The Bagelry

Oh, The Bagelry! In the heart of downtown Potsdam, NY at 9 Market Street, this choice little specialty sandwich shop is near and dear to my heart. Back in my youth, eh hem, of college in the mid to late 80's, The Bagelry was a shining beacon of gastronomic desire. Alas, it still is. It is worthy of a food pilgrimage across a continent to indulge in a type of food that is simply not available in the USA properly west of the Mississippi River. At least not in my experience, and I have lived and traveled across the continental United States to Hawaii. You simply CANNOT get a properly made bagel outside of the northeast except in a few very rare places, which I did not live in and have only heard about from possibly suspect sources.

When I lived in Wyoming for years, I once had my visiting mother-in-law from the Potsdam area bring me garlic bagels from The Bagelry on the airplane. Though quadruple bagged, the garlic fumes of her carry-on baggage turned heads on the plane. I was sooo grateful for her sacrifice. Even three day old bagels from the Bagelry are a Godsend in the wasteland of Wyoming, where we bought bready "bagels"at the grocery store to serve as hamburger buns.

A perfect, delicate crispness to the exterior coupled with a softly dense interior is just pure culinary artistic mastery. Though I now miss many types of regional cuisine from my travels, there was nothing I missed more than being away from a proper bagel for the last twenty plus years. And now, I am back! And The Bagelry is more than just dear to my heart, it is NEAR again.

As readers of this blog know, I lost my camera. I had planned to take a picture of the lovely bins of seasoned and other variety bagels to post with this. (Edit: my friend took a picture recently and I have now added it, YAY!) There are plain, wheat, sesame, onion, garlic, cinnamon raisin, italian, salt, poppy seed, everything, oh... Then, of course, you have the toppings or sandwich selections to be made. All sorts of tuna melt, breakfast egg, Gobble (deli turkey), Nova Lox (with cream cheese, onion and capers), Fresser (piles of different deli meats with cheese), Reuben, ham-n-cheese, etc. That list is huge and I can't possibly remember them all.

Back in town, we come here often now, almost always just to get a half or baker's dozen to bring home to make up ourselves. This day in early June, Julie and I decided to have breakfast here before school as a treat. Julie had never tried the lox spread (lox mixed with cream cheese) and I had a feeling she would like it, fond as she is of cream cheese and also has a taste for fishy stuff, as do I. We were picking up a half dozen to go (wheat, cin-raisin, garlic) and then got a prepared toasted garlic bagel with lox spread to eat in, split between us. I got onion and tomato on my half and we each got a pickle slice. Nice breakfast... I sent her to school with garlic, salmon and pickle on her breath!

We sat at the outdoor tables on the sidewalk of old downtown. It was a beautiful morning, still cool at the street corner by the Raquette River. There was a light breeze and long shadows of the morning to escape into, but you could tell it was going to get hot this day. When we were finished, I sent Julie to school on her bicycle from there. It is nice to be back in Potsdam!

Mom's Schoolhouse Diner

Happy birthday to me! Well, back in May it was my birthday and that is when I visited "Mom's" with my kids for the Julie/Mom Project because I had never been there and, well, it was my birthday! We were in transition from one house to another and temporarily staying in West Potsdam, where Mom's Schoolhouse Diner is located at a rural crossroads next to the volunteer fire fighter's station... "The Minutemen".

It was a Saturday and "Mom" has a constant ad in the North Country This Week that says "sing-along-with-Mom" on Saturdays. I figured we could catch some old time style fun and might get a favorite north country treat I always loved and had been telling my kids about... french fries with gravy.

As we walked into the the quaint little diner, I spied the old piano in the corner... just what I had imagined "sing-along-with-Mom" would involve. It's a pretty small place with 1950's theme decor, old 45 records, old pictures, old advertisements and some Norman Rockwells.

Unfortunately we were immediately informed that "Mom's" daughter was getting married tomorrow and she was too busy with preparations to play the piano tonight. Also, the usual Saturday special of Shepherd's Pie was not available due to wedding prep. The soup du jour was sold out (we went in late to catch the hour of sing-along). Also, the frier was broken, so no french fries! On the bright side, I told them it was my birthday and I got 15% off my dinner, or a free small Sundae. I went with the 15% as I am not a big dessert fan.

