JAGEL Again (PART 1 OF 3)
Soft Japanese Bagel
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Hi, my name is Mari.
I'm a baker and baking soft Japanese bagels
Have you ever been to a bakery for fresh produce and the irresistible aroma of newly baked bread?
I guess you have.
But have you ever imagined about the daily life of a baker?
I guess NOT.
Well, for the average baker, the day starts bright and early.
Bakers are often up before 4 AM.
You're probably in a sound sleep at this time.
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While you're dreaming, I drive to my bagel shop.
It's still pitch-black outside, but such is the life of a morning-shift baker at a bagel shop called "Bagel de Paris."
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I start preparing the day’s bagels by 5 AM.
Picking my epron off hook, I chek my name on the bagelry's task list.
It's the wee hours of the morning, so the list is geared towards producing all the fresh baked goods patrons are going to want with their morning lattes, cappuccinos, and other fancy drinks.
Although I bake cinnamon rolls, croissants, and Danishes, in addition to the artisanal grains like Italian Rosemary and Kalamata Olive that are staples at a typical bakery, I specialize in baking bagels at my shop.
First thing on my list is to prepare the bagel dough.
Though my shop in Japan was a relatively small operation, it sometimes seemed to me that I would spend my entire life around dough.
I kneaded it, smelled it, touched it, tasted it.
And when I was really bored, I even talked to it.
Dough and I had some really great conversations over the years.
But with only a couple hours before the bagelry opens for the day, I don't have much time to talk to dough, today.
Instead, I heads to the huge industrial fridge to grab a bottle of milk.
It needs to be heated until it's warm, but there's no need to use the microwave.
The oven has been going for a while now, and it's quite hot in the kitchen.
It should take just a few minutes for the milk to be warm.
In a bagel shop, there's no such thing as a free moment to wait around for something to finish, not when there are dozens and dozens of cinnamon rolls to be prepped.
In the meantime, I heads back to the main kitchen area in order to begin the dough for the bagels.
For most other people, dough is just an unfinished product.
I know, however, that dough is the make-or-break, be-all and end-all of any bakery.
There's a reason only experienced bakers are trusted with the task of making dough.
Meanwhile, interns and trainees are assigned things like cutting out cookies and rolling up the rugelach.
That's just arts and crafts class.
But dough?
That's where the magic happens.
A seasoned baker should definitely have enough experiences to make it happen.
And I think I should be able to make it happen because I've been making dough for more than six years.
At 6 AM, the other bakers and I start loading the prepped, not yet baked goods into the industrial ovens.
The ultimate goal is to have the bagels baked and on the shelves by 6:45 AM, so that it's warm and soft for the early-bird patrons to step through the door at 7 AM.
My first shift is done, and now I have a 30-minute break before starting the second, early-afternoon shift.
As I takes off my apron, I watch the business people in their suits rush through the door, grab their coffees and bagels, and rush out the door again in a hurry to get to their desk jobs.
I seldom talk to these customers, and most of them don't even know I exist.
But they love my bagels.
They say here in Vancouver, "Bagels are so hard to eat!"
But my bagels are soft, chewy and yummy!
The bagels I've baked recently are as follows:
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This is a soft onion bagel.
Using this bagel, I've made it into a fried-oyster bagel sandwitch.
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If you want to know how to make it, please take a look at the following article in my own blog:
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■"Fried Oyster Bagels"
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The next bagel is a "bagel pizza"---my own creation.
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It is soft yet crispy and, of course, yummy!
How do you make it?---you may ask.
Well... take a look at the following article:
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■"How to make bagel pizza"
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You might as well bake your own kind of bagel pizza with your favorite topping.
One of my favorites is the following Croque-Monsieur-style bagel.
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It looks delicious!---don't you think?
If you want to know its recipe, please take a look at the following article:
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■"Croque-Monsieur-style bagel"
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I don't think you've ever heard of "JAGEL" as a kind of bagel.
If you search on GOOGLE, you may see the following results.
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■【Search Results at the present】
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About 401,000 hits are too mnay, but none of the results match the "JAGEL" which I've just coined for "soft Japanese bagel."
Jagel might mean many things, one of which is a name for a German town in the district of Schleswig-Flensburg as shown in "Wikipedia".
(To be followed)
