Sunday, August 6, 2006
Being a Midwesterner from birth, I have never had a bialy. I had really never even heard of them until I started perusing The Bread Bible. The closest I'd come to bialys was Max Bialystock in "The Producers." It turns out that bialys are named for their hometown, Bialystock, Poland, which is probably where Max or his ancestors hailed from. Or maybe it's just a joke.
Having no bialys to measure these against, I don't know if they're authentic or even close to it. I do know, as Jim said, they're the best bialys I've ever had. I tried to make a combination of the regular bialys. which have a pocket of onions and poppy seeds, and the crispy, flat bialys, which have an egg white wash and poppy seeds scattered all over the top. I think mine are a little flatter than a standard bialy but not as flat as the flat one. Whatever--it was awfully good. In fact, I don't understand why you can buy bagels (mostly bad ones) in any Midwestern city, but bialys have never caught on. Maybe their time is coming. Maybe I'll open a bialy stand when I retire.
7 comments:
First and foremost, thanks for this fantastic blog. I just got a copy of Beranbaum's book and have started slogging through it. Your blog is a wonderful addendum!
A good bialy should be very, very chewy. Bialies are wonderful vehicles for butter or cream cheese, and I agree, the Midwest would love them if they gave them a try. Yours look great.
Hello Webster,
Be careful or you'll get hooked on this bread baking thing!
My bialys were very chewy, so they must have been at least a little authentic. I didn't know what to put on them (although butter is always a good guess with bread), so I ate them plain. But with the sauteed onions, poppy seeds, and sea salt, they weren't all that plain.
BBC
But Mooch,
would you pay? I can't make a living if everyone just mooches my breads.
Love,
BBC
ah, bialys. the're quite popular here in nyc.
Oh, well, you can get anything in NYC--except maybe that old Minnesota favorite, tater tot hot dish.
what a coincidence! i just made them for my editor and her husband two weekends ago and he said that he never knew a bialy could taste so good! i myself had forgotten how delicious they are.
i laughed out loud when i read that you're considering opening a bialy stand on retirement. i've had similar impulses regarding opening a bakery and push them down regularly. i just hope that in the retirement home (someday) they'll let me bake bread and that people in their 90's will still be willing to eat it and have the teeth for the rustic breads with chewy crusts! i know i will bc my mom who was a dentist always said while force feeding me 4 glasses of milk a day "don't you want to have all your teeth when you're old--after all, you have longevity in your family! so far so toothsome!
Rokzane,
I don't know of a single place in the Minneapolis area, except my house, where you can get one. But they've got to be better for you than, say, Cheetos.
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