Jeff's Bagel Run in Oviedo, FL

Jeff's Bagel Run is a newish chain in the Central Florida area that's been expanding like crazy. They've been around for a while, but I just tried them for the first time at their Oviedo location. I was surprised how simple their menu was when I walked it. I was expecting a selection of bagel based sandwiches like other bagel chains in the area, but it seemed like they kept it basic with only bagels and cream cheese, with a bigger focus on drinks than the bagels.

I ordered an asiago everything bagel with chive and onion cream cheese. I decided against getting a coffee because I'm trying to cut back on my caffeine intake. Sat down and waited for my bagel. About five minutes later, I was handed a to-go bag. Since it was already bagged, I decided to go eat in my car. Got to say I was surprised and annoyed when I opened the bag to find an un-toasted bagel with a separate container of cream cheese.

Why did it take five minutes to shove this in a bag when there was nobody ordering ahead of me? Why did I select to leave a tip when I'm doing all the work putting the cream cheese on the bagel? I don't get it. It was a fine bagel, but there's other better bagel shops in the area that don't make me do the work. I probably won't return to a Jeff's because of the cream cheese thing. 
 

Bagels & More in Hollywood, FL

I had breakfast at a restaurant called Bagels & More in Hollywood, FL. Interestingly, they were cash only. Which doesn't seem like a wise way to run a business when cash seems to be used less and less (especially during COVID), but they were filled with customers. I guess it's working for them.

I had an everything bagel with lox cream cheese. They were generous with the amount of cream cheese, which also happened to be filled with lots and lots of lox.

Boston Bagel Cafe in Oakland Park, FL

I ate a sesame bagel with salmon cream cheese from a restaurant called Boston Bagel Cafe in Oakland Park, FL.

 

Chesapeake Bagel Bakery in Ft. Lauderdale, FL

I spent a few days in Ft. Lauderdale. While down there, I sampled some of the city's food. The motel I stayed in didn't supply breakfast because of COVID reasons, so I ventured out to find food on my first morning there. I ended up a restaurant called Chesapeake Bagel Bakery. It took me way too long to get the pun in the restaurant name...

I had the Nova-Nova sandwich. This was an everything bagel, topped with Nova lox, red onion, capers, tomato, and cream cheese. 

I very much enjoyed this sandwich. Good bagel, and they were generous with the amount of lox and toppings in the sandwich!

 

NY Food: Bagels (Pumpernickel Bagel, Zucker's Bagels & Smoked Fish, Russ & Daughters, and Liberty Bagels)

Since nobody can travel right now due to COVID-19, let's go back in time a few months and visit New York to eat. My last visit to the New York was in December for a few days. The last couple posts on this blog from New York had to do with the pizza and Indian food I ate on the trip. This post is about the Indian restaurants I visited while there. I ended up eating a lot of Indian food on my short trip.

Pumpernickel Bagel:

This was a random bagel shop I walked by in Long Island City when it was time for a bagel breakfast.

I had a whole wheat everything bagel, filled with lox cream cheese and onions.

 Zucker's Bagels and & Smoked Fish:

This bagel shop was located a few blocks away from Bryant Park. It was a chain. I ordered a sandwich called The Flatiron. This had everything seeded smoked salmon, avocado, and scallion cream cheese. I very much enjoyed this sandwich.

Russ & Daughters:

This place is a classic that I've visited before in the past. They have all sorts of delicious smoked fish here.

I had the Shteil. Smoked sable and goat cream cheese on an everything bagel.

Liberty Bagels:

This was my last bagel experience before heading back home. They were located close to the train station so I grabbed one last bagel before catching the train back to JFK. They had some interesting bagels that involved a lot of food coloring like their rainbow bagels.

They had some interesting cream cheeses as well. Can't say I've ever seen maple bacon or Oreo flavored cream cheese anywhere.

None of that matters though, because it ended up with me getting handed the wrong order. They confirmed what I ordered when I picked it up, but that's not what was in the bag. What they gave me was a sesame bagel stuffed with lox, avocado, tomato slices, onions, and capers. It wasn't a bad combination. It was almost a combination I would have enjoyed, except there was no cream cheese. Who in their right mind orders bagels with no cream cheese!? Unfortunately, I was already on the train to the airport when I opened the bag and saw I had the wrong order, so I ate it...

