Bagel Flavours Around The World: For many Americans, bagels (especially the top-notch ones) are closely associated with New York City. However, these delicious circular breads have gained popularity far beyond the boundaries of the five boroughs. Similar to many residents of New York City, the American Bagel Flavours has a rich history as an immigrant with origins spanning centuries. Previous iterations and comparable variations are available in a wide array of forms, sizes, textures, and flavours, featuring ingredients that are both familiar and exotic to our nation’s taste buds.
Bagel Flavours Around The World
Bagel Flavours: Davidovich Bakery, a beloved Bagel Flavours brand in New York, was established by Ukrainian immigrants who blended their family recipe for bubliks with the expertise of NYC’s skilled Jewish bakers. Their unique approach to bagel-making has garnered praise from prestigious publications like Time, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and ABC News.
Join us as we delve into the various varieties of bagels found around the world, guided by Marc Fintz, an esteemed author, Bagel Flavours historian, and Davidovich business development director.
Types of Bagels
Bublik | Ukraine
In Ukraine, Belarus, and Lithuania, the bublik is a popular street food that is sold in large quantities by people carrying strings of dozens of them. The dough for bubliks is made from milk, butter, and eggs, which gives it a slightly sweet taste and a denser, chewier texture. They are bigger and have wider holes than regular bagels. Fintz says this is because they are “not boiled, nor proofed (left to sit and yeast-rise in dough form) for the 12 to 18 hours that New York bagels are.” There are also savoury forms that have cheese gratings and a little onion juice in the dough.
Obwarzanek | Poland
The obwarzanek was first made in Poland in the 1400s. It is a single-serving version of the German pretzel loaves that were served in European churches during the Middle Ages. Obwarzanek are boiled (their name comes from the Polish word for cooking something), then baked with salt and poppy seeds on top. They are bigger than bagels (up to seven inches in diameter!). By tradition, the bread is never warmed or cut in half, and since the hole in it is too big to hold food, it is never used to make sandwiches.
Kompyang | China
Kompyang was first made as a military ration during the Ming Dynasty. It was ordered by general Qi Jiguang to be a Chinese version of a tough and simple food that Japanese pirates brought to fight in the 1500s. It’s not a main boil when kompyang are baked, so they don’t follow certain dietary rules like many American bagels do. Fintz says that savoury versions “are often stuffed and made with pig lard, making any kosher certification impossible.”
Bialys | Poland
The bialy, a second Polish cousin of the bagel, gets its name from the place where it was first made, Bialystok. Bialys range in size from very small (as little as three inches wide) to about the size of a big pizza. They are basically thin-crust rolls with baked onions and poppy seeds in the middle.
Some people only like these toppings and believe that bialys should be eaten within six hours. But most people don’t care about the time and think it’s fine to add cream cheese, lox, cheese and lox, or just butter. Most American bagels go through a pre-bake boil, but Bialy artisans skip it. This makes the outside of the bagels less shiny than a standard Bagel Flavours and the inside fluffier and full of puffed air bubbles.
Jerusalem bagels | Israel
The Jerusalem Bagel Flavours is a thin, soft, oval-shaped treat that became popular in its named city in the 1960s. It often tastes sweet because sesame seeds that have been treated with honey are added. Fintz says, “These look a lot like seeded bagels, but they’re more like bread. They aren’t proofed or retarded (kept in the fridge overnight in dough form) like NYC bagels.”
He also says, “They do have non-dairy ingredients, but even though they’re from Israel, there isn’t as much focus on being kosher.” To make Jerusalem bagels taste different from other bagels, za’atar, a strong spice mix of herbs, vinegar, and salt, is added.
Simit | Turkey
The simit, which is sometimes called a “Turkish bagel,” was first made as a street food in the late 16th century, but it was different in each area. It is usually eaten with hot tea. For instance, the simit in Istanbul is smoother and bigger than those in the Ankara region.
People in modern Turkish towns still walk around with simit carts and wear traditional fez hats while carrying high-stacked trays of simits on their heads.
According to Fintz, the simit is “simple, and usually heavily seeded with sesame seeds, though not proofed or boiled, and often distinguished by its rolled look.” They also taste sweet because they are dipped in sugar water before going into the oven.
Montreal bagels | Canada
In 1900, Canadian cooks changed a lot about the typical American bagel. Instead of salt, they used sugar, added eggs to the dough, poached the eggs in honeyed water, and baked the whole thing in a wood-fired hearth. What came out of it was the famous Montreal bagel.
Fans of Montreal bagels say that their version is much more unique than a New York-style “basic” because of the sweet crispness of the golden outside and the crunchy texture inside. Some Bagel Flavours fans say that the only “true” Montreal Bagel Flavours comes straight from a bakery’s wood oven and should be eaten plain or with just a small amount of cream cheese. They say it has an even shorter shelf life than the bialy expert’s six-hour limit. It sounds like a plan to spread lies…
Sushki | Russia
Sushki are a type of sweet, sugar-water-boiled bread that is usually served plain (though sometimes poppy seeds are added for decoration). They are shaped to fit around a beer bottle and are mostly sold by the bagful.
Bagel Flavours: According to Fintz, sushki is “much closer to American snack pretzel” than any other type of bread. “They’re not soft like a Bavarian pretzel or boiled like a New York City bagel.” Their most basic elements and dry, crunchy texture are what make them unique.
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