The dialogue has ensued numerous occasions, down the quiet alleys and cafe boulevards all through Istanbul’s cosmopolitan districts. It’s a query of culinary authenticity about what precisely defines a bagel, and whether or not or not Turkish custom has accommodated its form, texture and cultural air fairly like its roots in New York. The reply is usually unfavorable, because the occasional debate may resound from the seagull-screeching piers of the Bosporus over the literal ring of the simit, rolled sesame breads that generally are known as the Turkish bagel.
Sadly, nonetheless, simit are a far cry from the bagel as they’re identified in line with the coffee-addled kitchens of inner-city New York wherefrom the easy ingenuity of the bread has gained worldwide fame. Apparently, alongside the simit, one other kind of breakfast pastry is hawked to the tune of its title, açma, which could translate to “unopened,” as its dough fills the middle {that a} simit leaves to empty house. Whereas artisan-baked simit do approximate the multigenerational magic that makes New York bagels so scrumptious, they’re one other animal.
Just lately opened, the modern storefront of Bagel Home in Moda close to the forested Yoğurtcu Park gives maybe the closest factor to the hard-and-fast wonders of getting a bagel in New York Metropolis, full with the metal-cage baskets the place the freshly sizzling, spherical loops of savory and candy breads are on show, seasoned with poppyseed, olive and thyme, cinnamon and raisin, and naturally, the staple “the whole lot.” Lathered with an amazing quantity of cream cheese, Bagel Home virtually will get away with transporting its patrons to Williamsburg.
However there are distinctive, completely Turkish variations in New York’s model of bagel with that of Bagel Home in Istanbul. Firstly, the cream cheese is smoother, wetter in its Turkish variation. If there’s any zone the place the US’ dairy tradition is extra superior than Turkey’s it might be in bagel cream cheese. Apart from that, Turkey is mild years forward of the U.S. in its variety of cheese cultures. It’s a testomony to how the frequency of repetition and depth of appreciation affirms a sure customary of high quality for bagels within the U.S.
By way of flour
On the Bagel Home, the tables are turning, and Turkey is quick integrating the peculiarly U.S. merchandise of culinary genius into its city palate. It’s acceptable to have opened in Moda, for instance, the place anglophone internationalists peruse its English menu and prepared their appetites for wholesome servings of salmon sandwiched between a bagel of their alternative, similar to the Twentieth-century of us of the Yiddish-speaking East Village parks would slap on a pink strip of lox onto their crisped, hand-rolled and water-boiled breads, recent from the chilly Atlantic sea.
Whereas the Sea of Marmara is likely to be a bit distant from the northern waters the place Norwegian salmon descend aplenty to provide such eateries as Bagel Home, the truth that it’s ready as their “New York Salmon Bagel” is a testomony to their insider information from the extensive avenues of Manhattan to the complicated environs of Kurbağlidere. As an alternative of listening to the clean-shaven choruses of Yankees followers, a patron of the Bagel Home may take heed to the booming masculinity reverberate from the close by Fenerbahçe stadium throughout a soccer match.
But, regardless of the decidedly carnivorous and macho airs which may move by way of the seaside breezes round Bagel Home, its Vegan Chickpea Salad Bagel is without doubt one of the extra delectably biodiverse decisions round Istanbul, which is, to the perspicacious eye, a nexus for meatless zealots out for a healthful chunk of nourishing, plant-based meals. The boiled and mashed garbanzo bean inside its sliced bagel is kind of spicy, in that case perhaps an excessive amount of so for very first thing within the morning, as it’s doused with vegan Sriracha sauce and spices.
However with a heap of lettuce, and strips of what seems to be pickled beet, the only real vegan providing at Bagel Home delivers with a peerless, tasteful seize. The purely vegetarian, nonetheless, is likely to be hard-pressed to discover a sandwich between the “Jersey Bagel” with eggs, smoked meat, cheddar and a particular sauce, or the Vietnamese-inspired Banh Mi Bagel, which by the way in which, could be very New York, with its steak, carrot, turnip and relish adapting the culinary spirit of Southeast Asia.
Two slices, two cities
That mentioned, there’s a huge vary sufficient between the forms of bagels, jalapeño cheddar for a New Yorker’s palate, olive and oregano for the extra Mediterranean soul, gluten-free for the allergic and health-conscious, all of which go completely with a wealthy unfold of cream cheese spiked with chopped walnuts and honey, or the normal chive. And lastly, Bagel Home is extra than simply bagels. Its espresso machine doles out an ideal cup together with a smorgasbord of cupcakes, cheesecakes and candy rolls.
The kitchen at Bagel Home has the facility to move anybody from Istanbul to a different historical past of meals throughout the globe, as its patrons shut their eyes and entertain a easy chunk into a chunk of bread that brings them to the shores of a metropolis throughout the extensive Atlantic. Staffed with a pleasant group of locals who’re identified to provide a free bagel to anybody affected person sufficient to attend whereas they take their orders, the environment at Bagel Home is kind of worldwide, but so have been the unique bagel homes of New York, when so many foreigners got here ashore hankering for a style just like the Outdated Nation, solely to create a brand new order of cooking that may finally make its method again to their lengthy misplaced motherlands.
