Fast friendships and damn good bagel dogs
Comedian Moshe Kasher on YLM & I recreate a nostalgic, childhood food
Five Minute Friendships: this is what I call the tiny, energizing, fun conversations I have with strangers; whether it’s a barista, the guy in line in front of me at the grocery store or someone I’m interviewing. People you have snappy banter with, who make your day better, who you will most likely never see or speak to again. One of the perks of Five Minute Friendships is that you only experience their good side! These strangers are forever shellacked as perfect angels who don’t have road rage, don’t tell long, boring stories, and never eat the last shrimp.
Friendship Pheromones: this is what I call the feeling of being instantly comfortable with someone I meet, when I feel completely myself and we just CLICK. It feels like some invisible force, and has me wondering if pheromones play a roll in platonic relationships. I think everyone’s had the experience of meeting a perfectly nice person, who you have things in common with, who might be a friend of a friend, and you just don’t vibe with them.
Well. If you listened to my recent YLM episode with comedian Moshe Kasher, you may have heard the Friendship Pheromones and the Five Minute Friendship vibes firing on all cylinders!
I think this might be the funniest episode of Your Last Meal in its nearly 8 year existence! At the very least, I had a lot of fun.
Here are some of the things we talk about:
As a kid, Moshe led a double life. Most of the year he lived with his deaf single mother in Oakland, eating carob chips and hippie peanut butter, and summers were spent with his deaf father, a born-again Hasidic Jew in Brooklyn, eating a strict kosher diet.
Moshe delivers his hot takes on the worlds worst desserts & the best way to drink a Diet Coke ( can vs plastic bottle vs glass bottle vs fountain vs bar gun)
Are Tofutti Cuties Jewish? Do you even know what a Tofutti Cutie is?? Tablet Magazine’s Esther C. Werdiger pops by to share the history of the tasty little dairy-free ice cream sandwich!
Inspired by Moshe’s Diet Coke ranking, I did a little Coke ranking of my own on a local, Seattle talk show. Big time Friend Pheromones with this TV crew — it’s always so fun to be a guest on the show:
At the end of the Moshe Kasher episode, I mentioned making homemade bagel dogs when I was stuck at home with a very mild case of Covid.
When I was a kid, my grandpa’s cousin had a bagel dog company called Dr Stein’s, sold at Costcos on the west coast, and the flavor and texture of those hot dogs wrapped in bagel dough is burned into my taste memory. When I’d visit my grandparent’s apartment, my grandma, in her classic Coffee Talk Lady Brooklyn accent, would ask, “You wanna frank?”
She’d pull open the freezer door, revealing approximately 86,567 bagel dogs, perfectly Tetris’d into the small, square, frozen space. She’d toss one into the microwave and we’d watch as its plastic wrapper ballooned with air. I’d carefully pull open the hot wrapper, a puff of hot dog scented steam giving me a bonus bagel dog facial. The dough inside was tender from the microwave steaming, the Hebrew National frank was juicy and, if you were lucky, sometimes injected with melted cheese! We’d dip them in ketchup and mustard.
I had low expectations for my bagel dogs — how could I compete with this level of nostalgia??! How could a homemade version match up to an industrial product sold in your grocer’s freezer? But reader, not only were my bagel dogs delicious, they were BETTER than the Dr Stein’s of my youth! I sprinkled the dough with Everything Bagel Seasoning, and the bagels came out of the oven with a nice crust, giving way to a perfectly tender, steamy center and that juicy dog.
I used this quick, easy and excellent bagel recipe that I’ve baked with several other times, rolled the dough into long ropes and wrapped them around local Hempler’s hot dogs. I dipped them in ketchup and mustard.
Is there a food that you loved as a kid that you haven’t had since? I’d love to know! Leave a message in the comments.
Thanks for reading!
xo
Rachel Belle
Gefilteria! So good!
I don't know if Dr Stein's was the only bagel dog sold at Costco, but I definitely ate a bunch of bagel dogs as a teen that my parents bought from Costco. I probably haven't eaten one since the 90s
...we'll just skip over "bagel dog facial" :D