WHAT IS A BAGEL?

Jul 30, 2021

A Bagel is a cooked and then baked ring-shaped, bun-like pastry from the Jewish community of Poland, named בײגל (beygl) in Yiddish and bajgiel in Polish.

To this day, the handcrafted bagels in Best Bagel Basilica are shaped in an authentic way by our hands, first cooked in water for a short time and then baked afterwards. The end result is a crunchy bun on the outside with soft dough on the inside. 

Bagels are often sprinkled with various seeds, so you can also choose poppy and sesame seed bagels from us, but versions made with cinnamon and whole-grain flour are also available.

It is important that the bagels of Best Bagel Basilica are made from all vegan products, therefore we do not use any animal-derived ingredients in cooking or baking.

Cooked and then baked ring-shaped bagels are also called “Holed Jewish Buns” and have a history dating back hundreds of years. The earliest mention of it was in the 1200s, in an Arabic cookbook, where it appears as ka’ak. The truly dominant appearance of bagels was in the 1600s, in the Jewish community of Krakow, and its worldwide conquest began in the 1900s, as bagels became one of the most popular breakfast dishes in New York and later in North America.

You can read more interesting legends and detailed stories about the bagel by clicking on the link. 

Each city and each country, of course, has its own special Bagel recipe and style, greatly influenced by local flavors, wheat flour type and water quality; but basically, the bagels come from the cradles of three cities, so we differentiate between New York, Montreal and today’s emerging California style bagels.

At Best Bagel Basilica, we represent the New York style, incorporating our own Budapest gastronomy, heart and soul into our bagels.

Our bagels are 100% vegan products, made without preservatives or flavour enhancers. You can choose from bagels with several types of toppings, but generally the good quality cream cheese determines the basic flavors of bagels, which you can also enjoy in vegan version. In addition to the classic smoked salmon, tuna, jam, egg cream and avocado bagels, you can also taste many products based on our own signature recipes, which we prepare with high-quality ingredients, striving to use as many domestic ingredients as possible from Hungarian producers.