Food/restaurant rant

Montreal-style bagel?
Is that really a thing?

I'm not being facetious. I've never heard of such a thing.

 

It is indeed a thing. From the wiki:

The Montreal bagel is a distinctive variety of handmade and wood-fired baked bagel. In contrast to the New York-style bagel, the Montreal bagel is smaller, thinner, sweeter and denser, with a larger hole, and is always baked in a wood-fired oven. It contains malt, egg, and no salt and is boiled in honey-sweetened water before being baked.

In many Montreal establishments, bagels are still produced by hand and baked in full view of the patrons. There are two predominant varieties: black-seed (poppy seed), or white-seed (sesame seed).

 

Montreal has or had a pretty prominent Jewish population. There is some brisket dish that the city is also known for.

 

Stay hungry, my friends.

 

Montreal smoked meat. Delish.

 

Montreal has cornered the market on smoked brisket? Really?

 

Apropos of nothing, other than it fits the theme of the thread, I guess and mention of Montreal smoked meat got me thinking of Chicago-style beef. Portillo's will open somewhat in my neck of the woods in the coming days. Yay or nay? It would be a bit of a trek for me, but I could make it happen.

 

It's a variant on pastrami, I think. I found this description of the difference:

What's the Difference Between Pastrami and Montreal Smoked Meat?

 

Honey sweetened water? Why fuck up a perfectly good bagel?

 

I once thought I was eating a bagel, but turns out that it was just a three-day-old doughnut.

 

Portillo's has done a decent job taking the Chicagoland greasy spoon on the corner and mass producing it.
Watching the controlled chaos of the assembly line is worth a trip by itself. Food is decent, not great.

Most importantly, per this thread: No ketchup on the dogs.

 

Story on the local news, the reporter said ketchup on dogs is blasphemy in Chicago, which I already knew, but they will put it on there if you ask for it. They're going soft.