Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey (2020)
Directed by Kathy Yan
Written by Christina Hodson
Starring (in this scene): Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, Bruno Oliver as Sal
Chef’s Note: While the primary focus of this scholarly project is that of superheroes eating food, we have already seen the emergence of such subsets as superheroes stealing food, superheroes shilling for food, etc. The look on Harley’s face as her sammich is being made inspires me to declare a new subset, that of superheroes loving food. Just look at her! She is the definition of swoon.
Chef’s Note: Other than this, what more can I say here that has not already been said? Once I began my research on this magical egg sammich moment, I quickly discovered that it has been cross-examined and commented upon by many insightful and perceptive peoples. The fact that it is, in fact, the moral and narrative center of Harley’s story was thankfully not lost on anyone-
But one seemingly throwaway scene introduced the sexiest character of the entire film — that now-famous egg sandwich. When Harley is at her lowest, she spends the last of her dollars on her favorite breakfast sandwich from her local bodega to lift her spirits, and it’s not until she loses it in a street chase that she finally allows herself to feel all the emotion she’s been holding back. When that perfect yolk breaks on the pavement, so does her heart.
In a similar vein-
Birds of Prey is, if anything, a movie about self-actualization. Quinn, who has a PhD and is quite an accomplished woman, wrestles with having become a sidekick and sidepiece. She openly wonders if those who say she’ll never amount to anything on her own are right. She’s good at lying and hiding, and she could do that forever. But during the chase, she trips and her glorious sandwich goes flying. As she watches the bacon scatter and the egg yolks smear in the street, she realizes she can’t hide anymore. She may not know where her journey will take her, but the loss of her sandwich is what causes her to confront her problems with the intensity of someone who has just had what is most precious to them stolen.
The significance of Sal’s character is well recognized also, which is gratifying-
Chef’s Note: One question that does seem to be in contention, however, is what kind of bread is being used here. Given that we are discussing a sammich, such a question is, obviously, of paramount importance to resolve.
According to Mr. Oliver (a.k.a. Sal), the chosen roll is of the ciabatta variety.
The recipe takes bacon, eggs, American cheese and bread – Oliver recommends ciabatta so there are “nooks and crannies for the gooey eggness to go into.”
To further complicate matters, the fact that Gotham City has traditionally been located in New Jersey means that not only does the bread variety come into question, but that of the breakfast meat as well!
Now that we’ve established that Birds of Prey is technically set in New Jersey, there’s one gigantic detail that takes the Jersey out of this particular breakfast sandwich: it uses bacon rather than the traditional pork product staple of this great state: the pork roll.
Sometimes called “Taylor Ham,” seeing as that particular brand name has become synonymous with the product, Pork roll is a very New Jerseyan institution. Acting as a sort of cousin to Canadian bacon, it’s literally a roll of “packed minced ham” that can be lovingly sliced and cooked for all your breakfast needs…. Another interesting choice that’s made with the Birds of Prey breakfast sandwich is that, from the looks of the screen-made sandwich that Sal provides Harley Quinn with, the entire package is served on a ciabatta roll. That’s fine and dandy, but as far as a proper New Jersey pork roll, egg and cheese sandwich is concerned, that’s strike two for this movie’s accurate depiction of a Jersey breakfast.
While those are some perspicacious points, I find myself in agreement with this very fine argument for bollilo rolls, the standard bread for tortas-
The window of Sal’s convenience store advertises Mexican quick-order food items — tostadas, tacos, burritos, and most important, tortas. I figure that Sal runs his shop in Gotham’s Spanish Quarter and serves breakfast on those lovely bolillo rolls used for tortas. I also base my assumption on that we see Harley on an action-packed chase through Hispanic-style open-air markets to protect her perfect egg sandwich from every person she had ever wronged.
Canadian Bacon is a rough spot with me. People tend to think it is all that Canadian’s use as bacon, but it’s not, we use both cuts of bacon, belly and back bacon, in fact, back bacon is what the rest of the world calls Canadian bacon, not because we use it proprietarily, but because there was a pork shortage and people in the US and UK started importing it from Canada, so the name came from it’s source, not our using it like some kind of ham fanatics.