Several nations claim the bagel as their own, but none of the accounts on the origins of this tasty roll are as epic as the Polish.
The Poles tell us that the bagel was invented by a grateful Jewish baker in a rescued and half-destroyed Vienna. He wanted to honor King John Sobieski of Poland and his crushing victory over the Turks outside the city walls. On September 12, 1683, at about 5pm, the Polish king and his 16-year old son charged down the slopes of the Kahlen Berg (bare hill) above Vienna at the head of 18,000 horsemen, 3,000 of which were the legendary “winged hussars.”
