Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Pierogi Trust

It is Pierogi Night at Domku Cafe in Washington, DC:

Pierogi are popular in the Midwest and along the Rust Belt -- generally, you can find pierogi anywhere you can find a large Polish or Ukrainian population. Indeed, the Midwest takes their pierogi quite seriously. Every summer, Whiting, Indiana holds a pierogi festival, featuring the world's largest pierogi, Eastern Bloc-themed Jeopardy!, and Mr. Pierogi and the Pieroguettes. Pierogi are a bit harder to find in this part of the country, but you can get your fix at Domku Cafe in Petworth.

I imagine the Midwestern Diaspora gathering once a month to share in a celebration of home. In DC, Pittsburgh and Chicago seem more like next door neighbors than hundreds of miles apart. But back in Pittsburgh, even nearby Cleveland might as well be halfway around the world:

Interesting, I would like to make it [to Cleveland] sometime to make my own comparison [with Pittsburgh] some time soon. I can't believe I've never been there yet it is so close.

Diaspora populations have an expanded sense of home and therefore a much larger trust network. An effective way to build a regional identity is to actively engage the people who left that area. The distance between Pittsburgh and Buffalo all but disappears when meeting another Rust Belt expatriate in Charlotte, NC.

1 comment:

Janko said...

I've eaten at Domku before when I worked in Washington D.C.

Interestingly, it was a Swedish-Polish infusion restaurant with IKEA like plain interiors. A very simple place.

But they also had Polish beer with a shot of lingonberry nectar in the bottom, and swedish-meatball filled peroghi.

it was a trip up the green line and a short hike to get there, but well worth it.