The obwarzanek, a ring that feeds the city

The blue carts stand on every corner of the Old Town and are as much part of the landscape as the pigeons. They sell obwarzanki: rings of dough plaited from two strands, parboiled in water, then baked and sprinkled with salt, poppy seed or sesame. The people of Kraków eat about 150,000 of them a day.

The name comes from obwarzanie, parboiling the dough before baking, which gives the obwarzanek its glossy, firm crust and soft inside. The first mention appears in the accounts of Queen Jadwiga's court from 1394, recording an expense "for obwarzanki for the queen". For centuries Kraków's bakers held a monopoly: obwarzanki could be baked only in the city and only by the bakers' guild, and during Lent only by a chosen few.

Since 2010 the Kraków obwarzanek has held a protected geographical indication in the European Union, like champagne or Parmesan. A genuine one must be baked in Kraków or the two neighbouring counties, measure 12 to 17 centimetres across and weigh 80 to 120 grams. Anything else is simply a pretzel.

The most important rule: an obwarzanek lives for a few hours. In the morning it is crisp, by the afternoon rubbery, by the evening fit for the ducks. So you buy it before noon, from a cart whose delivery arrived at dawn. If you want the full story, the Living Obwarzanek Museum on Paulińska Street in Kazimierz lets you plait and bake your own.

Kraków and the obwarzanek are also a quarrel with New York: the bagel was brought there in the nineteenth century by Jewish emigrants from Galicia, and the oldest mention of a bajgiel comes from Kraków's Kazimierz in 1610. In other words, the New York bagel is the obwarzanek's younger cousin. So they say in Kraków, at least.