When D and I went to New York last year, we developed a crazy obsession with bagels. Cream cheese-covered blueberry bagels. Cinnamon raisin bagels, smothered with a sachet of vegemite that I had been hording (yes, I am THAT person). And the grand-daddy of them all: an onion bagel with cream cheese, lox, and purple onion.
Australia, sadly, has sucky bagels. They are bread rolls disguised as bagels. They are imposters. This was my train of thought until I visited Glick’s.
ALL HAIL GLICK’S. These guys make the best bagels outside of the Lower East Side. D ordered a poppy seed bagel with smoked salmon and cream cheese, and I went with a simple blueberry bagel with cream cheese, and a vegie blintz.
Coming from Brisbane, where we get about as exotic as having canned Polish cabbage in the supermarket, the blintz was an absolute delight for me to find. Plus, it was delicious! The casing was rich and buttery, yet the vegie-rich filling balanced everything out.
The bagels were perfect, with that chewy-but-soft balance that only a good bagel has. My blueberry had the perfect amount of sweetness. D’s salmon was very fresh and piled generously on his bagel.
We sat in silence while we scoffed our bagels, occasionally giving eachother pained expressions, because we knew soon it would end. We would hop back on a plane to Brisbane, never to have decent bagels again – until the next visit to Glick’s or North America.
I’m hoping the visit to Glick’s comes first.
Glick’s
Cakes & Bagels
325 Flinders Lane
Melbourne CBD
(other locations throughout Melbourne and NSW)
03 9614 0533