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[Escaped Lunatic]

I've gone to the Dongguan Metro store - No bagels.
I've performed unspeakable acts of torture on innocent bakery workers - No bagels.
I've broken down in tears in front of a picture of bagels in the bakery section of Carrefour - No bagels.
I was just in Kunming.  After I left, someone posted that there are bagels there.


Use this thread to report CONFIRMED bagel sightings throughout China.  Include details, such as Province, City, area within city, name of shop, address of shop, where in the shop (if its a large shop), flavors of bagels available, presence of creme cheese, etc.

If you go back later and there are no bagels, report that.  Deliberately sending a fellow saloon member on a false bagel hunt is grounds for summary execution.

[The Local Dialect]

Kunming has bagels at Salvador's Cafe at the corner of Wenhua Xiang and Wenlin Jie, near Yunnan university. They are available with real cream cheese, with butter, peanut butter, as well as special "Dali garlic cream cheese," a sort of homemade stuff they make using rubing. They also do bagel sandwiches and bagel melts. Their bagels are REALLY good (sorry Loonie!), I pretty much survived on them when I used to live in KM. If anyone here lives or plans on living in Kunming, the owners of Salvador's do a deal where you can exchange English lessons for food. You teach one of their waitresses English, pretty basic stuff, about 3 hours a week and in exchange you can eat all the bagels (and other things) and drink all the coffee you want. They don't always need teachers but if you're a regular and you let them know you're interested, they'll keep you in mind when they need someone.

You can buy fresh and frozen (Lender's) bagels in Beijing at Jenny Lou's shop and probably other places too, but you'd expect that from this city, there's not much you can't find here.

[Raoul F. Duke]

Hey, I don't fool around when it comes to sex, drugs, or bagels. Especially when I can combine all three of these into one breathlessly exciting event.

City Supermarket in Shanghai definitely stocks bagels...at least Lender's frozen bagels. Best bet is the store near the Portman Hotel. They also stock CREAM cheese...real Philadelphia brand as well as various Chinese and Danish pretenders.

I have no idea what "creme cheese" is, or why you would want it when you can get real cream cheese...but then you have many perversions I don't understand.

[Fozzwaldus]

honestly, I've never gotten the fascination with bagels, guess it must be a cultural-comfort-from-home-thing

I expect a barrage of abuse now

[Escaped Lunatic]

Death to all fanatics and to those who don't love bagels!

I have seen Philly Cream Cheese (spelled either way) next to other cheese at the Carrefour in Dongcheng, Dongguan (Guangdong for those of you unfamiliar with my lovely corner of China) and a picture of bagels in the bakery section of the same store (obviously designed to torture my soul).

[Day Dreamer]

Fozzwaldus, I'd be willing to come there and beat you with a smoked salmon if it didn't destroy the texture. But that's just me. I'd use the excuse I was tenderizing the fish 

[becster79]

200% confirmed bagel sighting and secured (on Sunday!) at Corner's Deli, Backstreet under Citic Plaza in Guangzhou. In the freezer section- blueberry, poppy, plain and occassionally cinnamon & raison. Also have cream cheese, though personally I buy mine down the road at Jusco where it's cheaper, along with other cheeses. Also think I saw larger bagels in La Villa bakery cafe, also in Backstreet and next to Corner's, but it was a passing glance!

Trust me, they're in my freezer now for brekkie consumption  

[Nolefan]

100% confirmed sighting in my living for Christmas brunch! homemade goodness!!! They're actually pretty darn easy to make:

step 1: rolling them babies



step 2: post boiling n baking


best part? they tasted pretty darn good too!!!  gonna try this again soon!

[Borkya]

Oh my god, this is the best thread ever!!!!

Any confirmed bagel sightings in Hangzhou anyone? I know Philly cream cheese is available at carrefour, but without a real bagel it's not worth it to me.

[The Local Dialect]

Oh my goodness Noles! Care to post your recipe? Those look great!

[becster79]

Yes Noles, posting that pic without a recipe is just wrong  !

And for some really weird reason, I actually thought bagels were boiled in water 

[Day Dreamer]

They are boiled first

http://www.foodmayhem.com/2009/09/bagels.html with pictures!   

[old34]

Off and on (usually on), various Metros have half-finished bagels in the frozen foods section. I've seen them in Metros in Ningbo, Hangzhou, and Nanchang. You'll need an oven (or toaster oven) to finish them off.

City Shops in Shanghai in all three that I have shopped - the Portman Hotel, Hongmei and Times Square have both their own store-made bagels in the deli area as well as various Lenders Frozen Bagels in the ffc area. You can also order the store-made ones from their online store and occasionally, the Lenders version.

If you're at the City Shop on Hongmei Lu in Hongqiao (which beats the Portman store hands-down especially after they moved it from next-door to Starbuck's to the basement level of the car park), walk north to the next intersection and turn left. Walk about 100 meters and there's a fairly new plaza that is stuffed with new foreign food shops and cafes. One small grocery there sells a lot of the high volume stuff City Shop sells (pickles, mustards, cheese, etc.) at slightly lower prices. There's a French patisserie there that sells French pastries and meats and, well, French food for francophiles, deli-style. One cafe called Cosmo has a very good burger as well as western-style breakfasts. And there's a Japanese bakery at the end of the strip that has...wait for it....bagels. Freshly made on site and in 3 or 4 different flavors.

Philly Cream Cheese is available through all the above-mentioned outlets including the afore-mentioned Japanese bakery.

That's the bagel report from the Jiangnan area.

[piglet]

Agree totally AWESOME thread - we have the best here in Jerusalem- HOLY BAGEL (get it HOLE/HOLY CITY)
Tasty and puny at the same time 

[china-matt]

I'm a Jew from New Jersey...I take my bagels very seriously (and I'm a little pissed off that the bagels nearby aren't that good). Not sure if he's still making small batches of bagels, but you can check out Danny's in Guangzhou--he's focusing more on the American-Italian food now. www.dannysbagel.com