It is time that Durban gets a bagel shop. A place like New York Bagels in Cape Town, like Beigel Bake in London, like The Obwarzanek in Krakow and like Russ & Daughters in New York. It is time to eat bagels, pretzels and soup like the rest of the world. This, and a few other reasons, is why The Glenwood Bakery is opening a bagel shop in Morningside, Durban.
To be clear, it is a mistake to think that it is in New York where the bagel was born. It is where bagels came to and, perhaps, from where they have become globally famous, but to really know a bagel is to know a bit of Eastern European culinary history.
Ironically, these breads, now so loved in the Western Anglophile and Russia-phobic world, hails from places resting close to the borders Mother Russia. By more than a few historical accounts, Krakow is the city where bagels were first mentioned within Jewish communities, as early as 1610. A bagel-like bread called obwarzaneki, was eaten by Poles in the 14th century. Maria Balinska suggests that bagels were perhaps imported, originally as a dark, heavy pretzels, from Germany to Poland. Claudia Roden proposes a German provenance too. In Poland they changed their shape into a little, circular festive bread, symbolic of eternal life. In Russian they are known as bubliki, in Czech as boubel and in Slovak as bublina. In Poland they were eaten by all Poles, not just Jewish Poles, but were carried to the rest of Europe, and finally to America, in the hearts and hands of Jewish refugees who tried to make their homes in less hostile parts of the world.
Bagels are not meant to be soft bread rolls with a hole in the middle. If one can slice them on their horizontal plane without fearing a slip of the knife and a cut to the palm, then something is wrong. They should not be so big that a photograph of a pastrami filled bagel looks like a small, freshly butchered mammal, demanding two hands to hold it. They should not be quite as nice after six hours as when they are bought very fresh and eaten when still a bit crispy and a bit warm. They should challenge the bite and rip, but should be silky and spongy in reward. The dough of which they are made should never be sweet.
“A bagel is a round bread made of simple, elegant ingredients: […] gluten flour, salt, water, yeast and malt. Its dough is boiled, then baked, and the result should be a rich caramel color; it should not be pale and blond. A bagel should weigh four ounces or less and should make a slight cracking sound when you bite into it instead of a whoosh. A bagel should be eaten warm and, ideally, should be no more than four or five hours old when consumed. All else is not a bagel.” Ed Levine
“They are wonderful when very, very fresh and still spongy inside but quickly become tough and leathery, in which case the best thing is to cut them open and toast them”. Claudia Roden
The Glenwood Bakers agree with these descriptions of what bagels should taste like and how they behave. Their bagels contain eggs, and are boiled and then baked, as is traditional. They will produce standard sized and mini bagels as well as offer a delicious Turkish simit with many fillings for vegans.
The Glenwood Bakery Bagels, Morningside, will have ready filled bagels for a quick departure and there will be a ‘build your own bagel’ option, where you choose what goes into your bagel, pretzel or onto your rye, from some carefully prepared ingredients. There will be breakfast bagels, toasted sandwiches and always a small range of soups.
The Glenwood Bakery team have opted to not stock, cook with, or sell pork at all, and all meats will be sourced from halaal butcheries.
The Glenwood Bakery Bagels Details:
They look to open somewhere in the beginning of August.
The Glenwood Bakery Bagels located at 45 Lilian Ngoye Road.
Opening Hours 06h30 – 15h00. Seven days a week.
The Glenwood Bakery in Glenwood
The Glenwood Bakery in Glenwood remains open, and will be expanding in those premises too. More about this later.
