The Battle of the Bagel Begins!
Deuce & I are on a mission to find "The Best Bagel" in the Hudson Valley... and here is the results of our first two places...

Maises Qwik Stop in Newburgh, 331 N Plank Rd, Newburgh, NY 12550

loading...

This is a rich bready style bagel, which would be perfect for a sandwich, (being a deli, this is how they a fair amount of theirs). These are HUGE, almost a whole meal until in itself. Great toasted with cream cheese, and for those big bagel freaks who ask about "the boil", these have a relatively light boil. When you run into a deli to grab a bagel w cream cheese, pre-packed and ready to go, this is exactly what you expect to get. Cost @$5 for 6.

 

Hopewell Hot Bagels, 792 New York 82, Hopewell Jct, NY 12533

loading...

 

When we walked into this place, its small,  but all you see is the bagel case, with 15-20 different types of bagels. As always, we grabbed 2 plain, a sesame.. then after a conversation with the counter person, cinnamon raisin, and blueberry. 6 for $4.50, cash only.  (Loved the fact that they had jalapeno flavored!)

Very much a "New York City" style bagel. A thick boiled crust, smaller than Maises, but more dense and chewy. There was a slight sweetness to the dough when tried plain, but toasted with cream cheese, this became a wonderful experience. Making us wish we could try it with vegetable cream cheese or another topping to see if it still tasted as great. Can't see having this as a sandwich unless you don't mind wearing the middle, just because of the rich chewy dense-ness...

In case you missed us talking about it on the air. We buy 6 bagels at each place, making sure to get at least 2 plain, then we split up the remaining 4... always asking the person behind the counter what their favorite is and getting one of that too. Then the other three are whatever strikes us.

When tasting them, we judge each one on the plain bagel... First we cut the plain one into a few pieces and see how it tastes plain. Then we try the plain bagel toasted with cream cheese (the classic).

"The boil" we refer to is part of the process of making the bagel, the dough is boiled before being baked. Supposedly the boil process has a great deal to do with the chewy-ness of a bagel.

"The Chew" we refer to is just that, the density of the bread, the richness, is the bagel light and fluffy or does it require you to chew the heck out of it.

Are there places that you think we should try? Let us know. We feel the best place is going to be the place that you go to pretty often, because you dream about those bagels...

 

More From WRRV-WRRB