The roll with a hole

MANILA, Philippines - In life, there are bagels and then there are baked products made to resemble bagels. The ones you pick up at the supermarket, though supposedly gourmet, will most likely fall under the second category.

As far as bagel purists are concerned, no one comes close to The OC’s Sandy Cohen. When he gave an impromptu lesson on how to properly “schmear” cream cheese onto a freshly guillotined specimen, the TV dad exhibited a type of food nerdism that would have earned him his own cooking show today. That was, of course, until I sat down with Cuit Kaufman, a passionate Jewish-Mexican chef born and raised in New York City.

At L.E.S. Bagels in the burgeoning McKinley Hill area in Fort Bonifacio, he gets to share some of his hometown favorites and a few new flavors, all made from scratch. The deli and bakery takes its name from Manhattan’s Lower East Side, where Eastern European Jews first introduced bagels in the 1880s. Vendors used to thread the hole-shaped bread onto dowels and hawk them on street corners. Mixing, kneading, shaping, proofing, boiling, then baking make the traditional variety rather magical; a real bagel is dense, chewy, doughy and sometimes crisp, all at the same time.

Since I have a penchant for hearty sandwiches, I dive headfirst into their pride and joy, the L.E.S. Addiction, a classic pumpernickel bagel with scallion cream cheese, tomato, red onion, capers and lox, or Jewish-style smoked salmon. I have it split in half so that I can also sample The Essex, with its house-cured pastrami, yellow mustard and sauerkraut on rye bread.

Whether you’re tempering the days when everything you eat has rice clinging to it or looking for snacks until it’s time for one of the proper three, the old-school offerings here should inspire you. From potato knishes, matzo ball soup and cream sodas to Jewish pastries such as rugelach and black and white cookies, L.E.S. Bagels are great for no-fuss food.

The overall experience reminded me of previous visits to Mishkin’s in London’s Covent Garden, Katz’s in New York and, to some extent, even Beverly Hills Deli of the old, pre-Greenbelt 4, Makati, of my ’90s childhood. I’ve been searching for a place that serves the kind of Reuben sandwiches and deli delights I grew up eating and I think I’ve finally struck gold.       

While the products command premium prices, the care it takes to craft them is enough of a justification. The fudge brownie I took home, dense and spiked with espresso, seemed as heavy as two iPhones and required two days to fully consume. “Just about everything here is made in-house and we don’t scrimp on ingredients,” says the hands-on Cuit.

Before I leave, forced to vault over my next meal because I may have indulged too much, I dream out loud. I possess quite a playful palate, so why not top a dark, bitter chocolate bagel with chicken and cheese? It sounds ghastly, but it’s in the same vein as mole poblano, a richly flavored sauce that marries chocolate with three types of chillies, among other ingredients. A Mexican friend introduced it to me during my school days in Canada, lavishing it on enchiladas and turkey. Paging L.E.S. Bagels.

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 L.E.S. Bagels is located at Tuscany Residences, Upper McKinley Road, McKinley Hill, Fort Bonifacio, Taguig, tel. nos. 0915-258-5685 and 804-0423.