The food item that I miss the most from home is a bagel with cream cheese. Whenever I’m home for break I end up eating one every day (sometimes more…) Weirdly enough, I didn’t even really think about trying to find any in Moscow until a couple of days ago. I did a little research and found a place near the university called Bublik Shop, and yesterday morning I set out to find the melty cream-cheese bagel of my dreams.
Looks promising! And hip – “bublikoteka”
Once inside, I realized that Bublik Shop was more of a bakery/cafe than what would be considered a bagel shop in the US. Rather than baskets filled with bagels behind the counters and various cream cheeses on display, there was a variety of baked goods (which looked incredibly delicious). There were several bubliki out on the counter, and I grabbed the first one I saw. I scanned the menu for cream cheese, and instead I found a “бейгл”/beygel with lox. I decided to get that, too, and compare the beygel with the bublik.
a plain bublik
First up – the bublik. It was really tasty, but of course very different from the bagels that I am used to snarfing down. The hole is much larger than an American bagel’s, though that may not be evident from the picture above. The texture was closer to that of challah bread, and like the challah bread that I’m used to, it had an egg sheen.
My bagel with lox.
And next – the bagel, which was closer in shape to an American-style bagel. Again, very delicious, with a crunchy/fried crust (much more oily than any bagel I’ve had before), lox, greens, and horse-radish. When I spotted something creamy and white, I gasped and thought that maybe, just maybe, there was cream cheese, but it turned out to be sour cream. All the same, it was a great sandwich.
Fun fact – Bublik Shop offers a 20% discount for students, seniors, and families with a lot of children.
