While often available at bakeries and delis that make bagels, a bialy is not a bagel. Unlike a bagel a bialy has no hole in the center; instead, a shallow indentation in the center is filled with (typically) diced onions, or sometimes, garlic, poppy seeds, or a combination of all three, and the rest of the bialy may have a topping of poppy seeds and kosher salt. Most importantly, the bialy is not boiled before it is baked, unlike a bagel, which changes the way the yeast behaves, creating a lighter, less dense and chewy bread. Bialy, by the way, is pronounced BEE all ee.

Bialy, etymologically speaking, is derived from Bialystok, a city in Poland, where the bialy is more formally identified as a bialystoker kuchen, or a Bilalystok cake. When Eastern European Jews fled Poland, large numbers of them ended up in New York, especially on the lower east side of Manhattan, and they brought the bialy with them. My first bialy was split, covered with cream cheese, and handed to me by Bob Stein, some years ago; it came from Manhattan Bagels in Santa Monica, and their bialy is to this day the standard by which I judge all others. The bialy is also wonderful toasted and buttered, or covered with melted cheese (I recommend extra sharp Vermont cheddar) or used as a sandwich base (try a bialy split and served as an open face sandwich with buffalo motzarella, fresh tomato slices, and fresh basil, drizzled with olive oil).

To this day, the bialy is far easier to find in New York than anywhere else, although according to the formal history of the bialy, the book The Bialy Eaters: The Story of a Bread and a Lost World, by former New York Times food columnist Mimi Sheraton, the bilaly was first commercially baked and marketed by Harry Cohen in the early 1900s. Today, you can, with care, find them in areas far afield from Manhattan, though the quality varies dramatically. Don't be fooled by a bagel with onions in the center; that's absolutely not a bialy. You might want to try making your own bialys; they freeze well, but they do need to be eaten within a day or so if you don't freeze them. This bialy recipe is based on one from Secrets of a Jewish Baker, by George Greenstein. This bialy recipe from Rose Levy Beranbaum's The Bread Bible is ultimately derived from the bialy recipe used, some time ago, at Kossar's bialy bakery in Manhattan. I may have to resort to baking my own; I've yet to try my local bagelry's bialys, though I have plans to do just that.

Image Credit: © Michael E. Cohen. Used with permission.