To think it's impossible to get a decent bagel or American muffin in this country?

[rollonretirementfgs]

Supermarket bagels are crap, the ones in the polythene bags. M&S did nice fresh ones but stopped selling them. American muffins... massive light fluffy muffins, as big as your head. Had one in France recently from Columbus coffee.... rubbish over here! Please enlighten me on any hidden gems.

Many thanks,

Desperate for carbs

Warburtons bagels are the best in my opinion, so chewy and satisfying!

Try Jewish delis for the bagels.

Never had the urge for a muffin as big as my head, and I wouldn't be too sure what a decent muffin is 🙈. But independent local bakeries are the place for decent bagels.

You need to find a jewish bakery for proper bagels. Appreciate that these are only in certain areas though.

Nothing like the real thing.

Although credit to Warburtons, who have revamped their gluten free bread range and some of it is really impressive - sorry, slight derail there!

Is a decent American style muffin even possible? For that alone you are being unreasonable. Love a good bagel from a bakery though.

Brick lane, London

Make your own?

Who wants a giant muffin anyway? The ones you can buy are plenty big enough.

You need to go to the Brick Lane Beigel bakery for beigels. Delicious and chewy. American muffins are disgusting oily crap, so decent American muffins are an oxymoron!

American bagels, sweetish and puffed up, are far inferior to the original, chewy and dense Jewish beigels. They're the real thing, small but tasty.
You need to get them from a Jewish deli or bakery. Lots in north London and probably in Manchester and Leeds too.

Warburtons-type bagels don't seem to be one thing or the other. But at least they're not as sweet as US made ones.

There are places, there's an amazing deli not too far from me that does amazing bagels. All depends where you are

Me!

To be fair there's lots of excellent British food you can't get in the US.

My current favourite muffin is the Maccys mixed Berry 😋

https://paposbagels.com

You'll need to collect from Hackney, east London though

Bagel Factory or Dots Bagels are so good if you have them near you

Specifically Beigel Bake.

They charge £1.50 per plain bagel, though - and no discount for bulk - so £6 for a pack of four! Which would last about five minutes in my family

Absolutely. They're in a different league and nothing like supermarket ones.

That's a very reasonable price for a good bagel, though (as opposed to a bit of processed styrofoam from Warburtons).

Muffins are easy to bake from scratch. Bagels aren't, but it can be done. After they've risen you have to boil them in molasses water and then bake. You can make a bunch of them at a time, let them cool, cut them in half and freeze them with a bit of wax paper between the two halves. To defrost just pop in the toaster.

Which country are you talking about? Cos Beigel Bake are more than decent...

Possibly American supermarket bagels are nicer than UK ones - but I strongly suspect you're not comparing like-for-like

You need to go to Brick Lane in London.

(Why on earth do you find it odd that different countries have different foods and its not easy to get authentic foods of other countries??)

Carbs are all over Britain - just not American muffins as big as your head (why would anyone applaud such a thing?)

Fitzgeralds poppy seed bagel is really good!

Bagels in the UK are great... you simply can not get a proper bagel in the country im in and it's one of my only gripes about living abroad.

Moortown, Leeds is the Jewish part of the city. Street Lane has a large Jewish bakery.

Moortown is the only suburb of Leeds without a Greggs! One in Meanwood and Chapel Allerton