NY Food (Yonah Schimmel Knish Bakery, Veselka, Totto Ramen, Sunnyside Pizza, Halal Truck, Shiro, and Dave's Bagels)

Continuing from my recent trip which took me around New England, New York was the next stop on the journey:

Yonah Schimmel Knish Bakery (Manhattan):

This place has been on my radar for a while. They specialize in Knishes and have been around since 1910!

I had a Spinach Knish. Spinach was mixed into the potato in the knish. I very much enjoy knishes, and this was no exception!

Veselka (Manhattan):

I went here almost immediately after visiting Yonah Schimmel's. Pierogi are hard to resist and Veselka is one of my favorite restaurants in New York. Their Sunday Brunch was happening and I tried the bacon, egg, & cheese pierogi. The waiter told me I wanted them fried. I should have gotten them boiled. The amount of crispiness from being deep fried made them seem like empanadas more than pierogi. Filling wise, bacon egg and cheese in a pierogi was really good!

Totto Ramen (Manhattan):

Google listed this as a highly rated ramen shop in the city. They specialized in a type of broth which I had never had called Paitan. This is apparently a chicken based broth.

I had the Miso Paitan Ramen. It was noodles in chicken paitan broth, topped with miso, egg, scallions, bean sprouds, onions, and pork. Delicious!

Sunnyside Pizza (Queens):

This is a pizzeria in Queens that has good New York style pizza, available by the slice.

I had a slice of cheese and an eggplant/ricotta slice. I do enjoy that they put sesame seeds on the crust.

Halal Truck (Queens):

I had a Lamb/Chicken combo from a random Halal food truck in Sunnyside. They made the standard NY Halal cart fare a little more interesting by adding bell peppers and onions in with the meat. Served over rice and lettuce, topped with white and hot sauce.

Shiro (Grand Central):

I had an Eel Avocado Roll from a fast food sushi restaurant in Grand Central from Shiro.

Dave's Bagels and Grill (Queens):

I had an everything bagel with lox cream cheese.

NY Jewish Food (Regal Kosher Deli in Plainview and Russ & Daughters in NYC)

In my travels around the New York area, I ended up eating at two restaurants serving Jewish/Kosher style foods. One was Regal Kosher Deli on Long Island and the other was Russ & Daughters in Manhattan.

Regal Kosher Deli in Plainview, NY:

Regal Kosher Deli is located in Plainview, NY on Long Island. They are a kosher deli serving pretty standard jewish foods. I ended up eating here on two occasions.

Pickles are delivered to every table upon being seated. They serve half sour and full sour pickles. Being that the half sour pickles were devoured before I could take a picture, it's obvious what everyone's favorite type of pickle is.

Bowls of coleslaw were also served with the pickles.

I tried two different types of knish on my visits here. My first knish was a plain potato filled knish. This one was square with mashed potatoes filling the flaky crust. Pretty tasty.

The spinach knish was my favorite of the two. It was round (I'm assuming the different shapes are so they can tell different fillings apart easier?), filled with a potato/spinach mix. It had more going on in terms of flavor compared to the plain knish.

On one visit I tried a corned beef sandwich. This consisted of a whole lot of sliced meat between sliced rye bread. I have to admit that these jewish deli style sandwiches are a little boring for my liking. I know cheese can't be added because of the whole kosher thing, but they are too much of the same thing.

On another visit I tried what they called a stuffed sandwich. I ordered the Corned Beef, Tongue, and Hard Boiled Egg. When the sandwich was delivered, the waiter informed me that they were out of hard boiled egg. I'm also pretty sure the menu said there should have been coleslaw on here as well, but that was missing too. Without those components, this was basically a corned beef sandwich stacked on top of a tongue sandwich. I did enjoy the novelty of eating sliced tongue. That is not a cut of meat that I eat very often.

Regal Kosher Deli was enjoyable. They may have boring sandwiches, but that's expected in a jewish deli. That aside, I did like the rest of the dining experience in here...





Russ & Daughters in NYC:

I first heard about Russ & Daughters several years ago and they have been on my list of New York foods to try ever since. It took me several more visits to the city before I finally made it to Russ & Daughters. They've been around for 101 years, so the amount of time it took me to try the restaurant was probably nothing for them.

