Where can you get good, locally-baked bagels in Budapest? Easy answer: Nowhere. This is not to say that you can't get a decent bagel in Budapest. You can. But both places I routinely buy bagels from actually import their wares frozen - one from Paris, the other from Vienna. Like the March of the Penguins, they arrive from their journey across the plains, to be de-thawed under capable supervision at Rue des Pains in the MOM Park shopping mall in Buda, and The Coffeeshop Company on Múzeum Körút in downtown Pest.

In the spirit of the hotly-debated Budapest Burgerwar™, I decided to stage a mini bagel "bake-off," pitting the Parisian standard of imported frozen bagel against the Viennese. (I have also had the bagels at The California Coffee Company on Teréz Körút, which are more like bagel-shaped rolls, and would cower at the sight of these imports.)

First up is Rue des Pains. The "street of bread" is barely six months old and sits on the bottom floor of MOM Park (top picture), and also has a great selection of recently-thawed tarts, croissants and quiches. The bagels themselves come in a variety of flavors, including chocolate, sesame, poppy seed (pictured above), blueberry, plain and onion, and run Ft 239-Ft 259 (€0.93-€1.01) per hole. They look the part, and are displayed in their pristine bagel form rather than as "bagel sandwiches." And they have reason to be this confident. The RDP bagel's crust is chewy while the center is soft, and the whole thing stands up to a brisk toasting, its nicely porous surface holding the cream cheese perfectly. This is a fine bagel, and good enough to be eaten unadorned by any topping.

By contrast, the Coffeeshop Company's bagels (Ft 240, above) usually sit in their display case all hussied-up with mozzarella and tomatoes, which takes them up to Ft 520. Without the condiments and fillings, their bagel looks a bit naked. Its crust is not as chewy, and tastes a bit of the freezer. It just doesn't pack the sheer bagel delight of its cross-town competitor. And on my last few visits, they only had a single type of bagel available. One day it was plain, the next whole wheat. Their bagel works fine as sandwich material, but was edged out by the Parisian bagel in flavor and authenticity. In short: Rue des Pains noshed its way to bagel glory.

A message to both venues: All a good bagel needs is light toasting, then a smear of cream cheese or butter. No need to pimp it out as part of this city's sandwich boom, as a good bagel has the dignity to stand on its own.