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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. + 82 +
