Updated July 2026

December 11th is National Have A Bagel Day. Here’s a a new take on bagels and lox, from Bluebird London’s branch in New York City.

Located in Manhattan’s Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle, Bluebird London NYC has a Café and Tea Room, Cocktail Lounge, and International Brasserie, all overlooking Central Park.

The restaurant is a branch of the beloved restaurant in the Chelsea neighborhood of London. It was not named for birds, but for the record-breaking race car driven Sir Malcolm Campbell, which set the land-speed record in 1925.
 
Below:

> Recipe: Bagel Chips & Gravlax

> The difference between gravlax and smoked salmon.

> More bagel recipes.

> The year’s 4 bagel holidays.

Elsewhere on The Nibble:

> Everything you need to create a bagel buffet.

> Bagel panzanella salad recipe.

> 3 cream cheese spread recipes: pesto, sundried tomato, and artichoke.

> The history of bagels.

> The history of cream cheese.

> The history of bread.

> The different types of smoked salmon.

> The different types of bread: a photo glossary.

> The year’s 20+ bread holidays.

> 30+ ways to use Everything Bagel seasoning.
 
 
RECIPE: BAGEL CHIPS & GRAVLAX

We created this copycat recipe. It’s easy to make gravlax at home.

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. SLICE the cream cheese into 1-inch squares. It is easier to do this if you put the block in the freezer for 15 minutes. In the Bluebird London preparation, the cream cheese was thinned and piped into the plate. If you want to pipe it, first thin it with a tablespoon of milk or cream.

2. SLICE the salmon into 1- or 2-inch-long pieces. Arrange on a plate with the cream cheese and bagel chips.

3. GARNISH as desired.

[1] “Bagels and lox” as interpreted by the Bluebird London restaurant in New York City (photos #1 and #2 © Bluebird London NYC).

[2] A closer look. The cured salmon is cut into small squares, the cream cheese piped into rounds.

[3] A classic bagel and lox (smoked salmon) platter (photo © Good Eggs).

Gravlax is a Nordic cousin to smoked salmon. Instead of a simple salt brine and then smoked, the raw fish for gravlax is cured with three key ingredients: salt, sugar, and lots of dill.

Other optional additions to the cure include juniper berries, horseradish, and aquavit or vodka.

Smoked salmon is salt-cured, usually with little or no sugar, but there are two significant differences: It can come from any part of the fish (not just the belly), and, of course, it’s smoked.

Cold-smoked salmon, which is smoked at a temperature of 85°F or lower for about 18 hours, has a raw texture similar to lox or gravlax. Hot-smoked salmon is firmer and flakier, and cooks for roughly eight hours.
 
 
MORE BAGEL RECIPES

 
 
THE YEAR’s 4 BAGEL HOLIDAYS

 
________________

*If you purchase smoked salmon at a store where it is custom-sliced at the fish counter, tell the lox slicer that you want to serve it in thick squares, about 1/8″ thick.

†You can quick-pickle vegetables in an hour. Here’s how.
 
 

CHECK OUT WHAT’S HAPPENING ON OUR HOME PAGE, THENIBBLE.COM.

[1] Kōloa Kauai Cacao Rum is used to add spirit to these chocolate-coconut rum balls (photo © Kōloa Rum).

[2] Dates add natural sweetness. There’s no sugar added (photo © Good Eggs).

[3] Walnuts add protein (photo © Bake Your Day).

[4] You can use ditched or undutched cocoa powder (photo © Silk Road Spices).

[5] Roll the balls in shredded coconut or chocolate sprinkles (photo © Gourmet Food World).

[6] You can substitute chocolate sprinkles for the coconut, or divide the rumb balls and roll half in each (photo © King Arthur Baking).

Our Mom made rum balls every holiday season. As a kid, we didn’t like the taste of the rum. Because these are no-bake cookies, the strength of the spirit doesn’t dissipate.

As we moved into adulthood and our palate embraced alcohol, we found that we loved them. We eagerly anticipated the holidays…and Mom had to make a double batch to accommodate our sweet tooth.

While most people in the U.S. make rum balls as Christmas cookies, you can make them year-round.

 
But if you’re attending a dinner or party on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, or New Year’s Eve, a tin of these cookies will be most welcome. They’re gluten-free and vegan.

They’re delicious with coffee, an espresso Martini, or a glass of red wine. Or a Dark & Stormy rum cocktail.

The history of rum balls is below—and necessity is the mother of invention!

This recipe, from premium rum distiller Kōloa, uses the brand’s Kōloa Kauai Cacao Rum in the recipe.

You can treat yourself to a bottle and enjoy it in cocktails as well as baked goods.

But coconut rum, spiced rum, or plain rum will do nicely.

For more rum-spiration, visit Koloa Rum and check out the whole line of fine rums.
 
 
RECIPE: NO-BAKE CHOCOLATE RUM BALLS
 
Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. COMBINE the dates, walnuts, rum, and cocoa powder in a food processor. Process until you achieve a very dense, fudgy texture, scraping down the sides as needed.

