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Subject: [Q-R] Excerpt Of History
Date: Tue, 16 Mar 2004 16:35:18 EST
"The croissant, the ultimate French breakfast roll is not French but
Austrian. It was devised by Viennese bakers sometime in 1683, just before or just
after the Turks who had been besieging the city were routed by a Polish army
under John Sobeiski. Some say the bakers devised the crescent in obsequious
imitation of the Turkish crescent moon symbol, so that when the city fell, their
bread, at least, would be buttered. Others say the roll appeared after the siege
was lifted, as a memento of the deliverance. In either case, the croissant
was Viennese for a century before it was brought to Paris by a young Austrian
princess who was to become the French Queen Marie Antoinette."
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