No. 287 - Obwarzanek

I didn't have time to read the WSJ yesterday so, before chucking it in the garbage today, I scanned it for any important news. The rescue of the Chilean mine workers was the "above-the-fold" front page story. I was curious, however, about the "below-the-fold" picture of something that resembled a bagel, the subject of Post No. 39. By the way, I still haven't tasted a Montreal-style bagel.

I learned from the article that the bagel impersonator is called an obwarzanek (pronounced obe-var-jon-eck) and it's a regional specialty in Krakow, Poland.

I also learned that the obwarzanek, which comes from the Polish word "to boil," are bigger than bagels, and are woven from two strands of dough, instead of one. The obwarzanek has a diameter of 4.7 to 6.7 inches, weighs about 4 ounces and has a "sweetish taste."

The bread was originally baked only during Lent. Now it is sold in shops, bakeries and about 180 street carts, with daily production of about 150,000. The obwarzanek is used in ads meant to attract tourists to the city and adorns the doors of city-endorsed restaurants.

It is believed that the bagel and the obwarzanek started off as pretty much the same thing, but with different names in Yiddish and Polish. Older residents in Krakow said the two breads were indistinguishable as recently as the 1930s. It is further believed that both the bagel and the obwarzanek were derived from a white, braided German specialty -- the pretzel.