Alternative names biały Course Breakfast Main ingredients Flour Main ingredient Flour | Type Bread Region or state Central Europe Place of origin Poland | |
 | ||
Similar Bread, Onion, Flour, Lox, Yeast | ||
Bialy (Yiddish: ביאלי), a Yiddish word short for biały or bialystoker kuchen (Yiddish: ביאליסטאקער קוכען), from the city of Białystok in Poland, is a small roll that is a traditional dish in Polish and Polish Ashkenazi cuisine. A traditional bialy, or cebularz as it is known in Poland, has a diameter of up to 15 cm (6 inches) and is a chewy yeast roll similar to a bagel. Unlike a bagel, which is boiled before baking, a bialy is simply baked, and instead of a hole in the middle it has a depression. Before baking, this depression is filled with diced onions and other ingredients, including (depending on the recipe) garlic, poppy seeds, or bread crumbs.
In 2000, former New York Times food writer Mimi Sheraton wrote a book dedicated to the bialy and its role as a symbol of the Jewish heritage of Białystok, entitled The Bialy Eaters: The Story of a Bread and a Lost World.
