Spread the Bagel: Real bagels arrive in Shanghai

When California native Christine Asuncion came to Shanghai, she couldn’t find a decent bagel.

Instead of giving up the carb-rich breakfast staple for baozi or a jianbing, she saw a business opportunity and opened Spread the Bagel out of her Shanghai apartment. Now she delivers incredibly fresh, delicious warm bagels every weekday between 8 a.m. and noon.

• More on CNNGo: Shanghai bagel death match

We recently sat down with Asuncion to discuss Spread the Bagel and our shared love of the Western breakfast item.

A little hard work makes a lot of Shanghai bagels

Asuncion began her love affair with bagels as a child at the breakfast table in her home in California. She nurtured that love further, working in a bagelry in San Diego, where she learned the art of carefully preparing bagel dough before boiling it and then finally baking it.

At first my delivery man could only eat half of one because they’re so dense,” she say, “but now he can’t get enough.— Christine Asuncion, Shanghai bagel maker

While she’s been delivering her bagels to the masses in Shanghai since August, she’s been perfecting her base recipe and preparation methods for nearly a year.

Preparation of the dough “is a little tedious,” she admits.

“On a normal day, I wake up around 5 a.m. to begin the process of preparing the yeast, kneading the dough and giving it all ample time to rest and rise.”

It is this last, authentic step that separates her bagels from those of mass-produced competitors.

Asuncion lets the yeast rise and ferment for a bit before adding it to the other ingredients.

Once all the ingredients are combined, she lets the dough rise and rest again, allowing further fermentation before cooking. This gives the bagels a really developed flavor.

Since any bagel is pretty much made with the same ingredients, the flavors of her bagels become distinct through this resting process.

And we’re glad she goes through this tedious effort -- her bagels posses a chewy and dense interior and hard crust that just isn’t found at other Shanghai bagel shops. And not only are they delicious, starting at RMB 45 for a half dozen -- the minimum order -- they’re also some of the least expensive in town.

Introducing China to the bagel

While she’s been delivering her bagels to the masses in Shanghai since August, she’s been perfecting her base recipe and preparation methods for nearly a year.

Asuncion admits that right now, over 90 percent of her clientele is Western -- mostly families from Jinqiao and Jing’an -- but she hopes to change that in the coming year with a little bagel education, and she actually thanks competitors like Eggheads and Haya’s for helping to introduce the product to Shanghai.

Just a few years ago, not many Chinese drank coffee and ate donuts, now, there is a Starbucks on nearly every corner, and the Krispy Kreme on Wujiang Lu is wildly popular.

Asuncion hopes bagels are next.

“My Shanghainese employees had never had a bagel before working with me,” she explains. But since she’s introduced them to this Western novelty, they love them.

They were all surprised at how dense bagels are compared to other bread products, like the doughnut.

“At first my delivery man could only eat half of one because they’re so dense,” she says. “But now he can’t get enough.”

And while most of the flavors offered at Spread the Bagel are traditional -- everything, plain and cinnamon raison -- Asuncion tells us that she’s thinking of incorporating a few local flavors to spark Chinese interest, like either a bagel or cream cheese with red beans.

Asuncion sees Shanghai’s youth as being her best bet into the Chinese market.

• More on CNNGo: Shanghai cupcake deathmatch

Like with Starbucks coffee, she feels that younger generation Shanghailanders will be keen to take up eating bagels because they are a novelty. “They make a fashion statement, they’re something to be seen with.”

If that’s the case, watch for people to ditch knock-off watches and grab her Shanghai bagels.

“For me,” says Asuncion, “making bagels is a true labor of love.”