When I was growing up, my best friend lived at Bondi Beach so I know all about the fantastic Jewish delis and the Paris cake shop (the place to go for cakes way back then and probably still is). I have an affinity for Jewish food, I am not sure why but perhaps it’s because her mum was so lovely to me that I felt like I was part of the family. Glick’s, founded by Mendel Glick, operating since the 1960s in Melbourne turns out some of the best real bagels (filled or unfilled), as well as an assortment of cakes, pizza, ready made foods and pastries. Reportedly turning out about 70,000 boiled bagels a week, it was a business built on the humble bread. Mendel Glick is in his 80s but still works at his business 6 days a week. I’ve made real boiled bagels before and they were absolutely the real deal – there is no comparison to a real boiled bagel to the bagel imposters out there, you know the ones I mean, that are merely round rolls with a hole in the centre.
Walking through the plastic PVC strip panels in the entranceway we see that on the right there is a display of various types of biscuits which you help yourself to with the tongs and pay per weight. I came in merely to perv and buy a bagel today but am lured by the selection of Jewish food on offer. Your Honour, I didn’t mean to purchase but if you show me Gefilte fish, cheese blintzes and salmon patties you know I’m going to have to buy some. Indeed my husband who thinks I have just popped in to buy a couple of bagels simply rolls his eyes. I choose a few things and they pack them up for me. Things are ludicrously cheap with bagels at 90c-$1 each, gefilte fish patties for $1.60 up to a massive cabbage roll for the princely sum of $5.
Spicy salmon patty ($2.25)
Taking these home, we have these for a leisurely lunch. In fact I wanted to just have the bagels but my husband is eyeing off the food and eagerly suggests these for lunch. I start with the spicy salmon patty ($2.25). It’s so very good although very light in the spice. We don’t even bother heating this up as it’s so good cold. The salmon is prevalent in the delicious flakiness of it and it’s surrounded by a bronzed crumb crust. but not smelly as some salmon can be. My husband is a fan of this. Nigella has a recipe for Salmon cakes which I am itching to try after this.
Gefilte Fish $1.60
I next try the Gefilte fish, deboned ground fish patties where the fish was traditionally ground together with eggs, onions and flour, matzoh meal or challah, and then stuffed into the skin of the deboned fish, giving it the name gefilte (filled or stuffed). Nowadays it’s shaped into balls or oval patties and poached in a fish stock made from the head and bones of the fish. These are said to be popular among the Ashkenazi Jewish community. The patty, topped with a slice of carrot is beautifully soft and quite sweet in flavour although unmistakably fishy but in a good way. I adore it and wish I had 6 more. It’s fairly light too but most definitely full of real fish.
Poppyseed bagel 90c
I next try a Poppyseed bagel (90c). It’s just as you want a bagel to be, chewy and dense and I can see why they churn out 70,000 of these.
Cinnamon and sultana bagel ($1)
I save the cinnamon and sultana bagel ($1) for my usual treatment, toasted with strawberry jam and tasty cheese. I used to have a blueberry bagel with jam and cheese for breakfast at work every Friday as a reward for surviving the working week.
Toasted Bagel filled with strawberry jam and cheddar cheese-try it before you knock it!
Cheese Blintz $2
I take a bite into the cold cheese blintz ($2) and almost spit it out. It’s like eating a wet sponge. I heat this up and then try it and it’s infinitely better. I’m sure we’re meant to eat it warm as all of the excess water disappears giving it this wonderfully eggy crepe batter and subtle creamy cheese filling.
Cabbage Roll $5
We try the enormous cabbage roll next ($5). It’s stuffed with a tomato based filling of matzo meal with some hint of vegetables and herbs. There is a bitter taste to the filling that I can quite place and I don’t particularly warm to it. I prefer rice stuffed cabbage rolls and whilst I enjoy the cabbage wrapping, I leave most of the filling behind.
Cheese danish $2.75
Savouries done away with, we’re onto the sweets. The cheese danish, a favourite of mine although I am fond of making danishes, I am even fonder of eating them. It needs some heating and once it is warm, the soft sweet cheese filling is lovely against the pillowy soft icing laden dough.
Rugelach or Rogelach ($1)
The Rugelach or Rogelach ($1) is a rolled cookie although it is more like a roleld pastry with a smear of chocolate side shaped like a mini croissant. it’s not bad as a small snack but I admit I like cheese fillings best.
