Bagels

The bagel (or sometimes beigel, in Poland also bajgiel, bajgel, precel, obwarzanek) is a food traditionally made of yeasted wheat dough in the form of a roughly hand-sized ring which is boiled and then baked. The result is a dense, chewy, doughy interior with a browned and sometimes crisp exterior.  It often features seeds, such as poppy or sesame, baked on the outer crust. Other flavor varieties include: salt, onion, garlic, egg, pumpernickel, cinnamon-raisin, "everything", cheese, caraway, whole wheat, multigrain, blueberry, muesli and others. 

A related bread product is a bialy, which has no hole, is often onion or garlic-flavored, and is less crispy on the outside. A key ingredient is it's high-gluten flour.  Though often made with sugar, malt syrup or honey, bagels should never be confused with doughnuts (donuts).

New York, Montreal and Quebec City are North America's bagel capitals.