Bagel and Lox. Kenneth Lu / flickr.com / 2008 / CC BY 2.0
The 9th of February is a day for bagels, cream cheese and cured salmon slices, otherwise often reserved for Sundays only.
But do you know what Lox really is? What’s the difference between Lox, Nova Lox, Gravlax and Smoked Salmon? Many people who think they are buying Lox are often actually buying Nova Lox.
The bagel you use needs to be a good old-fashioned plain-flavour bagel: sesame or poppy seeds on top are fine, but a blueberry or pizza flavoured or cinnamon and raisin bagel just wouldn’t cut it for this dish. A Jew would go to hell for even thinking of it.
Any cream cheese should be plain as well (sundried-tomato or apricot cream cheese are definitely out.)
Up until recently, you couldn’t get bagels and lox in Israel.
Lox on a bagel. Pug50 / flickr.com / 2010 / CC BY 2.0