Julie ordered the basil and lemon chicken breast platter with her two sides being applesauce and cottage cheese (because no soup). I got the breaded cod fillet with red potato salad and cole slaw. Actually, it may have been a sole fillet... its hard to tell and fish is routinely served under false species ID. Cod is fairly rare these days thanks to the overfishing in the Atlantic, but the reason I speculate isn't because I'm a great expert, its because the waitress wasn't sure what it was. Well, it was fish and I liked it, so that's all that matters. MJ enjoyed a healthy meal of a vanilla frappe (thick local style milkshake) and plain cheeseburger. "Plain Maryjane" is what she is with her cheeseburgers... nothing else but pickle is allowed. Apparently sesame seed buns are now acceptable, though that was an annoying issue for years. Once again, that's why this is the Julie/Mom Project and not the MJ/Mom Project.

The main portions are not huge, sort of bare looking on the large oval platter with the side orders in little, fancy, clear plastic cups. Simple fare as is to be expected from such a remote little corner place. Julie ordered a chocolate frappe for dessert while I finished the last 1/8 of MJ's burger.

I noted the place seemed to serve as a tiny grocery store, as well. There is a four door cooler with milk, OJ and whipped cream (which the diner probably uses) and a shelf area with a few cans of SPAM, Campbell's soup, chips, ketchup, bread, loose candy jars, and stuffed animals(?).

We need to come back when Mom is singin'.

Julian's

On Easter Sunday we had no special plans after the Easter-basket-loaded, chocolate, candy, gum, smorgasbord of the all-too-early morning. Julie and I (Mom) blobbed around uselessly all day and then decided late afternoon to go out and take pictures for our Thai Cuisine blog entry.

We rode scooters this time instead of bikes (I can't recall why, might've been my idea). Julie took hers, I took MJ's. We put on our bike helmets, which I was quite glad for later as I went head over heels on an uneven gap in the sidewalk and landed right on my head. Low speed, but still would've been a ridiculous injury for such a flimsy small vehicle. I have to say now what an absurd piece of transport a scooter is. Skates make more sense, but unless your riding surface is nice and smooth the whole trip, a bicylce make the most sense. WALKING is a better option than a scooter, as was the way I played out most of our little excursion this day.

Sun was fading and I was hungry and suggested to Julie that we knock off one of our restaurants for our blog. Julie suggested any of the downtown pizza places, but I wanted to save those for times when the whole family might go there. It was evening Easter Sunday so many places were closed anyway. We spied Julian's at 38 Market Street, Potsdam, NY. Julie had eaten here before with her grandmother, but I had never been. They had advertised an Easter buffet and were known for their Sunday breakfast buffet. We were going in late, like 7:30 pm, a half hour before "closing". Boldly and brazenly, we went in anyway. I figured it looked pretty empty and it wasn't the type of place we would likely take MJ or my husband to.

The waitress was kind and friendly explaining that the buffet was over, they were closing soon, but they still had a limited Easter Dinner menu. I can't recall the other options, though there were only a few. We ordered the Roast Duck and Shrimp Cocktail appetizer to split (budget-minded us). Julie got a lemonade. She was very thirsty from scootering around town, as was I who downed several glasses of ice water.

The appetizer consisted of three large shrimp arranged around the edge of a martini glass filled with more cocktail sauce than needed even for all three large shrimp. Also provided was a rather large portion of herbed oil (again too much for the three shrimp, despite their large size) and a tiny cup of solid whipped butter, which I found most peculiar. It was perfectly adequate. Julie and I (Mom) split the three shrimp this way: I ate all the tails (I loooove shrimp tails) and the body of one and a third of the shrimp. We dipped each bite generously into the sauces, fingers and all.

The duck was delicious. I have to say, mostly the only time I have ever eaten duck (with one rare exception) is the kind you get at the Chinese restaurant in a heavily fried and/or battered condition. We have occasionally done Cornish Game Hens for Thanksgiving, but other than so-called "turkey", so-called "chicken" is the extent of Julie's poultry experience.

This was actually a half-duck, properly "billed" as such on the menu description. Julie and I split it between us by me using a fork and butter knife to remove the largest pices of meat and put them on Julie's plate along with a fair share of the yummy roasted potato wedges and sauteed zucchini that were soaking in the brown, sweetish sauce of the basted duck.

