Published: 5 April 2022
Last updated: 4 March 2024
As he tries to soldier on without his favourite bagels, DAN COLEMAN has one last chat with bagel meister Zev Forman about why the New York ones are so special
WHAT IS IT THAT makes New York so quintessentially Jewish? Woody Allen spent the opening minutes of his 1979 film Manhattan repeatedly trying to answer that question, only to land on a montage of images backed by Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, Gershwin being as iconic a New Yorker for the first half of the 20th century as Allen himself was for the second half.
Two films, Joan Macklin Silver’s Crossing Delancy and Seth Rogen’s An American Pickle, make a case for the kosher dill pickle. But few yearn for a New York pickle. No, among all the landmarks, eateries, and personalities, it is the lowly bagel which gets the bragging rights.
Just ask Jerry Seinfeld, whose famous Festivus episode (Seinfeld, season 9, episode 10) was largely filmed at New York’s H&H Bagels (motto: “like no other bagel in the world”) where Kramer is employed to no good end.
Most bagels in Australia are loaded with sugar to make them rise faster and are steamed to make them soft and easy to chew.
Ask Larry David, whose eponymous “Larry David Sandwich” (Curb Your Enthusiasm, season 5, episode 1) places smoked sable, whitefish salad and more between the halves of a toasted bagel.
Or, ask Mel Brooks who, in a 2004 interview, “infuriated Toronto's Jewish community by saying he chose New York over Toronto to film The Producers because New York bagels are better.”
Or ask me.
It was back in 2013, as a homesick expat, that I discovered Zev Forman’s 5 & Dime Bagels at the Elwood Farmers Market. From the first whiff of fresh bagel aroma and my first bite into Zev’s “everything” bagel, I was transported back to what still felt like home. Indeed, 5 & Dime characterised itself as “New York born; Melbourne bred”.
