Well not exactly an ode. But some prose. This after the enjoyment of a singular delicacy this Sunday morning. The bagel.
Make that complemented with cream cheese and masala chai. Here you have a true international cuisine melange consisting of Indian and Polish Jewish cultures.
The bagel - a ring shaped food that is first boiled then baked and perhaps the only one of its kind that was unfamiliar to my Indian upbringing until the summer of 1996 in Michigan when I was first introduced to it. In the Detroit suburb that we called home about 20 miles from the third largest Polish community outside of Poland we found their native food. It was an acquired taste. After all the taste is hard to appreciate when at first bite you are worrying about the mandibular exercise it takes to consume said item.
The Poles came in droves during the early 20th century to the Detroit surroundings to work in car factories after the Dodge brothers cranked out hardware for Ford and Chrysler. They brought their culture and food with them. Some of their culture aka yeast was crucial to the creation of the baked items called bagels.
Bagels by nature are a chewy bread. While the plain bagel is just flour and yeast there are now a whole variety depending on what is added to the dough in its infancy. Everything from raisins to tomato to berries to seeds and cheeses the bagel bonanza has become a mainstay of American breakfast.
My local grocer bakes them first thing each morning and I picked out my favorite - a Jalapeno infused beauty (make that two) to eat with cream cheese. To wash it down I had the usual Indian style milk tea with fresh ground ginger (in this case it was Peruvian organic) and cardamom powder.
Now to reviewing some more ideas for lunch.
Make that complemented with cream cheese and masala chai. Here you have a true international cuisine melange consisting of Indian and Polish Jewish cultures.
The bagel - a ring shaped food that is first boiled then baked and perhaps the only one of its kind that was unfamiliar to my Indian upbringing until the summer of 1996 in Michigan when I was first introduced to it. In the Detroit suburb that we called home about 20 miles from the third largest Polish community outside of Poland we found their native food. It was an acquired taste. After all the taste is hard to appreciate when at first bite you are worrying about the mandibular exercise it takes to consume said item.
The Poles came in droves during the early 20th century to the Detroit surroundings to work in car factories after the Dodge brothers cranked out hardware for Ford and Chrysler. They brought their culture and food with them. Some of their culture aka yeast was crucial to the creation of the baked items called bagels.
Bagels by nature are a chewy bread. While the plain bagel is just flour and yeast there are now a whole variety depending on what is added to the dough in its infancy. Everything from raisins to tomato to berries to seeds and cheeses the bagel bonanza has become a mainstay of American breakfast.
My local grocer bakes them first thing each morning and I picked out my favorite - a Jalapeno infused beauty (make that two) to eat with cream cheese. To wash it down I had the usual Indian style milk tea with fresh ground ginger (in this case it was Peruvian organic) and cardamom powder.
Now to reviewing some more ideas for lunch.
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