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vegan bagels in nyc: you must get H and H!
11January 12th, 2010more restaurants (not LA), NYCthere is a lot to be said for food tourism. sometimes, you just haven’t been somewhere unless you’ve eaten certain things. as far as i’m concerned you’ve never been to paris if you haven’t eaten a warm baguette while walking the streets, nor london if you’ve not enjoyed a crispy basket of chips alongside mushy peas, nor new york city without a fresh bagel and a hot cup of black coffee. i have been lucky enough to check all these things off my list, the last being breakfast at H&H midtown bagels in manhattan.
H and H bagels are famous for being new york’s best, and it’s a good job too…because they are very vegan-friendly. not just are they water-brushed (where as most bagels are coated in egg), but H and H offers THREE TYPES of vegan cream cheese. yep, they’ve got tofutti regular, scallion, and vegetable….all available for your smearing.
i went with an onion bagel slathered in scallion tofu cream, and it was absolutely amazing. seriously, the freshness and thickness of the bread along with the delicate flavors was enough to make LA vegans bow down forever. NOT TO MENTION the fact that it was water-rinsed and filled with vegan cream cheese! amazing.
even at 9:30am on a weekday H and H was super busy, and i can totally see why. if i were vegan and living in NYC, i would get this for breakfast several times per week.
for an authentic AND vegan experience, be sure to hit up H and H midtown bagels.
also authentic and vegan: riding in a taxi! so cool, i don’t think we have these in LA…!
Tags: bagel, h&h, new york, NYC
11 responses to “vegan bagels in nyc: you must get H and H!” 
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bagels put me to sleep.
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i miss H+H, we used to pull all nighters in college and get there at like 4 in the morning when they are fresh baked.
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I don’t think most proper bagels (commercial or not) contain egg unless they’re egg bagels. It may be more common now than it used to be, but I don’t think it’s as common as the person who wrote that post alleges, especially if we’re talking about places that do things roughly traditionally. Check out Russ & Daughters too – I don’t think they bake the bagels, but their various tofutti mixes are pretty good, and it’s in the LES, so closer to other places you probably would be visiting.
It is hard to tell visually, though, because a properly boiled / hearth baked bagel should have a pretty good shine without an egg or butter wash. The bagels in LA are mostly crap, though. If I have a chance, I buy some when I’m home and freeze them (sliced) for later toasting.
The great thing about NY is that not only do most bagel shops have tofu cream cheese, but they usually mix it themselves, so with the additional salt and freshly added vegetables, it tastes way better than any packaged tofutti. You can make your own vegetable or scallion tofu cream cheese at home by mixing in finely chopped red onion, optional garlic (go easy on it), grated carrot, etc. (or chopped scallions for scallion cream cheese).
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Actually, I was also in NYC recently and i think Ess-A-Bagel has a much better bagel, with I think it was 5 different varieties of tofu cream cheese. I remember plain, scallion, sundried tomato, i think strawberry-walnut (gross to me, sorry), and at least one more which I forget at the moment.
Very chewy, crusty bagel,properly boiled (you can see the vat behind the counter) with nice malty flavor. I HIGHLY recommend Ess-A-Bagel for your next trip.
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Sorry, I meant to say that Ess-A-Bagel has a much better bagel than anythign I’ve had out here in L.A., not necessarily better than H&H which I didn’t try.
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Most NYC bagel shops carry those same three tofu cream cheese flavors — at least thats how it is on the Upper East side. I have 3 bagel shops within 2 blocks and all three carry those same tofu cream cheeses — just letting everyone know they probably can go somewhere near where they are staying — no need to haul it all the way to H&H
k-dogg January 12th, 2010 at 23:19