YGingras^.net

In Montréal, bagel shops never close. Don't get me wrong, I could wait until sunrise to get a snack. I would not mind. And there are alternatives. But, when dawn barely shows, when birds start to sing, it seems that I'm hardwired for bagels, fresh from a wood-fired oven.

It might be that I'm skeptical. Do they ever close? Some say that they can't even lock their door. Indeed, Fairmont Bagel's door has no handle, knob, or anything that vaguely resemble a locking mechanism. This is hardly conclusive, they could install another door when they close. But no mater when I go there, at night, at noon, on Labor Day, or on Yom Kippur, they are open and there are other people shopping. Always, wood burning and bagels tightly packed, roasting in plain view for everyone to admire while the delightful smell makes their mouth water. One must have a really twisted schedule if he doesn't hit a lineup at Fairmont Bagel.

Montréal's major bagel bakeries are Fairmount Bagel and St-Viateur Bagel. They are just two blocks apart but they share really few customers. You prefer one or the other, but you never shop to both. This is silly. They both define the Montréal style bagel. Compared to New-York style, the Montréal style is more dense, crispy and sweet. Bagels are boiled in malted water before being baked in wood ovens. Fairmount and St-Viateur never sell a bagels older than a few hours. All this freshness is actually the source of quite a logistic problem. Bagel are sold in paper bags and you are given plastic bags separately. Bagels must breath while they are cooling, otherwise they get soggy. But as soon as they are cold, you'd better transfer them to the plastic bag fast because they harden in no time. I solve this problem by eating them as soon as I get home. Or better yet, on the way home.

But seriously, Fairmount has the best bagels. Anyone who shop at one place could try the other and see that this is true. But when you shopped at St-Viateur, and that you boated that Fairmount was inferior, you don't want to know that you've been wrong all the time. This is OK with me. St-Viateur's advocates all admitted that they were wrong, there would be a tremendous lineup in front of Fairmount.

When I go hunting for a snack in the middle of the night, I often take a few soft pretzels with my bagels. They call them New York style pretzels but I think this is a mistake. What they serve should be called Montréal style, just like the bagels. When I was in New York, I ordered a few soft pretzels. I was puzzled to be asked if I wanted mustard on my pretzels, this seemed so wrong. But it was not as wrong as the pretzels themselves. I received greasy, spongy, flabby, formless masses of dough. Contrast this with what you get at Fairmount Bagel: essentially a Montréal style bagel, a little more crispy, a lot more salty. The Montréal style soft pretzel is dense and it doesn't make your fingers greasy. It's the perfect snack for late night computing.

Some purists don't like the large selection at Fairmount Bagel. They have this idea that it is wrong to sell anything but sesame and poppy seeds bagels. Fairmount have those, they also have sun dried tomatoes, pesto and olives, blueberries, apple and cinnamon, onion and garlic, chocolate, and many more. If I ever feel that I need less choice, I will move in another city. Probably not a city where you can't find food at night but a city where you can only get chips or junk food. While eating my greasy french fries, I will remember all the logistic problems of too much freshness. But for now, I still live in Montréal, and dawn is already here, and birds are starting to sing.