They specialize in smoked and cured fish. Their cases are filled with all sorts of lox, smoked salmon, mackerel, sable, and other seafoods. There's also a large selection of cream cheeses, bagels, desserts, and other jewish foods for sale. Russ & Daughters was a very busy place. I waited over a half hour to put in my order. People were buying quite a bit in here as well. Almost every order placed that I heard was at least $100. Russ & Daughters is a little gold mine...

I had an everything bagel with pastrami salmon with goat cream cheese. The salmon was thinly sliced with a peppery coating on the outside. The goat cream cheese was new to me. It still had the consistency of normal cream cheese, but with the distinctive earthy flavor that seems to be in all goat cheeses. The combination of it all was delicious...

I also tried a pickle. A customer in front of me was ordering gallons of these pickles, announcing that she takes the train from Vermont to replenish her pickles every time her supply gets low. With an endorsement like that, I decided I must try one. It was a very tasty pickle, although I don't know if I'd travel from out of state for a pickle. 

Bagel King in Debary, FL

Bagel King is a local chain with several locations throughout the Central Florida area. One of their smaller locations is in Debary at the intersection of 17-92 and Highbanks Road. I've been to this location a couple times now. On my first visit, I tried a cheddar bagel with cream cheese. I don't think I had ever tried a cheddar bagel anywhere before this. I've had other types of cheese on bagels, but not cheddar.

On another visit to this Bagel King, I had an everything bagel with cream cheese. This bagel seemed skimpy with the amount of seeds. There were seeds on both sides of the bagel which is always a plus, but there seemed to be less seeds compared to other Bagel King bagels that I've had in the past. Perhaps I just got a bad batch.

While I enjoyed my bagels at Bagel King, I didn't enjoy how unpleasant the employees have been in this location. They gave the impression that they really didn't want to be there and seemed angry that they had to slice my bagel. Regardless, Bagel King's bagels are definitely better than chain bagels. Then again, there aren't any of the big chains in Debary (Panera, Einsteins, or Dunkin Donuts) so Bagel King seems to have the bagel monopoly in this city!

Dunkin Donuts in Atlanta, GA

I was in Atlanta and wanted to get a very quick breakfast within walking distance from my destination for the day. The two choices ended up being either Ihop or Dunkin Donuts, and I chose the latter. I know Dunkin Donuts is nothing exotic. Just about every location is the same and normally a quick breakfast at a Dunkin Donuts wouldn't be worthy of a blog post, but I decided to write about this visit for two reasons. The first being: SNOW! There was snow on the ground leftover from the big snowstorm that hit Atlanta a couple days earlier and as a Florida based food blogger, I think snow is wonderful...

The second reason I decided to write this blog post was because what I ordered at this particular Dunkin Donuts annoyed me. I wanted to get a bacon, egg, and cheese bagel sandwich. I also wanted some hot tea. They had a combo that included the sandwich and a coffee, but I like tea way more than coffee. I asked if I could get the tea instead of coffee with the combo and I was told it couldn't be done. Tea was cheaper than coffee on the menu, but yet buying them separately ended up costing a dollar and change more than the combo which included the more expensive coffee.

The bagel sandwich was perfectly acceptable, but the drinks annoyed me. I'm sure there was some reason like cash register restrictions or messing up inventory why a more expensive cup of coffee couldn't be switched out with a cheaper cup of tea, but it still annoyed me. Regardless, once I got back outside, the cold weather and snow made me forget all about Dunkin Donuts. Especially when I found enough snow to make a snowman right across the street. Polar vortexes are fun. Too bad it was all melted when the temperatures warmed up later in the afternoon...

 

Bagel Place in College Park, MD

While I was visiting Washington DC for a few days, I stayed in College Park, Maryland. I had just over a mile walk to the nearest metro station to take the train into DC for some sightseeing. During this walk, I stopped for breakfast at a restaurant called the Bagel Place in Downtown College Park.

I had a toasted everything bagel with bacon scallion cream cheese. I've never tried that combination in a cream cheese before. It was salty but good. The bagel was big with plenty of seeds. The Bagel Place has good bagels...