When Za’atar Met The Bagel.
Move over Everything, there's a new bagel in town.
I just got back from Israel a few weeks ago, where I ate probably the best food of my life, and enough hummus and Za’atar to last a lifetime. And yet, when I heard about a Za’atar Bagel, a new collaboration between Justin and Rebecca Christiansen’s West Coast artisanal salt company, Portland Salt Co., and Chris Pugliese’s acclaimed East Coast Tompkins Square Bagels, I was intrigued. And then I was amazed. You think you know yourself. You think you have your favorite bagel. And then you have a Za’atar Bagel and your world gets turned upside down.
The new Za’atar Bagel has been in the works for the past three months, a bi-coastal collaboration that has also yielded two different cream cheeses: the Za’atar cream cheese (naturally), and a Toasted Sugar that stars Portland Salt Co.’s popular Toast Sugar with its layers of warm cinnamon, molasses, nutmeg, and a subtle pinch of sea salt, ideal for those who like their bagels to taste like dessert (not me, but I know you are out there).
Portland Salt Co. makes outrageously interesting salt blends, pulling their high-mineral salt from cool coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean and combining it with all sorts of globally-sourced spices and herbs like their Za’atar, but also Steak Salt which gets cayenne, black pepper, garlic, and onion, a Pita Salt with sumac, sesame seeds and thyme, and a Pork Rub with brown sugar, paprika and cayenne.
For the bagel collaboration, the folks at Tompkins baked Portland’s Za’atar Salt into their classic bagel dough and then sprinkled a heck of a lot more on the outside just before baking so you get that toasty, warm, spiced za’atar flavor running throughout the whole bagel and also on the crust.
Slice it in half, add cream cheese and lox, or some smoked trout and labne, or just tear it off into large pieces and swipe it through some hummus. You’ll never say Everything again.
The Portland Salt Co. Za’atar Bagel and cream cheeses are now on sale at Tompkins Square Bagels on Avenue A and Second Avenue (both in the East Village). They will also be available at Tompkins Square Bagels’ new flagship store off of Union Square (17th Street between Broadway and Fifth) when it opens in a few weeks. The cream cheeses (Za’atar and Toast Sugar) are $18.00 a pound; The Za’atar bagels are $3.00 each. Enjoy!