My surname is Levitan. From this you may gather that I am Jewish. I have grown up on smoked salmon, gefilte fish, potato kugel, chicken soup, latkes and mon cake. So, when I was invited to try the new menu at New York Bagel, I was looking forward to enjoy a little bit of home.
NY Bagel: A home away from home.
NY Bagel has been around for years, but recently they’ve revamped themselves. The store is slick and modernised, there is free WIFI and they’re even stocking craft beer.
To start we had slow-roasted tomato soup, with a dash of cream and a sprinkle of parmesan. The roasting caramelises and the tomatoes, to give a sweeter, more robust flavour. A great start to the night.
Next up, we had a trio of smoked salmon, a light and heavy smoke and hot smoked with pepper. As the only Jew in the world who isn’t the biggest fan of smoked salmon, the lightly smoked was my favourite and then the peppered. (But to be honest, I ate all the heavily smoked salmon too. Why? Because it was damn good.)
Then came a salmon and cream cheese bagel with picked red onion, and a rare roast beef bagel with pickled cucumbers. Both were absolutely delicious. As the only store in AFRICA that boils and bakes their bagels, they really know how to make them right. The salmon was lightly smoked and the beef was tender and would be perfect for lunch, or a light dinner.
As our main we had a shawama tasting plate. Perfectly seasoned, spicy chicken and lamb pieces, techina (sesame paste dip), pickles, Israeli (chopped tomato and onion) salad, tsatsiki (yogurt and cucumber dip) and roasted veg, with mini pitas. It was everything you could ever want from a shawarma.
Lastly, we had baked cheesecake with fresh berries and poppy seed cake, or as I have always known it as, Mon cake. The cheese cake was freshly baked and it was great, for a change, to actually have fresh berries and not pureed wanna-be flavoured syrup. An the poppy seed cake – well, that was a blast from my past, and I loved it. A type of poppy seed “jam” filling is the best way to describe this moist (ugh, bad word, sorry) cake with layers of sweet, sticky poppy seeds.
Whether you are popping in to collect a take away, sitting at one of the café tables, or ordering platters for a function, NY Bagels always seems to get things right.
