Carmelli Bagel Bakery

kerote1

17th June 2009

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Open all night which is useful

Angella

Convenient Carmelli, Gourmet Heaven, Diet Danger 29th December 2008

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Carmelli's is convenient, central Golders Green and open in the evenings. It's a gourmet heaven and a dieter's danger zone. You see so much choice of baked food, breads, biscuits, cakes, sweets - marzipan. We ran to the right, then the left.

Bagels
If you are looking for a ready to eat eat snack, yes, they have a bagel with smoked salmon and cream cheese. But also unfilled, uncut bagels which you can freeze are ideal long term.

Bagels are cheaper and handy if you are entertaining tomorrow and don't want to cook, or can't be sure your guests won't arrive Jewish time, an hour late, or cancel at the last moment because they had a better offer and re-book for next week.

Sunday mid-evening Carmelli's had run out of bagels except plain and cinnamon. I was under strict instructions to buy savoury bagels to go with smoked salmon.

Chollah
The chollah was up on the top shelf. Chollah is special, soft cakey bread made for the sabbath meal, usually white, sometimes yellow with egg yolk in the dough plus egg white for a glaze, and maybe poppyseeds on top, occasionally round and spiralling but here oval and plaited.

The small size had run out but they had medium and large and they slice it on demand. Why is it not all available pre-sliced? Would that make it less fresh? Maybe some buyers want it for a Sabbath meal or kiddush (small drinks and a bite of bread or savoury or sweet foods after a service). On these occasions you'd tear off lots of tiny portions to hand around on a tray.

What's more, when bread is just out of the oven it's too soft to slice.

Cakes
On display were round high crumble topped cakes. And thinly sliced apple with glaze.

Parve
For those of you who are not orthodox or not Jewish, one mystery can be solved. Some pastries are marked parev / parve. According to Wikipedia this word is Yiddish and means neutral, containing neither milk nor meat.

Milk and meet are not eaten together according to kashrut (kosher food laws), following the instructions appearing three times in Leviticus in the Hebrew bible (Old Testament) about not seething a kid in its mother milk. So when obeying kashrut laws when serving food to guests who keep kosher or in a building or at a function obeying kashrut laws this product could can be eaten with either milk or meat. Maybe vegetarians would also like a product marked parve.

Seasonal
Small donuts for chanukah.

Sweets
We bought marzipan in the shape of red strawberries. I didn't see prices so I asked. 42p each. And I wanted half a dozen. Cheaper to buy chocolate covered marzipan in a supermarket. But if you are tempted by fancy fruit shapes, here they are.

Celebrations
Illuminated signs overhead show various kinds of bagels. Also cakes for celebrations such as birthdays and barmitzvahs such as batman.

Service
Staff don't seem to speak much English. One was on the phone shouting so loudly in Hebrew that I could not hear the other staff.

The only person operating the till was softly spoken Chinese. I thought I was in that old joke about Blooms, you know, the one with the punchline:
'How come the Chinese waiter speaks such good Yiddish?'
'Sh! Don't tell him. He thinks he's learning English.'

Because only one person was on the till, and she went off to slice my chollah, I ended up creating a huge queue and explaining and apologising to loads of other people.

Their cake box says under London Beth Din and Kedassia supervision. The strudel's pastry was dry and hard but we put it in the oven with a teaspoon of water - I was going to cover it with tin foil and forgot - and it came up fine. Especially served hot with brandy cream (from Waitrose see www.waitrose/Christmas - tub says it goes with apple, pancakes, trifle and Xmas pud and mince pies. Ingredients seem to be double cream, sugar, Cognac and brandy. Out of season or eating kosher you could make your own.)I still prefer food from B & K in Edgware but when you are nearer into London Carmelli's is convenient.

If you want a change, or to buy from several outlets on the same day and do your own taste taste, there's another shop opposite, and friends who live in Hendon also like the Hendon Bagel Bakery (different owners).

Hmm

If you like bagels, you'll love Carmelli 14th November 2008

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A bit off but when in Hendon, don't miss Carmelli. Probably the best Bagel Bakery in London.

oneandonly

Carmellis 30th August 2008

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A kosher bakery in Golders Green, famous throughout the whole of London not just for the bagels but their fabulous range of sweet deserts as well, you don't need to keep kosher to enjoy. The smoked salmon bagel and cream cheese is absoloute heaven (nothing beats Kosher smoked salmon). They also do pizzas and other stuff like pastries too. Only problem is having a place to tuck in, I'd recommend going to golders green park afterwards if you're looking for somewhere nice other than a high street bench to it the food. I don't know what I'd do without carmellis!!