Any culinary journey through Kraków is likely to start with the obwarzanek. A chewy dough ring sprinkled (usually extremely unevenly) with salt, poppy or sesame seeds, obwarzanki are sold from rolling carts on every other street corner in Kraków, and are so inescapable they’ve become an unofficial symbol of the city. In fact the obwarzanek is one of only two Polish foods currently protected by the EU on its Traditional Foods List. Known as the Krakowian bagel, the obwarzanek gets its name from the Polish word for ‘par-boiled’ and therefore differs slightly from the bagel, in addition to being its internationally popular counterpart’s predecessor. Though the origins of the Jewish bagel are complex, confusing and hotly-contested, most agree that it was invented by Kraków Jews after 1496 when King Jan Sobieski lifted the decree that formerly restricted the production of baked goods to the Kraków Bakers Guild. First written mention of the obwarzanek meanwhile dates back to 1394, meaning that it’s been a daily sight on Kraków’s market square for over 600 years. Though increased tourism in recent years has jacked the price of an obwarzanek up to around 1.30zł, you’ll still see countless people on the go munching these pretzel rings. Tasty and filling when fresh, the art of truly enjoying an obwarzanek leaves a lot up to chance. Krakowian bakers produce up to 200,000 obwarzanki daily in the summer, despite the fact that on leaving the oven the baked goods have a sell-by date of about three hours. As such, finding a hot one is essential. Enjoyed by people of all ages, obwarzanki also feed Kraków’s entire pigeon population when in the evenings the city’s 170-180 obwarzanki carts essentially become bird-food vendors.