Saturday, February 16, 2013

Salt Bagels.

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When I was a little girl my Dad worked for his Dad at a big bakery in Chicago.   The bread was packaged in wax paper.  It was different than grocery store bread.  It was wholesale bread; for restaurants.  Along with brownies and Neapolitans and cookies with paper pictures of Santa, Dad would bring home a bag of hard rolls.   I think it was called the baker's dozen (13 rolls) or Bake and Serve.
In this bag came a few kaiser rolls, some other rolls, and one roll shaped like a little banana, kind of a crescent.  Maybe it was a crescent roll. That's sounds right.  Crescent.  Not croissant.  But what was special about these little crescent rolls, besides the fact that there was only one in a bag, it had kosher salt on it.
But the salt was in a small packet and was sprinkled on the roll just before baking.  It was the best roll.
With seven people in the family it was coveted.  Maybe mostly by me.  I clearly remember sitting at the table and hoping to snag the precious salty roll.

(Ya know.  My dad could have made a whole bag of those for us. Why didn't he think of that?)

Anyway.  Soft pretzels were not popular treats in the suburbs of Chicago.  So I never satisfied my salty bread kick with those.

But one day, I do not know when or where, but I stumbled upon a salt bagel.

I was home.





19 comments:

  1. Our bakery sells little pretzel roll things - 4 for a buck - little salted buns with an outer pretzel - but soft - salted crust. To. Die. For. I'll bring them next time you come on a Thursday!!!

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous7:42 AM

      LOVE pretzel rolls! Mary Z

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  2. I can almost taste one. You are a great story teller, Donna.

    My Grandma (Zelma!) would make wonderful homemade raised rolls that were so dee-lish. She's been coming to mind a lot this week. Grandma's are so special.

    Have a blessed weekend ~

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    Replies
    1. There's a set of 80-year-old twin sisters who live in the same senior adult complex as my Dad... Their names are..... Velma and Thelma.

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    2. Anonymous3:11 PM

      Grandmothers are "so special" you are right Susan and twins named Velma and Thelma...love it! jep

      Delete
  3. Anonymous11:44 AM

    I will add salted bagels to my list. We're going to Des Moines today and I always make a stop at a grocery store. I love food! :)
    Thanks for sharing your story, Miz Boo!

    Sarah P. from Iowa

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  4. Janice1:00 PM

    What a great story. Spencer ate salt bagels for a long time. Now he's on to the Everything, like his mama.

    But life doesn't get much better than a salt bagel with cream cheese and a tomato!

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  5. While we no longer live there, Pittsburgh has a wonderful bakery called Breadworks ... they have these heavenly little "salt sticks" which are bagel like in texture but with lots of kosher salt on the top. They also make them in a rye bagel-type dough with salt. HEAVEN!! Everytime someone from there comes to visit us in Northern Michigan my request is simple ... a LARGE bag of those salt sticks. Memory and thought provoking post ... thank you!

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  6. Anonymous3:17 PM

    Childhood memories of food we loved and could eat when we were young are some of our favorite memories. My husband remembers tortillas made fresh everyday by his grandmothers housekeeper who let him ride around on her mop as she cleaned. I remember the cream horns that my mother would buy for the two of us when we went to the big grocery store close to downtown. My dad always got a Neapolitan for his treat. Your salt bagels look good enough to eat in that photograph. Great edge photography or whatever it is that PW talked about once. love and prayers, jep

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  7. What was that called. Kinda like landscape...

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    1. Anonymous5:04 PM

      I think that is what it is called and you really know how to do it well! jep

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    2. I just went to look it up...
      It is called the SKIM shot.

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    3. Anonymous7:44 PM

      ;-) jep

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  8. aha! We are twins. I LOVE the salt bagels at Einstien Bagels here in town..mmmmmmm
    my favorite

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  9. Anonymous7:46 AM

    Great story and photo! Thanks for sharing the memory. I love how food, music and certain scents can so easily take us back to the past. Hope that doesn't stop as we age...

    Mary Z

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  10. Donna,
    I love the stories you tell about your dad.

    My grandfather used to stop at a bakery and bring us old-fashioned glazed donuts and bread that would still be hot with a warm doughy center. Yum.

    This summer, we were in Samara, Costa Rica far from the little town near Santa Cruz, CA where I grew up. My husband brought home a round warm loaf from a local farmer's market in Samara. I cut a slice and bit into it--immediately transported back to childhood.

    Taste memories are like that, aren't they?

    hmbalison

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  11. Anonymous6:11 PM

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