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== Dumplings with Spinach and Celebration ==

After the cold starter it's time for a hot one: '''''pierogi ze szpinakiem i fetą''''', or dumplings with spinach and, um… celebration?

But the spinach in our ''pierogi'' wasn't mixed with ''feta'', the Polish equivalent of a ''fête'', but with feta, the Greek brined cheese. While not as classic as potato-and-cheese, ground-meat or mushroom-and-kraut varieties, spinach combined with feta cheese and some garlic makes another tasty and popular ''pierogi'' filling.

And, well, it could have been worse as far as mistranslations go. After all, it's not only Polish businesses catering to English-speaking patrons that make translation mistakes; the same may happen to U.S. businesses selling supposedly Polish food to Polish Americans. Like the one that confused the Polish words ''"szpinak"'' ("spinach") and ''"spinacz"'' ("paper clip"). Office-supplies-filled dumplings, anyone?

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The restaurant's spokesperson said they would be "having a word with [their] translator". By which, I suppose, they meant they would be trying to hold a conversation with Google Translate.

Let's see what happened here, step by step. The original Polish name for the key ingredient is ''"szyjki rakowe"'' (pronounced: {{pron|shiy|kee}} {{pron|Rah|kaw|veh}}). ''"Szyjki"'' could be literally translated as "little necks", but in this case it refers to crayfish tails (which, technically, are neither tails nor necks, but [https://aquariumbreeder.com/crayfish-external-anatomy/ abdomina]). ''"Rak"'', the Polish word for crayfish, is also used for most of the things which the English language refers to by the Latin word for "crab", that is, "cancer" – such as the Zodiac sign and, yes, the disease too. And specifically, ''"rak szyjki macicy"'', or "cancer of the neck of the womb", is the Polish medical term for cervical cancer. ''"Szyjki rakowe"'' and ''"rak szyjki"'' may look and sound similar, but the difference in meaning is that between delicious and disgusting.

In any case, if you've never sampled '''''zupa z szyjek rakowych''''', or crayfish soup (and you still haven't lost your appetite), then you definitely should give this classic Polish dish a try! Throwing the poor crustaceans live into boiling water may seem cruel, but it's actually the most humane way of killing them as they die instantly.

== Buckwheat with Cocks Sauce ==

This one sounds intriguing, doesn't it? Some older folks in England might remember Cocks's Reading Sauce. And no, it wasn't used to make reading about cocks more enjoyable. It was a brand of fish sauce produced in the Berkshire town of Reading by a fishmonger whose name was James Cocks (and his heirs after him). First marketed in 1802, it was made from fermented anchovies, walnut ketchup, mushroom ketchup, soy sauce, salt, garlic and chilli peppers<ref>{{Cyt

| nazwisko r = Corley

Back to square one then. A better explanation would be that the "cocks sauce" in the menu was a result of mistranslation. The English word "cocks" has multiple meanings and so do the Polish terms ''"kury"'' and ''"kurki"'' (pronounced: {{pron|koo|Rih}}, {{pron|kooR|kee}}). The primary meaning of "cocks" is "male domestic fowl", also known as "cockerels" or "roosters". In modern Polish, ''"kury"'' refers to hens, but a few centuries ago it meant "roosters" instead. So was the sauce made from the meat of cockerels? Well, no.

Among the many different meanings of the English "cock", the vulgar term for the male member is particularly well known. The rooster has been a symbol of male virility in many cultures. Among Slavic languages, Bulgarian makes the same association, with ''"kur"'' referring to both the cocky bird and a man's cock (''"patka"'' – literally, "duck" – is another vulgar Bulgarian word for the latter, which makes Bulgarians laugh every time they hear ''"kuropatka"'' – which means "partridge" in Russian and "cock-dick" in Bulgarian; gotta love these Slavic false friends). ''"Kur"'' also gave rise to the vulgar word for a prostitute (a woman whose job involves handling penes) in all Slavic languages, including Polish. But I digress; the sauce definitely wasn't made from phalli!

Besides, the Polish word was ''"kurki"'', a diminutive form of ''"kury"''. Depending on the context, it could mean freshly hatched chickens, weathercocks, stopcocks,… But none of these seem to fit in the context of sauce for buckwheat. So what does?

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When the Spaniards (not Dutch) conquered Mexico and discovered the fruit, they assimilated its Nahuatl name, ''"āhuacatl"'', into their own language as ''"aguacate"''. This was later borrowed into French as ''"avocat"'' ([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSaRuVS1LHA which incidentally also means "lawyer"]) and into English, Dutch and many other European languages as "avocado".

But there's quite a lot to unpack here. What does the avocado have to do with an egg-based liqueur? Why did Dutch settlers in Recife, Brazil, make a drink from a fruit that is native to Mexico? What did Dutch settlers do in Brazil in the first place? And is the avocado really named after testicles?

As for Dutch settlers in Brazil, they actually have a pretty long history. In the first half of the 17th century, the north-east coast of Brazil was a Dutch colony known, quite unimaginatively, as New Holland. Its capital city was Mauritsstad, or Recife, now the capital of the state of Pernambuco. Even after the Portuguese recaptured Recife in 1654, Dutch migration to Brazil continued well into the 20th century.

What made Pernambuco attractive to both the Dutch and the Portuguese were its extensive sugar cane plantations (worked by African slaves). Sugar and rum – both made from sugar cane – are two of the three ingredients of ''advocaat''. But what about the third? If what some sources, such as ''The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets'', say is true, then avocado was the original third ingredient, which lent ''advocaat'' its name. This Mexican fruit was introduced to Brazil in the early 19th century and has been grown there ever since.<ref>{{Cyt

| nazwisko = Schaffer

}}</ref> The colour was different, but the texture may have been similar. Now, is it true? I don't know; it's not entirely implausible, but seems like a bit of a stretch to me.

But hey, it's April Fool's, so yeah, 100% confirmed!