Glick’s Cakes and Bagels
173 Bondi Road Bondi
Tel: +61 (02) 9386 9949
Open: 7 days a week
Monday – Thursday 7:00am to 6:00pm
Friday 6:00am to 4:00pm (April to October)
6:00am to 6:00pm (November to March)
Sunday 7:00am to 5:00pm
Also more locations in Melbourne, see link below
http://www.glicks.com.au/
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13 Comments | Add your own
Another jam and tasty cheese lover! My Dad introduced us to it as kids and I still love it – but my husband thinks it is awful!
BTW – what is matzo?
Hi Lorraine, A few weeks back in the SMH good weekend mag there was a fantastic recipe for a modified rugelach by Cath Claringbold I think. I tried it and it was wonderful and nothing like what you bought above. Over the weekend I shall pop the recipe up here for you. It’s well worth trying.
I didn’t know Glick’s had a retail shop like this!
I once watched a show on SBS (maybe?) and it was some Jewish foodie event that only takes place every 20 years or something and it’s like catering for royalty on a mass scale with a tonne of people in beautiful surroundings. Chefs are flown in from all over the world to cook everything Kosher. But not all of the chefs cook Kosher for a living and I remember one of them being frustrated with the standard of ingredients (and the strict guidelines) and he said to the camera “Kosher means tasteless”.
I once hung around in Jewish circles (because my boyfriend at the time was Ukranian Jewish) and I didn’t eat flavourless food (I was fed so well by everyone). I ate some yummy food. I was then also employed by a Jewish lady as a carer for her elderly mother and she taught me how to make chicken meatballs with noodles –very tasty. I ate pickled herrings back then a lot too!
I was so delighted to see you bought the cabbage roll but upon reading what it tasted like.. I think I can surmise it doesn’t taste anything like the Eastern European (unKosher) cabbage rolls I’m used to..and make actually. I make them now about once a year (used to be two to three times a year).. but my daughter isn’t a fan of sauerkraut and hubby isn’t overly rapt either (not enjoying sour in hot dishes). He will eat the rolls but not be in heaven like I am. I make mine with rice, pork mince and some bacon, garlic, Hungarian paprika (being Hungarian Aussie myself). No tomatoes at all in the recipe. I miss them so.. I should make them again. I always make a giant pot full because they’re great the next day and to freeze. In Hungarian we call them “Toltott Kaposzta” (I don’t have a Hungarian keyboard to put the accents on the words).
Re: the jam and cheese combo.. I would have thought ‘huh’? once upon a time too. However, watching a TV cooking program from the BBC on the ABC here, called “The Best”, I watched Silvana Franco make Goat’s Cheese and Cranberry Toast, which involved a thick slice of sour dough bread and cranberry jelly, grilled with some goats cheese, topped with rocket and olive oil.. It looked delightful on the program so I tried it myself. It took me a few years to be able to get hold of the cookbook of the series.. but I have it now (thanks to eBay).
On the internet I’ve noticed a gluten free site that has kind of pinched the above recipe and used their gluten free rolls instead of sourdough.
We have a local bakery that used to make authentic bagels – 80cents, including fruit bagels -$1.20 dusted with icing sugar which my husband adored. He now works with the owner of that bakery.. and apparantly they stopped making bagels recently due to lack of bakers..and the business is selling up in June..which will be sad -as it’s the place hubby and I had our first date..and first met in person too. I think I’d probably make bagels myself (again) if ever craving them as I don’t like supermarket ones so much.
The photograph of the poppyseed bagel is particularly awesome! And the Rugelach looks delicious (I like the idea of cheese-filled).
I’d love a bakery like this near me.. the prices seem excellent too
Re: the pizza’s.. I note they’re all vegetarian.. I’d be very curious to try them. Are they for sale all the time or just for dinner?
(head lolling, tongue dragging out the corner of the mouth a-la Homer): Hmmmmmm, bagels …..
Cath Claringbold’s Rugelach
Makes 12-15
Dough
150g unsalted butter
150g Cream Cheese
20g Caster Sugar
pinch of salt
220g plain flour, sifted
4 tbsp Apricot jam
1 egg, lightly beaten (or milk as an alternative), for glazing
Filling
100g Hazelnuts
50g Caster sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon
80g chopped milk or dark good quality chocolate
80g Good quality dried figs, chopped
Cut the butter and cream cheese into small pieces and leave to soften at room temp.
