Changes

From the 16th century comes the oldest known mention of the Turkish bread products called ''simit'', which bear an uncanny resemblance to the Cracovian ''obwarzanki''. Both kinds of bread are made of two strands of dough that are braided into a wreath, sprinkled with sesame seeds, baked and finally sold in the streets from special carts. There are some differences too: the ''simit'' aren't parboiled, but just steeped in a mixture of water and molasses; the sesame seed sprinkle is much more generous in the Turkish version; and the carts are different colours (blue in Cracow, red in Istanbul). However, as recently as the early 20th century, the Turkish ''simit'' had the form of a thin single-strand ring; the ''obwarzanek'' in Cracow, on the other hand, was shaped into the wreath form no later than the 1920s. I can't tell who copied from whom with absolute certainty, but my local patriotism requires me to assume that this distinctive shape was born at the foot of the Wawel Hill.