Friday, June 4, 2010

Real New York Bagel and Lox, at its Best

Anthony Bourdain listed it as one of the 13 places to eat before he dies, but this place goes beyond that. Russ & Daughters has been a specialty purveyor since 1914 and this institution has been handed down four generations of the Russ family.

You can get their smoked fish to go, or some caviar, or a gift package. Bourdain talks about their traditional Jewish style herring and their smoked sable. Me, I was there to grab a bagel and lox for my flight back home. I didn't think I should attempt taking herring on the plane and eating it. (Should I?)

There's always a line to order, and when you get to the front you better know what you want. Which can be difficult. Very difficult.

The bagel: plain, onion, everything, sesame, etc?
The cream cheese: plain, scallion, tofu, or - if you want to be extra indulgent - caviar?
The lox: Scottish, Nova, Norwegian?

I wanted to focus on the cream cheese and lox, didn't want to splurge extra, and for bagel it's always scottish salmon for me, so this is what I ended up with:

Plain bagel, scallion cream cheese, scottish smoked salmon

Priced around $9, how was it? First, the bagel. It was the only bagel I ate in New York and it was better than the ones in L.A. Anything better in NYC? Probably, I wouldn't know. The scottish salmon was of course excellent. Russ & Daughters definitely acquired high quality products for their smoked fish. But I can get high quality lox elsewhere, so in the end, it's all about the cream cheese for me. It wasn't just the variety, it's the fresh double-whipped creamy spread, with the fresh chopped scallions.

Was it worth the $9? Oh yes.
(Was it worth the extra cab fare for the detour between Times Square and JFK, plus the wait time while I get the food? Well ... maybe if I had walked down the street for Katz also, because that ended up being one expensive cab fare :P )

Russ & Daughters
179 E Houston St
New York, NY 10002
(212) 475-4880
www.russanddaughters.com
Russ & Daughters on Urbanspoon

7 comments:

Banana Wonder

You made it to Russ & Daughters! Yeah, pricey bagel sandwiches, but you get the good stuff at least. I thought their bagels were kind of hard, but then again, I got spoiled by Ess-a-bagel

weezermonkey

I think I'd love this, but my husband would bitch and moan about spending that much on a bagel. :P

Unknown

Hi there,
I would appreciate if you could pass along and/or post the below information. We are looking for parents with kids to come to our tasting and taping next Wednesday, June 9th.

Thanks!
Sara


AMERICA'S NEXT GREAT RESTAURANT

Bobby Flay, Curtis Stone, Steve Ells & Lorena Garcia

Are Inviting Families with Children Ranging in Ages from 4 - 12
for a very exclusive tasting and taping of a brand new show on NBC
from the production company that brought you “Top Chef.”

This Family Friendly Tasting and Taping will be on
Wednesday, June 9th in downtown Los Angeles.
Please RSVP to ANGRaudience@gmail.com for more information
regarding location and time.

Please include your name, telephone number, number of guests in
your party and the ages of your children.

gourmetpigs

Anna: Oh I will keep the Ess-a-bagel in mind next time! Thanks :D

Gastronomer

Drooool! I love this place A LOT! It's pricey, but what isn't in Manhattan ;-)

gourmetpigs

Gastronomer: Haha that is very true. $5 hot chocolate, $14 ramen. $9 lox bagel seems about right, huh? lol

Kung Food Panda

I really really missed out!! Argh! Damn me and my one stomach......

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