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The Montreal bagel, (sometimes beigel; Yiddish בײגל beygl, or sometimes in French "beguel"), is a distinctive variety of hand-made and wood-fired baked bagel. In contrast to the New York-style bagel,[1] the Montreal bagel is smaller, sweeter and denser, with a larger hole, and is always baked in a wood-fired oven. It contains malt, egg, and no salt and is boiled in honey-sweetened water before being baked in a wood-fired oven, whose irregular flames give it a dappled light-and-dark surface colour.
In many Montreal establishments, bagels are still produced by hand and baked in wood-fired ovens, often in full view of the customers.[2] There are two predominant varieties: black-seed (poppy seed), or white-seed (sesame seed).
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Montreal bagels, like the similarly shaped New York bagel, were brought to North America by Jewish immigrants from Poland and other Eastern European countries; the differences in texture and taste reflect the style of the particular area in Poland in which the immigrant bakers learned their trade. Minor controversy surrounds the question of who first brought the bagel to Montreal. They were (reportedly) first baked in Montreal by Chaim (Hyman) Seligman, as verified by Montreal historian Joe King,[3] a historian of Montreal Jewry. Seligman first worked in the neighbourhood community of Lachine and later moved his bakery to the lane next door to Schwartz's Delicatessen on Boulevard St. Laurent in central Montreal. Seligman would string his bagels into dozens and patrol Jewish Main purveying his wares, originally with a pushcart, then a horse and wagon and still later from a converted taxi. Seligman went into partnership with Myer Lewkowicz and with Jack Shlafman but fell out with both of them. Seligman and Lewkowicz founded the St. Viateur Bagel Shop in 1957 and Shlafman established Fairmount Bagel in 1919, which both still exist in the present day.
A substantial proportion of Montreal's English-speaking Jewish community gradually left for other locales. Catering to this population, Montreal-style bagel shops have opened in Vancouver, Ottawa, Toronto, Hamilton,[4] Calgary, and other Canadian, and even US cities, such as Seattle, Houston, Los Angeles, and Portland, Oregon. However, this style of bagel is almost completely unknown in the northeastern U.S. despite its proximity to Montreal, mainly due to the proximity of the rival New York City bagel.[5][6] One exception is Burlington, Vermont, where Myer's Bagels boasts both a Montreal-style wood oven and a former Fairmount Bagel baker.[7]
Montreal-style bagels have even flown in space. Gregory Chamitoff, who grew up in Montreal, took three bags of sesame bagels with him on his assignments to STS-124 as passenger and ISS Expedition 17 as crewmember.[8][9]
Montreal-style bagels are, for the most part, manufactured by the same method used to produce a generic bagel. The Montreal-style method of making bagels builds on the basic traditional method in the following ways:
Several Montreal bagel factories are famous for their authentic Montreal-style bagels. St-Viateur Bagel, at 263 av. St-Viateur West, Fairmount Bagel, at 74 av. Fairmont West, as well as Mount Royal Bagel Bakery, at 709 Lucerne, which is the only traditionally made wood fired MK Kosher Bagel in the world (www.mountroyalbagelbakery.com) and Cote-Saint-Luc Bagel, are the most well-known and popular bagel shops in Montreal.[10][11] R.E.A.L. Bagel, Cantor's and Kosher Quality also sell Montreal-style bagels.
In New York City, there are two Montreal-style bagel locations in Brooklyn within four blocks of each other:
Montreal-style bagels are made fresh in a traditional wood-fired brick oven in New York's historic Brooklyn Heights neighborhood, at B&B Empire Cafe (200 Clinton Street, Brooklyn NY).[12][13]
Montreal-style bagels can also be purchased at a deli called Mile End, in the Boerum Hill section of Brooklyn, which was opened and is run by a Montreal native.[14]