#290 Bagels: A New York Story

The Bowery Boys: New York City History

Tom Meyers

Places & Travel, History, Documentary, Society & Culture

4.7 • 3.9K Ratings

🗓️ 16 May 2019

⏱️ 60 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

EPISODE 290: The most iconic New York City foods -- bagels, pizza, hot dogs -- are portable, adaptable and closely associated with the city's history through its immigrant communities. In the case of the bagel, that story takes us to the Polish immigrants who brought their religion, language and eating customs to the Lower East Side starting in the 1870s. During the late 19th century, millions of bagels were created in tiny bake shops along Hester and Rivington Streets, specifically for the neighborhood's Jewish community. We start there and end up in the modern day with frozen supermarket bagels, pizza bagels, bagel breakfast sandwiches, bagel bites. BAGELS SLICED ST. LOUIS STYLE?! How did this simple food from 17th century Poland become a beloved American breakfast staples? It starts with a bagel revolution! Poor conditions in the bakeries inspired a worker's movement and the formation of a union that standardized the ways in which bagels were made. By the mid 20th century, modern technology allowed for bagels to be made cheaply and shipped all over the world. But the 'real' way to make a bagel is to hand roll it. In this episode, we speak to Melanie Frost of Ess-a-Bagel for some insight into the pleasures of the true New York City bagel. boweryboyshistory.com Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/boweryboys

Transcript

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0:00.0	And before we begin the show here, we wanted to announce our latest live event at the New York Historical Society on Wednesday, June 5th.
0:09.5	We hope you'll join us as we interview the author of Gay New York, George Chauncey, in a discussion called Gay New York before Stonewall.
0:19.5	Just in time for the June celebrations of World Pride and the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots.
0:26.5	For more information and to get tickets, head to the website of the New York Historical Society. That's nyhistory.org.
0:35.0	And we hope to see you on June 5th, 2019.
0:39.0	Episode 290 of The Bowry Boys.
0:42.0	Bagels. The whole story.
0:44.5	Hey, it's The Bowry Boys.
0:47.5	Support for The Bowry Boys is provided by our listeners.
0:51.0	Join us for as little as $1 a month by visiting patreon.com slash Bowry Boys.
1:00.5	Hi there, welcome to The Bowry Boys. This is Greg Young.
1:03.5	And this is Tom Myers. And Greg, we are about to bite into a subject that is legendarily New York.
1:11.5	We're talking about The Bagel. And especially New York's relationship to The Bagel.
1:16.5	When did The Bagel come to New York? How did its popularity rise?
1:21.5	And how did it become such a mainstay for all New Yorkers?
1:26.0	And then how did that appreciation spread worldwide?
1:30.0	The Bagel actually has a very fascinating history. And here in New York, it traces to the Lowery side
1:37.0	and to the thousands of newly arrived immigrants who lived there.
1:40.5	It's also a story about America's changing tastes in the 20th century and how mainstream America actually adopted the Bagel as one of its favorite foods.
1:52.5	I know that a lot of you will take this story quite personally.
1:56.5	And that many of you listening not only have your favorite Bagel, but your favorite style of Bagel,
2:02.0	whether it be sesame or egg or pumpernickel, and of course you have your own personal taste in terms of spreads or shmiers.
	...

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