Poor Man’s Bagel with Lox
Sunday, 1st November 2009 | 7 Comments
I very rarely regret leaving the States for Italy nearly seven years ago. But I must admit, every Sunday morning, I am overcome with intense nostalgia for a bagel with cream cheese and lox. Now anyone who knows bagels knows you can’t find a decent one outside of NY or NJ, and if you did you would never admit it out of sheer regional pride. So while Rome has some of the best bread on the planet, the bagels I have tried just don’t cut it. I’ve resigned myself to the fact that the eight months out of the year that I am in Italy, I will have to improvise. I have found that wedges of pizza bianca are a fine substitute. Smear with Philadelphia (or stracchino if you must), top with cured salmon, garnish with capers and thinly sliced red onion, and count the days until you can make it to Murray’s on 6th.
November 1st, 2009 at 2:43 pm
bagels NOT bagel’s. You need better grammar more than bagels. Nice post. Buona domenica.
November 1st, 2009 at 7:46 pm
Thanks for the head’s up. I wrote that post at 3am so forgive me for my less than stellar grammar. Why did you post under a fake email address? YouNeed@BetterGrammar.com? Pretty lame.
November 2nd, 2009 at 1:47 am
Ouch, luckily no one except my mom busts me for my typing errors. I for one, love the post. I do this often as well, but hadn’t tried adding capers, which I will be sure to do next time.
November 2nd, 2009 at 1:50 am
Ha! At first I thought it was just a nice (but anal retentive) reader making a constructive comment. Then I saw the email address. It looked fishy so I tried it and it is an invalid address. Evidently Bagelman is ballsy enough to correct me but too much of a coward to be identified. What a tool.
November 2nd, 2009 at 11:28 am
When I have a USA fantasy, which is a rare thing, my biggie is waking up on Sunday morning in a brownstone apartment in NYC, preferably upper west side, to bagels, cream cheese, lox, strong coffee and the NYT in paper (as opposed to on line). I get to have this in bed, a bed which has really great linens. It might be raining outside or maybe not. In any case, my husband has gone out and gotten the bagels (garlic onion for me, he is a purist) without having woken me up. Isn’t he the best? back to the fantasy (sorry bagelman, that should have been a capital b, go back to checking the consistency of your you know what, please). When I finally make it out of bed (ok, I decided on an sunny day fantasy), husband and I take the dog down to the Park for a nice long urban NYC walk. Dog does not pull like he does in Italy. End of fantasy. Thanks, Katie for reminding me. Sigh.
oh. the pizza looks good. *grin*
November 2nd, 2009 at 3:53 pm
Ooooh Katie, you’re a feisty one. You go Jersey girl! I like your attitude. Bagelman sux!
November 3rd, 2009 at 12:10 pm
@Diane That is a fantasy that is right up my alley. Do you mind if I borrow it? Thanks for having my back vs Bagelman:)
@Tom Ha! I guess the Jersey really comes through sometimes. Perhaps more than sometimes!