Bagels are chewy doughnut-shaped yeast rolls which originated in Eastern Europe, but are now popular at breakfast or lunch or as a snack in North America.

Many large cities, such as Montreal, New York, Los Angeles and London have their own bagel making recipes and traditions. Traditional bagels are made without egg and sweetened with malt, although many modern recipes include egg and use sugar or honey as sweetener. The bagel's dense, chewy texture comes from the practice of boiling the dough before baking it. This stops the yeast from causing the bread to rise as it is baked.

Bagels extend back to the 17th Century and their true origin is difficult to separate from legend. Supposedly a local Jewish baker in Vienna, Austria made the first bagel, shaped like a riding stirrup, as a gift to the King of Poland. The idea caught on and soon the bagel made it way to Russia and eventually to the United States. In New York in 1910 the Bagel Baker's Union was formed, this group of 300 baker's limited new membership to sons of the current members only. Bagel Baker's learned their trade through an apprenticeship, it was labor intensive work and men usually worked in teams of four producing as much a hundred boxes of bagels a night with 64 bagels in each box. In the late 1950s and early 1960s everything about the bagel changed with the introduction of frozen bagels and machinery that could produce thousands of bagels each hour.http://www.kitchenproject.com/history/bagels/bagels.htm

Bagels are usually cut lengthwise into the top and bottom halves. Bagels are traditionally served with cream cheese and lox (smoked salmon). Tomatoes or onions may also be added.

There are now almost an endless variety of bagels available from bakeries such as Einstein Brothers, Bruegger's Bagels, Boston Bagel Shops, and even Dunkin Donuts. Some popular bagel flavors are:

Plain

Sesame

Poppy Seed

Onion

Garlic

Salt

Cinnamon Raisin