AN URBAN LEGEND DEBUNKED. A Constrained Vision has an update on the origins of the impractical pastry known as a "croissant," which I noted here. Apparently this roll first appeared in French bakeries after 1850.

I suppose one clue lies in the very different Magyar words for the roll, "kifli," and the moon, "felhold" or "holdsarlo."

The notion, also circulating, that this roll was invented in Vienna to commemorate a later repulse of the Turks is less plausible as an urban legend. The roll is neither robust enough to handle a double-brat, which is what the Semmel does, nor is it as tasty as a torte, and the Austrians are unconscious at making those. Schmects gut.