Using an electric mixer, beat the two together until smooth and light. Add the sugar and the salt, and then fold in the flour. Mix together well and form into a manageable dough. Wrap in cling film and refrigerate for 2-3 hours.
Preheat the oven to 180C. Prepare the filling.
Place the nuts on a tray and roast for about 15 minutes, until they start to colour. Wrap in a teatowel while they’re hot, and rub to remove the skins. Chop roughly, then allow to cool before mixing with the sugar, cinnamon, chocolate and figs.
On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough into a rectangle about 40cm long, 15cm wide and 5mm thick. Spread with the apricot jam, then sprinlke with the filling. Roll up the dough from the short end to form a log, making at least 3 turns. Wrap in cling film and refrigerate for at least an hour.
Line a baking tray with baking paper. Cut the log into 1 cm slices, and lightly brush each side (though this is hard, just do the up side)with egg/milk and place on the tray. Bake for 20-30 minutes until golden.
YUM!!!!!
eat a lot of wet sponges, do you?
i’m quite silly about the temperatures of the food i eat–some things i absolutely will not eat unless they’re heated, and others i avoid unless they’ve been properly chilled. i’m way too picky for my own good. 
I got put onto Glicks a few years back by an old coworker who surprised me with a blueberry bagel – and absolutely fell in love! I didn’t know they had such an extensive range of products though! I’ll have to take a closer look…
Hi Renee-So nice to meet someone else who loves this combo! My husband was the same way-until he tried it. Now it’s one of his favourite combos. Matzo is unleavened bread, which is like crackers. The grind it up to make Matzo meal and make Matzo ball soup (mmmm Matzo ball soup…).
Hi Reemski-Perhaps it was a different version of it? I always thought that Glick’s did fairly authentic versions of things. Thanks for writing up the recipe though!
Hi Maria-I wish I had seen that show, it sounds fantastic! SBS always has great stuff. There’s so much wonderful Jewish food, I don’t know why they’d say it was flavourless too.
I bet the Hungarian cabbage rolls were what I was actually thinking of that I had tried previously and really liked. Are they hard to make? Your sound fantastic!
That Goat’s Cheese and Cranberry Toast sounds sublime…my mouth is watering at the thought of it!
Oh what a pity they’re no longer making bagels. Did you meet over a bagel? I’m sure the bagels you made were much better than what they have at the supermarket-they sit on the shelf for an awful long time!
I’m not sure about the pizzas to be honest, I only saw the sign once I saw the photos my husband took. I was took busy devouring the food in the display with my eyes
Hi SydneyGal-I totally hear you!
Hi Reemski-That sounds fantastic. I am definitely going to give those a try when I am back at home with the mixer. Thanks so much for taking the trouble to type that out for me!
Hi grace-Fortunately not!
I’ve never tasted a food that changed so much once it was heated.
Hi Ellie-Yes I only expected to see some bagels and some cakes but there was a treasure trove of other goodies to choose from as well!
I so enjoyed this post – and now I want to come for a visit. Everything looks incredible and entirely authentic -it’s funny but Glick in the Yiddish language means “luck”. So if you translate Mendel’s name he’s lucky Mendel – hysterical.
Hi giz-Thankyou!
Oh I had no idea, thanks for letting me know. That’s so cute being called Lucky Mendel-and it seems to have worked for him 
I know bagels is a Jewish thing but ever since being back from living in the US I have fallen in love with eating bagels. Though the unfortunate thing is that where I live I can’t find a daily stock of bagels.
I am definitely excited to check this place out. And would have to definitely try your recommendation on cheddar cheese with jam. I ususally love to have my blueberry bagel with cream cheese and strawberry jam – mmmm!
Hi aims-I agree, it seems hard to find a good, real bagel around here! It doesn’t help that there are so many masquerading as bagels when they’re just bread rolls with a hole in the middle
Definitely, give it a go and let me know what you think
I feel so proud to be Jewish right now!
Bagels with cream cheese, smoked salmon and capers are one of the best things on a Sunday morning (or any time for that matter). There are plenty of cafes around Bondi that do their twist of the Salmon Bagel (my favourite is Skinny Dip Cafe, up on Hall St)
Not to mention Glick’s choc chip bagels, they’re pretty amazing too (especially warmed up)
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