- I'm walking down Brick Lane in the
Bethnal Green neighborhood of London.
I've been told that while I'm here I have to try
beigels or bagels, the traditional Jewish bread product
that originated in Poland and Eastern Europe.
We're heading to Beigel Bake,
which is one of two prominent beigel places on this road,
Beigel Bake and Beigel Shop.
This is a newer one it has the white sign
as opposed to yellow sign, there's kind of a rivalry.
But wanna go check it out some of their famous beigels
and some of their famous salt beef.
I can't wait to try it.
(upbeat rock music)
I would like to try one of your salt beef bagels.
- Would you like mustard or pickles?
- Yes please. And also a chopped herring.
First of all, how long have you been in the neighborhood?
- I've been in the neighborhood about 30 years,
more or less.
- Yeah, okay.
And what is the neighborhood called?
- [Ros] This is called Bethnel Green.
- Which one has been here longer,
the Beigel Bake or the Beigel Shop?
- I'm not absolutely sure, but I think they're both
about co-terminus, I think it's more or less the same time.
They know each other well,
I don't know about the interrelationship.
- Is it like a rival? A little bit?
- So a lot of people now live in this area,
where before it was the kind of area
nobody wanted to live in.
In the last 10-15 years it's now an area
where people do want to live.
So you got rich and poor, very big demarkation.
(upbeat rock-pop music)
- [Host] Do you say "bagel" or "beigel"?
- I say beigel, cause it's German.
- Cause that's how it's spelt, no?
Bagel or beigel?
Lavinia do you say "bagel" or "beigel"?
- We say "beigel".
- You say "beigel".
- Cause apparently "bagel" is american.
(chuckles)
Yeah.
- Salt beef, mustard, pickle, chopped herring,
beigel, not bagel.
Bagel is not as I'm sure you're all thinking
presented in the shape of a stirrup,
to the former king of Poland, John III Sobieski
following the victory over the Ottoman Empire
at the Battle of Vienna in 1683.
I know that's what you're thinking,
stop thinking that, because it's probably not true.
The first mention of the bagel is in, like a 1600...
... yiddish book or treatise that says
bagels were given to women following childbirth.
I believe that's the first mention,
and it is a bagel, or beugel "B-E-U-G-E-L"
in german, so german or yiddish.
And what they do here at the Beigel Bake,
is they fill their beigels or bagels with salt beef.
What is salt beef, you ask?
Corned beef as you may or may not know
has nothing to do with corn.
Which I love. Corned is just,
refers to the granules of salt.
So salt beef is beef that's, it's like a brisket,
and then you cure it, you brine it.
Very tender obviously, quite salty.
And they fill these beigels
with pickles, mustard, and salt beef.
And I gotta say, that's a pretty good combo.
That's a good ass sandwich, for four pounds whatever,
four pounds 60, 70?
What's really nice is you get that chewy outside
contrasting the salty beef, the tang of the pickle,
and that sort of pleasant, sinus-clearing,
sort of wasabi-esc quality of the mustard.
This is a really excellent sort of hearty snack.
Let's contrast it, let's take a bite of the chopped herring.
Doesn't look good, but let's try it.
It's actually kind of good.
Strongly fishy, but also has a really sweet
sort of acidic taste to it.
Tastes like it's been pickled in kind of a sweet brine.
So obviously you have to like that extreme fishiness
of the pickled herring.
Sometimes you get that pretzle-y, lye taste
for when the bagels are boiled in a lye bath.
But these are just boiled then baked.
Lovely, not too tough, very chewy very stretchy quality.
Do these bagels compare with the best New York City bagels?
Maybe not, but that's also, I think in this place at least
it's not quite the point.
Beigels in this neighborhood have been a staple
in the diet for over a hundred years.
I really hope you enjoyed this episode of
Dining on a Dime from Beigel Bake on Brick Lane in London.
If you'd like to watch more, please click here.
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