Road-Tripping for Bagels

As part of our series on appetites, food and politics, and the need to snack during difficult times, host Ali Muldrow is in conversation with Jen Rubin and Jenny Pressman who spent the last two years on the hunt for the perfect bagel. They talk about their favorite cultural comfort food and their quest to find not just any bagel, but the Great Midwest Bagel, one that has been properly kneaded, fermented, boiled, and baked.

Rubin began this quest as a grief project after the loss of her mother, the cultural bearer in her family. The bagel holds a central place in New York Jewish communities, says Rubin, who grew up eating bagels while chatting, or kibitzing, with family and friends. Pressman joined Rubin in the search for bagels that were made like the ones they used to love back in New York City. 

Part food-travel, part archival research, and part personal family story, the Great Midwest Bagel Quest is a road trip story without the tragedy of Bonnie and Clyde or Thelma and Louise, just carbo-loading. Food is a manifestation of culture, and Rubin says the Quest has been a way to connect with her Jewish culture but untethered from Israel. Pressman says that their road trips around the Midwest were some of the funniest and seediest experiences she’s ever had. 

They also debate the role of capers in a bagel spread, how blueberry bagels don’t count as traditional bagels, the rise of chain bagel stores and “millenial-pandemic-bagel-bakers,” how people regularly injure themselves when cutting bagels, and the desire for a “cripsy exterior.”

Note: This pledge drive interview was edited to remove parts of the show dedicated to station fundraising. We thank our listeners for their generous support.

Jenny Pressman is a passionate community activist, fundraiser, and connector. Previously a lawyer and director of a charitable foundation, Jenny is now in her dream role as the Director of Development and Community Partnerships for the UW Odyssey Project, a jumpstart program in the humanities addressing multigenerational poverty through access to education. Jenny is a proud Jewish lesbian mother and the daughter of Holocaust survivors.

Jen Rubin produced the Moth StorySlam for ten years, is the author of We Are Staying: Ten Years in the Life of a Family, a Store and a Neighborhood and can be found on the Midwest Bagel Quest.

Featured image of fresh baked bagels with sesame seeds via Pexels. 

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