Montreal smoked meat or bagels

[Risa Bramon Garcia]

Is there anywhere in the Los Angeles area to find genuine Montreal smoked meat or Montreal bagels?!

[lil mikey]

No.

[The Chowhound Team]

Folks, we split off a general discussion of Montreal smoked meat here: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/671905

We ask everyone to keep the L.A. board focused on local sources of food in this area. "What makes for good Montreal smoked meat" discussions are handled on the General Topics board. Thanks.

[DrBruin]

Yes, at the Redondo Beach Cafe on PCH in Redondo Beach, you can get montreal smoked meat. He imports it from Montreal. It must be an acquired taste.

I've never heard of a montreal bagel. Isn't a bagel a bagel? Granted, 98% of the schlock sold in LA grocery stores and bagel shops are not technically bagels... just round bread with holes in them... but I'm curious what a Montreal bagel is.. maybe I've run across one.

[mrfood16]

Montreal bagels are 1 of the 2 major types of bagel, the other being a NY style bagel.

[Burger Boy]

But how are they different, what makes them Montreal?

[SoCal Foodie]

Info I gathered from the web: The Montreal bagel is smaller, sweeter and denser, with a larger hole, and is always baked in a wood-fired oven. It contains malt, egg, and no salt and is boiled in honey-sweetened water before being baked in a wood-fired oven, whose irregular flames give it a dappled light-and-dark surface colour.

[Burger Boy]

Thank You, I did not find that much info.

[a_and_w]

Smaller and sweeter. I've never seen them in LA.

[GenevieveCa]

The redondo beach cafe smoked meat is, a last resort. They slice it the wrong way half the time and sometimes forget to steam the bread.
I'm a member of the Quebecois in Los Angeles and we've used the rbc a few times for events, i think it's the homesickness factor more than anything else that keeps us going back there.
Making smoked meat at home is uber easy, with the meat shipping restrictions from Canada to the US it's almost impossible to get it here.

[FranklinJefferson]

Haven't tried them in years but St. Urbain Street Bagels may be a possibility... Otherwise, why would they go with such a Montreal site-specific title (well-aware I'm setting myself up for some interesting feedback on this one)>

[epop]

Those aren't good. I get Fairmount and St. Viateur bagels delivered from Montreal.

I heard these people have them at times: Pasquale's Cafe & Pizza on San Vicente

[arisp]

The bagels at St. Viateur Bagels in Beverly Hills are not anything at all like the real deal found in Montreal, on St. Viatuer street. Somehow the name was licensed, but that's it. I was born and raised in Montreal, lived there for 28 years. Some of the descriptions of the Mtl bagel on this thread are spot on.

Furthermore, the smoked meat at Schwartz in Montreal is very similar to Katz, yes, but brined longer and a bit more peppery. At this point I will say that Schwartz changed management/owners a few years back, and while the quality is still stellar, the taste has dropped off a bit. Again, I go to Montreal twice a year and always eat at Schwartz, so I'm not talking out of my a**.

[FranklinJefferson]

"The bagels at St. Viateur Bagels in Beverly Hills are not anything at all like the real deal found in Montreal, on St. Viatuer street. I go to Montreal twice a year... so I'm not talking out of my a**."
Back to my "interseting comments" statement... What St. Viateur Bagels? None that I know of.

[Servorg]

I believe that arisp is actually referring to:

St Urbain Street Bagels
449 North Beverly Drive
Beverly Hills, CA 90210-4601
[phone]

[epop]

Yes, St. Urbain (Beverly Hills with nothing special at all) and then St. Viateur in Montreal, where there are 2 great old bagel bakeries, cooking with wood.

[arisp]

Yes, sorry. Confused both Montreal bagel shops. The one in Beverly Hills is indeed St. Urbain Bagels.