And here we draw a flashback to our blog inspiration, the movie "Julie & Julia". "Do you know how to de-bone a duck?" We now understand why a duck is so much more delicious if someone goes through the process of removing the freaking bones and stuffing it. I ended up sucking the meat off the remaining carcass. Oh well, it's Easter. It's Ironic.

Disclaimer: This blog is not a restaurant review or a food critique. It is a personal experience, molded by the parameters of its subjectivity.

Hot Tamale!

Our first destination in the North Country This Week's Spring Restaurant Guide, as mentioned in our first post, was the "Hot Tamale". We hatched our little idea to blog about all the restaurants in the guide after already stopping here for lunch while out for a bike ride in downtown Potsdam, NY. There is also a "Hot Tamale" in the village of Canton 10 miles to the east. The one in Potsdam is in the heart of downtown at 34 Market Street.

Julie had eaten here a few times before with her father, but I had never been. It is a fast-food, assembly line style place where you order at the counter and watch as your meal is prepared. It is very clean, the ingredients are fresh and the prices kept reasonably low due to the informal dining setting.

Though I was tempted to try the namesake, the tamales are an appetizer and I was quite hungry. I went for the "Sizzling 'Stoners" Fajita Burrito", which was billed as a much more suitable option for my appetite at the time. I chose the steak as my meat, which was "sizzled" ahead of time and not put on a fajita pan in front of me as is the traditional and more expensive way to do it. The meat was seasoned with my choice of a barbecue sauce and put into a flour tortilla with rice, my choice of pepper jack cheese, lettuce, pico de gallo, grilled onions and peppers and sour cream. It was very large and hit the spot deliciously.

Julie went with her old standby, the Kid's Meal. She chose the chicken and cheese quesadilla, and sort of changed it up a bit as she has always gotten just cheese quesadilla in the past. It comes with a small drink (diet Coke) and a choice of brownie or small pre-packaged ice cream treat. Julie chose the Chocolate Sundae Bar.

We like this place as a fast, good and inexpensive option. It is open very late on Friday and Saturday nights to accomodate the late night college crowd.

The Beginning

So, after watching the movie "Julie and Julia" obsessively for the past two weeks, my 9 year old daughter and I took a break. It's been over 36 hours since our last viewing. We had to make a conscious effort to not watch. Its a Netflix DVD, so we will have to return it at some point, but I've been waiting for the inspiration to hit me before I can give it up.

Today, Julie (my 9 year old daughter) and I took a bicycle ride downtown to check out the used clothing stores, which I knew would be closed, but we had to get out of the house. We have been sitting around during her spring break from school, watching "Julie and Julia" on almost continuous loop all week. It makes you hungry, so we have been eating along with it. We had to get out of the house.

Downtown for us is the small village of Potsdam in the North Country upstate New York. It was a chilly wind, but we bundled up to stay warm. While we were stopped, looking at the rushing water of the Racquette River going over the hydroelectric power dams, I decided I was hungry. Julie is a big fan of eating out, as am I. Well, we are big fans of eating in general and also share a laziness for preparing our own food. Being the tough economic times that they are, however, we have been trying to be very frugal. My husband, Julie's father, is the cook of the house and does a remarkable job feeding us and fixing a proper dinner nearly every night.

So we ate at "Hot Tamale" because I had never been there, and I decided to treat Julie since her sister had been to a concert the night before and was still away at a fun sleepover at her friend's house. Then it hit me. We could eat our way through the North Country THIS WEEK's Spring Restaurant Guide I had been looking through the night before... and blog about it!

Oh sure, it's not really like "The Julie/Julia Project". It's not going to make us better people. It's not going to teach us any real discipline. But it is something to do and it will be fun. Maybe it will allow us to eventually return the movie DVD to Netflix... now having our own culinary obsession to occupy us. Maybe it will force us to write something regularly, which is an accomplishment in itself.

Anyway, no rules and no goals. No time frames. It is what it is. There are 66 restaurants listed in the Guide, including places such as McDonald's and an asian food market I've never been into to know if there are even prepared foods for take-out. There are also places we have been to several times. Maybe we will go to them, maybe we won't, but we will write about every place and at least why we did not or could not go.

Some are a bit of a drive so we will try to hit those as they are along the way in other travels around the county. We must try to budget the adventure as best we can. The main goal is to write regularly, so we will write up our visits every few days... Hot Tamale and Thai Cuisine Restaurant already down and coming up soon. But now, another viewing of "Julie and Julia" is in order. Bon appetit!