New York-style bagels are delicate and chewy while Montreal-style bagels, then again, are littler, denser and sweeter. Both are boiled before they are heated, to make the thick, gleaming, chewy outside, yet the water utilized in every city is a basic difference. New Yorkers say it's the NYC water that makes their bagels so great and difficult to copy in other places. Montreal bagels are boiled in water that has been sweetened with nectar or something - a characterizing point for this style. In the wake of boiling, conventional Montreal-style bagels are prepared in a wood-burning oven, which makes them additional fresh.