Just when Kyiv’s self-styled connoisseurs think they’ve seen it all, with roasted chestnuts being hawked on the capital’s streets, Tex-Mex food available for delivery and Maine lobster served at the highest-end restaurants, an unspoiled New York classic has premiered.
The next reason for getting taste buds stoked is a tiny bagel shop that claims to make the New York version of the glazed-surfaced bread rolls.
Located on Shota Rustavelli Street, fittingly next door to the central synagogue, the New Yorker Bagel Cafe offers five types of freshly baked bagels: plain, sesame seed, poppy seed, cinnamon and raisin.
There were three kinds of bagels available on the snowy day when the Kyiv Post visited the uncrowded cafe both times. Thankfully they had the kind I wanted. Otherwise, the tone of this column wouldn’t be so merry.
They’re hand-sized, dense and chewy – the result of the yeasted wheat dough being first boiled for a short time in water, then baked. They come toasted – not how New York traditionalists prefer them – or untoasted upon request, with jam and butter (any two for Hr 55).
Five bagel sandwiches are on offer, all with spread cream cheese, some with fresh dill, iceberg lettuce and tomato. The fillings on offer are cured salmon, colloquially in New York known as lox and a schmear; chicken, tuna, French goat cheese and smoked ham.
The Kyiv Post had the latter (Hr 29) in a sesame roll along with cream of mushroom soup (Hr 16), the soup of that day. Classic Ukrainian borscht (Hr 10) and chicken bouillon soup (Hr 12) are the menu’s mainstays.
The sandwich, each ingredient screaming with freshness, alone would’ve been enough during that brunch-hour meal. The soup was delectably creamy, yet too salty.
Bagels are baked fresh daily. (Kostyantyn Chernichkin)
The cafe’s New York cheese cake with homemade caramel sauce (Hr 36) was taken to go and later split with a colleague in the newsroom because of its Big Apple-portion size. My colleague said the cheese’s texture was almost smooth with a curd consistency, the way she likes it. The vanilla and lemon taste blended well with the sweet caramel.
The homemade caramel deserves more mention. It had no artificial aftertaste, had a nice consistency, and was thick enough to stay on the cake and not droop all over the plate, my colleague said.
Opt for the chocolate sauce instead, if caramel isn’t to your liking, or take it plain to save calories and money.
The cafe resembles a simple deli decorated on a budget. There are just seven tables and the walls are lined with iconic prints of New York, such as the Brooklyn Bridge, Empire State Building and others. The counter top occupies half the cafe’s length but is cluttered with display items, so there’s no room to eat on them.
A traditional part of Jewish-American cuisine, bagels are believed to have originated in 17th century Poland. And until the 1960s, they were mostly produced and consumed in New York City. Now Ukraine can be added to the expanding list of bagel-eating countries.
The New York Bagel Shop is located at 15 Shota Rustaveli St., Kyiv, Ukraine. Phone: 235-9437.
Kyiv Post staff writer Mark Rachkevych can be reached at [email protected]
