Last time, I told you that Baker J had been working on his new bagel project! He is still working on the recipe, seeing if there is any alternative for boiling. After all, we have a steam oven–so he is considering using the steam to replace the boiling procedure.
Anyhow, Baker J told me about his day trip to North Vancouver. Did you know that Vancouver has a famous local bakery specializing in bagels? It is called Rosemary Rocksalt! It has multiple locations in Greater Vancouver, but the original one is in North Vancouver (1669 Lonsdale Avenue, North Vancouver). Baker J decided to spend his day off visiting Rosemary Rocksalt–to try out what a successful bagel chain tastes like!
Conveniently for him, the bakery is located right across the bus stop. He said that the store did not seem that special from the outside. On that day, the store was quiet–apparently, J arrived close to the closing hour. That said, the store didn’t have much to sell by then.
Baker J intended to try the namesake bagel, of course, the one with rosemary and rock salt! Unfortunately for him, the Rosemary Rocksalt bagels were sold out by then (as well as coffee). Henceforth, he ordered poppyseed bagels, tomato soup, apple juice and smoked meat (he is not too good with cream cheese, he said).
Rosemary Rocksalt’s bagels are typical Montreal-styled ones. So it is not as fluffy and salty as New York-style, but a bit thinner and sweeter. As I discussed in my previous post, it’s because the Montreal-style bagels go through a boiling process in water with honey! Montreal-style smoked meat was a great pair to the bagel, which seemed made in-house. Baker J said that he was impressed with the bagel’s flavour–especially when he was not a fan of Montreal-style bagels.
He rushed to finish his bagels because the store was closing soon. As the evening was coming up, he decided that he could walk down Lonsdale Avenue until he reached the Shipyard. A Korean restaurant called South Castle is on the route (141 2nd Street E., North Vancouver), famous for its blood sausage stew. Unfortunately, there was a line-up as he arrived, so he could not eat inside. He had to order a take-out and eat on a bench outside the store. North Vancouver had plenty of open bench areas where anyone could sit and eat!
After he finished his meal, it was getting dark–which was perfect, as he arrived at the Shipyard! Everyone from Vancouver knows that the area is a photogenic place with twilight. Baker J’s phone was dying out by then, so he spent the last of his phone battery to take some pictures of the area!
It was not a long day for him in terms of time, but he did quite a bit of things. He finished his journey by taking the Sea Bus for the first time, sailing to Vancouver. He seemed to enjoy the day so much, especially when he sent me the photos and told me about his day!
