Brick Lane Beigel

The time has come to throw down the gauntlet to all comers. I don’t care where you are from, what part of the world you live in. I have one statement of fact that you’ll just have to accept. There is no finer beigel than a Brick Lane beigel. I remember the first time I went to New York. I was all a quiver with anticipation at the food I was going to lay my hands on. High on the list were the beigels that I’d seen in an episode of Happy Days as a child. Mr Cunningham comes back from a business trip in New York only to find Al Delvecchio waiting for him at home intent on eating beigels that Mr Cunnigham has promised him, but leaves in tears after Mr C has eaten them all on the plane. Now, I’m not saying I didn’t have my fill of gob smacking food on that trip (and on many subsequent trips) but I left disappointed. Every beigel I ate was held up as an example of what a beigel should be, however, I learnt an important lesson. That those fine folk at the 24 hour Shop in Brick Lane, E1, London are the undisputed masters of the beigel craft and what’s more, they have been knocking out these marvels for over 30 years.

Now, I expect your howling with derision. Howling, not only at my probably ludicrous claim, but also at my insistence on spelling it “beigel”. I’ll try and explain. I have to admit a deep abiding love for the area around Brick Lane, I love its onion like quality. It’s a part of London where you really can peel back the layers and see the marrow of the place. On the surface a sprawl of Bengali restaurants, the latest people to make the area home, look a little closer and the area’s Jewish roots become apparent, look closer still and there are echoes of Spanish and Portuguese settlement. The shell of the Old Truman Brewery, which squats ominously in the middle of the street, dominates the whole area, the beer is long gone but the building is filled to the rafters with artists, designers and djs. Look up the street and you’ll see the cutting edge of gentrification and redevelopment bearing down on you with slick coffee shops and clothing stores mushrooming up. Pretty soon I imagine the area will change yet again, but I imagine the echoes of its past will always be there even if those are the echoes of a certain gentleman with a penchant for stove pipe hats, ladies of the night and butchery.