Lox is a thin fillet of cold-smoked, cured salmon that can top a bialy.
A bialy is a yeast-shaped bun that originated in Poland. It is usually shaped like a bagel, but with an indentation instead of a hole; it can also be eight-shaped, with two notches. The notches are often filled with tasty foods like onions or garlic flakes. A traditional bialy has a slit that is covered with chopped onion and oil. The flattened, flavor-coated kneading on the bread creates a crisp, powerful flavor area amidst a soft, doughy outer crust.
Often preferred over bagel for its more delicate texture, this dish is prepared by shaping, seasoning, and baking a ball of dough. The name of the dumpling that is made into bialy is tagel. To prepare the bialy, a cutout is pressed into a slightly flattened tagel. The notch in the bialy is called a kuchen.
After the kuchen is pressed into the dough, the cutout is covered with the chosen vegetables, herbs, and oil, and then baked. Common types of oil include olive or canola. Although they are traditionally made with a thin layer of vegetables, the variety of toppings that are put on this bread is as wide as that on a bagel. Toppings can include cream cheese, smoked salmon, and roast beef, but many people prefer to spread plain butter on their morning bialy.
This food is considered a form of pletzel, a flattened cookie-like crust covered with toppings. Unlike most pletzels, bialy dough is yeast-leavened, which makes it fluffy and chewy rather than flat and crunchy. While a pletzel has a flat crust like a pizza, a bialy is more like a small pizza surrounded by a baked bagel. This dish originates from Bialystok, Poland, but has become a very popular dish in upstate New York. It is particularly popular in the Coney Island neighborhood of New York City.
Although shaped like a bagel, this bread is generally lighter than the traditional New York bagel. Some prefer bialies to bagels because they are softer and less chewy. In New York, bakers who also make bagels often sell bialies.
For the most part, it’s hard to find bialies in the United States outside of New York. Since biallies do not stay fresh for long, they cannot be shipped or sold commercially. It is best to eat a bialy six hours after it is made, after which it spoils.