where can i get FRESH Bagels and FRESH Mozzarella in switzerland ( french prefferably ). all i can find is the crap in the packages nothing fresh where they make it that day for you.

Coop has a reasonable selection of Mozzarella and there are many Italian delis . . . my favourite in Zürich is Patrizia Fontana. As for beigels, I live just around the corner from a Jewish bakery in Enge, I shall try and see if they've got them.

My personal desire would be for a salt beef and mustard beigel . . . the bestest thing for a hangover.

The COOP Buffalo mozzarella is pretty good - but Bagels you'll struggle. You can't beat the ones from Brick Lane in my opinion - but that isn't much help is it!

Yeah . . . that's where I used to get my salt beef beigels. How I miss it all . . .

There is a great farmer's market in Basel that has fresh moz. They also have smoked and seasonal styles. If you want choices and don't live near Basel try to see if your area has a farmer's market, cheese shop or I guess a Globus.

For bagels: we've resorted to making our own and bringing them back from NYC when we're back. Same goes for bialys.

I don't know if the french make superior bagels. I honestly think it has to do with the water itself. Which would explain why NYC pizza is so good too.

French bagels and Mozzarella? Bagels are originally Polish and Mozzarella very much Italian. Why the french thing?

Fresh Mozzarella is easy to find. Bagels are not well known here nor in any of the neighbouring countries so will be much harder. But as you're in a country that makes some of the best bread you can find anywhere why not enjoy that instead and save bagels for trips home?

Bagels can be bought at "Blueberries American Bakery" at the Zurich main station.

http://www.blueberry-bakery.ch

The Coop in Albisrieden sells bagels.

Cheers,
Nick

Coop in Thalwil also sells them.

They're not very good though . . .

I'll have to agree with GG. I got soooo excited when I spotted the Blueberry Bakery's bagels that I bought a half dozen eagerly anticipating a taste of home... only to be plunged into despair when I realized they were, more or less, round bread.

GG, should you discover that the shop round the corner does indeed carry real bagels, could you post the address?

(Any sighting of bialys would earn my eternal gratitude as well.)

Do they still carry them?

The Coop at Seedamm carried them briefly a year or two ago, but they have since disappeared. When I asked the nice person behind the bakery counter if the bagels might return, I was told no. Apparently, they were too popular, keeping up with the demand made too much work.

You can always make the bagels yourself on one of those long Sundays. You'll make a lot of friends if you share.

Link to video

Tip: I always bring back the dry yeast from the States. Maybe you have a local supplier but the local paste/cake yeast didn't work for me.

My favourite bagels were the ones from St. Urbain Bakery in Montreal. Sunday morning they would be lined up outside.

I tried to bake them but it's just not the same without a wood burning oven.

Are bagels that popular here? I had no idea.

Since the OP lives in Vaud, I assume that "French preferably" means "in Romandie, if possible". Zurich is pretty far from any part of Vaud that I can think of

I popped into the Jewish bakery near my house and they pointed to their brezels when I asked and then advised me to try Books and Bagels, next door.

I'm not sure who supplies Books and Bagels with their beigels, but they do have a zum mitnehmen service, so I'll try and report back. They do claim that they're freshly baked though and are the 'best in town'.

http://www.booksnbagels.com/eng/fineart.php

Too often bagels are just round bread rolls here. They of course need to be boiled in water before being baked. I might have a go.

Give me a shout if you want to try out a beigel and then maybe a beer at the Beder Bar. I live less than a minute away.

The difficulty is that it's closed on Saturdays, of course.

Montreal-style is the only way to go. Anything else is just white bread.

That's because the small salt pretzels are called "beigele" in Hebrew. Anyways, I havent found good Bagels here too, they only have donut-shaped, very hard, rubbery bagels-not what I'm used to from Israel. And for some reason, in the few Bagel shops here, you can't choose what you want on your bagel. What I haven't checked out yet is the relatively new kosher supermarket in Weststrasse. has anyone found a replacement for shamenet (cream cheese) here? I'm looking for something a lot more creamy than Philadelphia.