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NIKOLA TUTEK
pierogi or pirogi in Polish and nepoeu in Russian. It is interesting that Polish
Wikipedia states China as the origin of pierogi, while Russian Wikipedia
describes pierogi as a traditional Polish meal." There are similar meals in
Croatian cuisine, the closest ones probably being knedle (German Knödel)
and ravioli (Italian ravioli or tortellini) while pierogi translates into Croatian
as piroge, pierogi or okruglice, piroske.°!
There can be three explanations for this culinary issue. Perhaps Munro was
imprecise in her cultural description of Croatian cuisine, and perhaps it is Neil’s
mistake. It is possible that Neil encountered pierogi in other ethnic Slavonic
restaurants and then falsely identified Maria’s mother’s pastry as pierogi.
The third possibility is cultural approximation. During my time in Budapest,
I noticed that many restaurants that use the word Turkish in their names were
actually run by the Kurds, Hungarians, Armenians or even Greeks. When asked
why they chose to open Turkish restaurants, I was told that Turkish implied a
certain established cultural notion that brought the restaurants advantage on
the market. Everybody knows what Turkish means in food: delicious and easily
available in most of the large western cities. Opening, for example, a Kurdish
restaurant might imply much more operational risk. This is what I call cultural
approximation. Pierogi is quite a popular meal in North America, thanks to
numerous immigrants of various Slavonic origins. Croatians, speakers of a
Slavonic language, hence, recognized as Slavs by the people in the west, were
quite exotic and unrecognized in many parts of Canada when pierogi was
already established. It is possible that Maria’s family played safe; they decided
to adopt and serve a popular meal that would bring them profit, although it
had very little to do with their own culture except the general classification as
‘being Slavonic’. This example of cultural approximation enforces a common
denominator on all Slavs the same way as Neil’s mentioning of Maria’s family
enforces a common denominator on all Croatians.
Croatian culture in “Five Points” is not described, it is merely mentioned,
and that makes Neil an entirely different cultural narrator than Charlotte in
“The Albanian Virgin”. Neil’s emotional distance as a narrator, as opposed
to Charlotte’s deep emotional engagement, leaves the reader to detect and
interpret, in an entirely independent and personal way, numerous and complex
cultural connotations provided by the story. Cultural re-interpretation
featured or, more precisely, hinted at in “Five Points”, has two main results: it
significantly contributes to the artistic value of the story, and, consequently,
makes Neil a more reliable narrator than Charlotte.
30 https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierogi and the Russian version of the page (accessed April 2020).
3! I think both okruglice and piroske are erroneous translations. Okruglice implies a round
shape (Croatian krug means circle) making this meal different than pierogi and similar to
knedle. Piroska in Croatian language usually depicts an entirely different type of pastry of
Hungarian origin (Hungarian piros means red) which is baked, and not cooked like pierogi.
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