Avengers: Endgame (2019)
Written by Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely
Directed by Joe & Anthony Russo
Starring (in this scene): Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow), Chris Evans (Captain America)
Chef’s Note: This made me think of Kara threatening her sister over a dumpling – that immediate turn to violence that seems all too common with superheroes. I have no doubt that a peanut butter sammich is likely a lethal weapon in the hands of someone such as Natasha.
Still, we must acknowledge that she does actually refrain from such casual barbarity and, moreover, offers Steve her supremely lonely peanut butter sammich. Who would of thought she would be a model of pacifist restraint, especially compared to someone as generally chill as Supergirl?
It is most gratifying that Scott arrives to rescue this sad and abandoned sammich. At least someone actually appreciates it for what it is.
Chef’s Note: One can not speak of sammiches and their history without eventually coming across the dubious claim of one Earl of Sandwich:
The truth is, we don’t know who invented the sandwich, but it has existed in various forms for thousands of years. One of the earliest known sandwich-eaters was Hillel the Elder, a rabbi and scholar who was born in Babylon and lived in Jerusalem during the first century B.C. The Haggadah, a Jewish text read during the annual Passover Seder, recounts how Hillel made sandwiches using Paschal lamb, bitter herbs and unleavened matzoh bread. In Jewish tradition, during the Seder dinner, participants remember this by creating their own matzoh sandwiches.
Flatbreads have a long history in the Mediterranean region and the Middle East. In particular, the “idea of rolling bread with a filling is very ancient in Turkish culture” says Mary Isin, author of Bountiful Empire: A History of Ottoman Cuisine. During the mid-17th century, the 4th Earl of Sandwich traveled to Turkey and other regions in the Ottoman Empire, which may explain where he allegedly got the idea to ask a club or restaurant server to make him a sandwich back in London.
Chef’s Note: Happy National Sandwich Day!