“There are so many bagel shops right now,” says Shanghai-based food writer and photographer Rachel Gouk. “We only had maybe two bagel shops for the past ten years, and all of a sudden they’re everywhere.” In 2023, Gouk wrote about her trip to New York Bagelous Museum, a Shanghai bakery she refers to as “not from New York, not a museum, [and] not bagels.” The ring-shaped breads at this and other bagel shops in Shanghai are more like a cross between soft pretzels and Japanese milk bread. Often sold as…
