 Sure.
19:05 But that's not the exact salmon that we've had on the bagel, right?
19:08 The sir is different.
19:10 Ooh, this is so good.
19:13 This is so good.
19:16 It does have like a pastrami flavor to it, right?
19:19 It does.
19:20 Weird how they did that.
19:21 This is going to be a slight insult to pastrami, but the thing it reminds me of is almost like
19:25 a hot dog flavor, like the frankfurter kind of seasoning.
19:28 Okay.
19:29 I get that.
19:30 I will say this is nicer than a hot dog.
19:32 It's fantastic.
19:33 I mean, I want to have more, but I think you guys should try some of this.
19:34 Let's do Connor first and then yeah, let's get, rip a bong, hit on there.
19:38 All right.
19:39 That's exactly like pastrami.
19:40 You're next.
19:41 It does taste like pastrami.
19:42 Thank you.
19:43 Hot dog.
19:44 Yeah.
19:45 Thank you.
19:46 I would be really tempted to try that on my bagel instead of just a standard lox.
19:55 Go, go, go, put it on there.
19:57 Remake it.
20:00 Yeah.
20:05 Don't get too full on bagelness.
20:06 We got another spot to go to and I don't know about you, but I'm hungry for bagels, baby.
20:11 I could eat an almost infinite number of bagels.
20:13 Yeah.
20:14 So let's go.
20:15 Let's go.
20:16 Our fourth and final stop was to a New York bagel staple since 1976, Esa Bagel.
20:29 This might be the most localist, favoritist spot.
20:32 Very nice.
20:33 And the most historic.
20:34 It's been here since the 70s.
20:36 Started by an Austrian family.
20:37 They have a bunch of locations now.
20:39 This isn't the first one.
20:40 It's a nice spot.
20:41 Yeah, it's a nice spot.
20:42 A lot of real estate here.
20:43 Yeah, right by Penn Station.
20:44 Very nice.
20:45 Convenient to get to.
20:46 All right.
20:47 I want to see what the bagels are like.
20:48 Last one of the day.
20:49 Esa Bagel.
20:50 Here we go.
20:51 Ooh, baby.
20:52 Oh, my.
20:53 I want to call to your attention the first and only appearance of lettuce in our bagels.
20:59 In a bagel.
21:00 Is this common?
21:01 Obviously, I guess not because it hasn't been in any of the other places.
21:04 No, it has not.
21:05 How do you feel about lettuce in a bagel?
21:06 I can't imagine the lettuce swaying my opinion too much on it, I don't think.
21:10 But I reserve that official POV until after I bite into this.
21:14 Yeah, I think like maybe this has one of the higher filling to bread ratios that we've
21:19 had so far.
21:20 Oh, yeah.
21:21 Good point.
21:22 This thing is like almost entirely filling.
21:23 Not a ton of bagel.
21:24 Not complaining.
21:25 Here we go.
21:26 Bite.
21:27 Go.
21:28 All right, man.
21:29 I was wrong.
21:36 I can't really taste the lettuce on this.
21:38 You do get the lettuce.
21:39 Yeah.
21:40 If I may.
21:41 Oh, the lettuce is coming out.
21:44 The lettuce has been removed.
21:46 I will say we've had a lot of bagels today and I feel like both of us are still devouring
21:54 these.
21:55 So make of that what you will.
21:56 It points out for the lettuce, but everything else really generous with the with the lox.
22:02 Yeah.
22:03 It's like thickly cut.
22:04 I was going to say that too.
22:05 That's thickly cut.
22:08 Salmon tastes fresh.
22:10 Not like in your face fishy, but like you can taste it, which is good.
22:14 I really love the thick lox.
22:15 I'm really impressed with it.
22:19 I put this cream cheese again at like the kind of gentler end of the scale, which I
22:25 know you've kind of suggested that you like, you don't want to like too much of a sour
22:29 cream cheese flavor.
22:30 The cook on the bagel is great.
22:31 You see these like little kind of like blistery bits.
22:34 You can tell it's been kettled.
22:35 It gets that real nice crust on the outside.
22:37 If I was to get this again, don't put lettuce anywhere near my bagel.
22:41 It's enough of biting something, everything going this way.
22:43 I think lettuce is like the emulsifier of that.
22:48 It's just like, lettuce is like, "All right, boys, we're out of here."
22:52 It's like when you try and like pull the tablecloth out from the table and everything just comes
22:57 off with it.
22:58 I feel like that's the effect that the lettuce is having.
23:00 It's a much better analogy.
23:01 Overall, really good.
23:02 Really good.
23:03 Overall, still a very good bagel.
23:06 Now is the part of the episode where we do the thing that we always do at the end.
23:13 It's true.
23:14 We're going to decide who had the best bagel.
23:15 All right.
23:16 For me, I was looking for a combination of everything in a bite, right?
23:20 So I was not very happy with stacking in some of these places.
23:23 Obviously there's a bagel place, so every bagel had to be nice and pillowy, but also
23:26 crispy on the outside.
23:27 I think almost every bagel we had today was fresh, right?
23:30 I don't recall disliking any of the lox at any of the places we've been to.
23:34 Do you?
23:35 No, I think we've had varying levels of like smokiness versus just straight lox flavor.
23:40 But overall, I think I agree.
23:42 Yeah.
23:43 Like we've had fresh bagels, high quality ingredients pretty much across the board.
23:47 It's a difficult decision.
23:48 I would say broadly, I've had some of the best bagels of my life today.
23:54 When have you had a better bagel than the bagels the other day?
23:56 In what city were you in?
23:57 I don't think I have.
23:58 Okay.
23:59 I do think that on average, these definitely outrank UK bagels, unfortunately.
24:01 Yeah, I'd say so too.
24:03 Whether it's the tap water, the famous New York tap water or something else, but I wish
24:07 that we could take these bagels, make them in the UK because I would be eating these
24:12 so often.
24:13 It's amazing, right?
24:14 Yeah.
24:15 Really, really good.
24:16 My favorite bagel today was, I'm going to make a vote too, I'm just going to pick Tompkins
24:22 Square.
24:23 Nice.
24:24 Yeah, there was just something about the bagel and the lox, everything works so well together.
24:27 I mean, we're really talking about, out of all four of them, we're talking millimeters
24:31 better as far as like however we're ranking them, we're measuring them.
24:35 But so my Tompkins was just like, now I've eaten all day and I've had a chance to think
24:39 about it.
24:40 Fantastic bagels.
24:41 Charlemagne knows his stuff, huh?
24:42 Yeah, that's right.
24:43 Ooh.
24:44 Shelley boy.
24:45 I mean, again, it's like there's a hair in this.
24:46 Yeah.
24:47 I think it's utopia for me.
24:48 Wow.
24:49 Okay.
24:50 All right.
24:51 I mean, those were really, really good bagels.
24:52 Those were fresh bagels.
24:53 It was the fact that they had just come out of the oven, they're churning out fresh bagels
25:00 all throughout the day.
25:01 You can go in there pretty much anytime, breakfast, lunch, dinner, and get a hot, fresh bagel.
25:06 I think the ratio of fillings was good.
25:08 Yeah.
25:09 Ingredients were good quality.
25:10 For sure.
25:11 Everything in that bagel just worked for me.
25:12 Okay.
25:13 And I think it was excellent.
25:14 Considering that we've eaten quite a lot of bagels today, I'm still feeling pretty good.
25:17 I am stuffed to the gills.
25:19 I'm never eating again.
25:22 I'm not.
25:28 (upbeat music)