2. SPOON out the mixture in 1 tablespoon increments and roll each into a ball.

3. ROLL the finished balls in shredded coconut.

4. STORE the rum balls in the refrigerator for up to a week or in the freezer for up to several weeks.

5. SERVE chilled, right out of the refrigerator, for the best texture.
 
 
> THE HISTORY OF COOKIES

> A COOKIE GLOSSARY
 
 
THE HISTORY OF RUM BALLS

Rum balls were invented by the Danish bakers to use up unsold breads, cakes, and pastry that would be stale by the next day.

Someone came up with the idea for romkugler (rum balls). All the unsold cakes, and pastries were mixed together with cocoa powder and rum.

The sticky dough was then rolled into balls, coated with coconut flakes or sprinkles, and sold the next day for a low price.

It remains a popular choice in Danish bakeries.

Recipes vary from region to region and from family to family. While chocolate and rum are givens*, the rest of the ingredients can vary.

Some recipes use jam or condensed milk as a binding agent, and these can be part of an alcohol-free recipe.

Others substitute bourbon for the rum.

Some recipes add nuts and/or raisins.

Some cooks place a whole (pitted) cherry, soaked in rum or brandy, in the center of the ball.

Confectioners have adapted the idea to rum-infused balls of chocolate ganache.

Here’s a recipe that uses muffins instead of leftover cake, plus raspberry jam, as well as cocoa and rum.
 
 
CHECK OUT WHAT’S HAPPENING ON OUR HOME PAGE, THENIBBLE.COM.

*Some modern recipes do away with the chocolate, like this recipe made with vanilla wafers, pecans, both bourbon and rum, and honey as a binder.
 
 

CHECK OUT WHAT’S HAPPENING ON OUR HOME PAGE, THENIBBLE.COM.

You most probably will never get a Nobel Prize, but you can dine on the same food served at the awards dinner. Just head to Stockholm.

The 2021 Nobel Banquet, celebrating the year’s Nobel laureates, takes place annually on December 10th.

Each year’s banquet has a unique gourmet menu with Scandinavian accents.

You can view the menus dating back to 1901, the first year the prizes were awarded (excepting the war years and 2020, when Covid-19 canceled the banquet).

Since 1934, the banquet has been held in the Blue Hall of Stockholm’s City Hall, which seats 1,300 guests.

You too can feast in City Hall—although not on the same day, and not in the same room.

Instead, you can enjoy the banquet at The Stadshuskällaren, the City Hall Cellars (which is, as the name says, in the cellar of City Hall).

The restaurant features menus from years past—for example, the main dish from the Nobel banquet of 2017, saddle of lamb and bilberry bavaroise.

Want a dish that fêted one of your Nobel heroes?

Fans of Gabriel García Márquez can have the banquet from 1982 (including Arctic char in dill cream sauce and Nobel ice cream).

Marie Curie devotees can toast her 1911 chemistry prize by dining on fonds d´artichauts duchesse and poularde fermière (artichoke bottoms “duchess-style” and farm chicken).

Want to make your own Nobel Prize dinner at home?

Pick your birth year, pick specific winners, create the dinner on whatever theme you like.

You’ll have to create the recipes, though: The menus are given, but that’s all—except there are beautiful photographs of the dishes from the more recent years.

By the way, The Stadshuskällaren serves à la carte, a tasting menu and Nobel menus for dinner on Fridays and Saturdays.

Stadshuskällarens, a classic Christmas smorgasbord (buffet) is served this year from December 3rd to December 19th.

The buffet is divided into three parts:

 
The whole restaurant is dressed for Christmas. The historic room is decorated with Christmas flowers, garlands, Christmas trees, and trimmings.

Ready to head for the airport?
 
 
ABOUT THE NOBEL PRIZE

The Nobel Prize is an international award administered by the Nobel Foundation in Stockholm, Sweden, and based on the fortune of Alfred Nobel, Swedish inventor and entrepreneur.

Each prize consists of a medal, a personal diploma, and a cash award.

A person or organization awarded the Nobel Prize is called Nobel Prize laureate. The word “laureate” refers to being signified by a laurel wreath.

In ancient Greece, laurel wreaths were awarded to victors as a sign of honor.

There are 6 prize categories: Chemistry, Economics, Literature, Physics, Peace, and Physiology or Medicine.

Since the awards began in 1901:

 
 
Discover more about Alfred Nobel and the Nobel Prize at NobelPrize.org.

[1] 2019 starter: kalix vendace roe with cucumber, pickle-poached kohlrabi, creamy dill and a horseradish sauce (all photos © NobelPrize.org.).

[2] 2019 dessert: raspberry mousse, dehydrated chocolate mousse, raspberry kissel and raspberry sorbet.

[3] 2018 starter: lightly baked Arctic char with crayfish broth, dill seed-infused onion, lightly smoked trout roe, crispy potato and watercress foam.

[4] 2018 dessert: medley of apples, with caramelised Frida apples from Österlen, apple sorbet, vanilla custard, caramel sauce and oat crumbs.

[5] 2017 main: crispy saddle of lamb, potato terrine with Svedjan crème, yellow beet, salt-baked celeriac, apple salad and rosemary-spiced lamb gravy (photo Dan Lepp).