Ethnic Montreal Specialty

     Having satiated my initial desire for poutine, at least temporarily, I decided to explore the city to uncover what other Montreal specialties the residents enjoy.  And what better way to do that than to enlist the assistance of a professional?  I met with 7 other people for The Mile End Montreal Food Tour as we learned from our guide about some unique and locally made food items.  We concentrated our walking to the Mile End section of Montreal, a primarily Jewish neighborhood originally a garment district surrounding the Mile End Inn located there, named for an East London suburb.

     What could be more distinctly Jewish than the bagel?  Created by a grateful Jewish baker in Austria it was a gift given to the king of Poland for protecting his compatriots from the invading Turks.  It was made in the shape of a stirrup, or beugel in Austrian German and pleasantly reminded the king, who loved riding, of his favorite pastime.  Jewish immigrants to Montreal brought with them the recipe and the desire to keep alive the tradition of hand baking the bagels for friends and neighbors.  One of those immigrants was Meyer Lewkowicz, a Holocaust survivor, who in 1957 opened St.Viateur Bagels on a street of the same name.

     If you think you know what they're like because you've had a New York bagel, you're wrong.  Montreal bagels are smaller, sweeter, and denser with a larger hole.  They are distinctive in that they are always handmade and baked in a wood fired oven after being boiled in honey water.  And they do not contain any salt, unlike the New York style bagel.



     At St. Viateur Bagel they work around the clock to provide their customers, both commercial and retail, with the freshest product in the city.  And of that fact I can speak with authority because I enjoyed one right in the front window with the rest of our tour group (with Philly cream cheese!).



Factoid: On a typical Montreal bagel from St. Viateur's there are 1,500 sesame seeds.