72 http://carelica.petrsu.ru/CARELICA/Journal.html © Wells C., 2016 * © CARELiCA, 2016 AREA STUDIES / ИСТОРИЧЕСКОЕ РЕГИОНОВЕДЕНИЕ № 2/2016 (16) ISSN 2310-6476 Научный электронный журнал Научный электронный журнал DOI: 10.15393/j14.art.2016.86 УДК 9c DOI: 10.15393/j14.art.2016.86 Chloe Wells University of Eastern Finland (Joensuu), PhD student Eating Karelia: the geography, history, and memory of Karelian pies Abstract: his paper investigates the geography, history and memory of Karelian pies ( karjalan- piirakat = kalitki) in Finland and beyond. Where exactly does this food come from? How did it spread from the transborder Karelia region to become a stereotypical ‹Finnish› food? How are Karelian pies tied into to intergenerational transmission within Finnish families? his paper pre- sents interviews and discussions with Finnish women which demonstrate Karelian pies as Finnish familial inheritance. he paper also presents the results of research with North Karelian Finnish teens which indicates that they strongly associate the term ‹Karelia› with Karelian pies. his indi- cates the triumph of food as banal nationalism and the centrality of perceived regional food speci- alities in shaping local and familial Finnish identities. he paper examines the official and unoffi- cial status and symbolism of this Karelian/Finnish foodstuff and how and why this previously lo- cal food was spread throughout Finland and beyond, becoming a staple part of Finnish national cuisine and hence national and cultural identity. Key words: North Karelia, Cross-border Karelia, historical memory, Karelian pies, banal national- ism, a Finnish identity Introduction: Finnish food between East and West Finnish cuisine is usually seen as being comprised of hearty and simple fare based on fresh, season- ally available produce. he link between food produced in Finland, the Finnish nation state and the geographic territory of Finland is a strong one. « he genuine taste of Finnish Food» declares the website Food from Finland, an online directory of Finnish food companies, «derives from our pure lakes, farmlands and forests.» [13] Finnish cuisine is also seen as being influenced by two other places: Sweden and Russia and two religious cultures: Catholicism and Orthodoxy [25]. Like Fin- land itself Finnish cuisine is situated ‹between the East and the West.› Foods seen as Finnish but hailing from Eastern Finland have a more complex geography. Eastern Finnish cuisine «has its roots in the Slavonic, Orthodox [culinary] tradition» [25] therefore it can be quite different or ‹other› when compared to Western Finnish food, which is influenced by Swed- ish cuisine. For example mushrooms, a staple of Eastern Finnish cuisine are not found in tradition- ally Western Finnish cuisine. 1 Finnish Karelian cuisine, as part of Eastern Finnish cuisine, is seen as in some ways synonymous with Orthodox culinary traditions with both having an «abundance 1 According to PV, whom I interviewed on the topic of Eastern Finnish foods, Finnish Karelian evacuees brought «mushroom culture» (ie collecting wild mushrooms and using them in cooking) to the rest of Finland who before this had thought mushrooms only «food for cows»[2].