Dial of Destiny, the new and supposedly last of the Indiana Jones series is amazing. It gives you everything a true fan wants, brings back many characters from the past , many of whom are elderly, and reprises some of the great lines and scenes from other movies. Harrison Ford himself, is 80 years old. And although the production team use new de-aging digital technology for the early flashback parts of the movie during his Nazi-fighting days in World War II, as his later self he shows off his svelte octogenarian torso, which if not digitally altered, shows that he is kicking ass physically, and may be the most fit of any working male actor today.
There is a particularly moving scene for me at the end, and I think one of the best love scenes in film, where Indy reunites with his wife after a separation due to the death of their son Mutt, offscreen, in Vietnam. Marion – crows feet and wrinkles clearly visible – and Indy redo the scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark where he asks “Where does it hurt, and he kisses her on every spot.” Only this time, the hurt is not from the after affects of a fight with an evil enemy, but from a lifetime and the inevitability of the progression of life.
But for this food etymologist, what makes this such a movie great is the attention to detail of the set designers and stylists, particularly the food stylists. Dial of Destiny clearly had a team of food historians who know how important it is to a movie. There is a great scene in Rome where a group of rich American tourist kids are ordering fruit syrup laced ice balls and one kid says in the background, “I want mango.” There’s also a great street scene in Rome that pans past a gelateria – in my opinion one of the most important institutions in Italy (pizzaheads will be after me for this statement), with a list of four special flavors. And the final scene of the movie pans out on a great New York streetscape with a hugely prominent sign of Hoffman’s Delicatessen and Restaurant, giving homage to the great Jewish delis of New York, that like Indiana Jones, are becoming rare artifacts.
After a tuk-tuk chase scene in Morocco, which I think is one of the best chase scenes in the Indiana Jones universe, there is a great foodie scene. Indiana Jones gives us a good bit of food history and science rolled into one line.
After the chase scene, Indy is repairing the tuk-tuk he Helena and Teddy used to retrieve the dial of destiny and escape their two groups of chasers. The radiator has over heated and has sprung a leak. Indy’s goddaughter , Helena, has with her a sort of adopted son called Teddy, offering us reference to Indy’s side kick in Temple of Doom, Short Round (played by Ke Huy Quan). Indy reaches into Teddy’s mouth and steals his chewing gum, placing it over the leak in the radiator. He says – “Moroccan gum is made from the sap of the mastic tree, Pistacia lentiscus. It’s heat resistant.”
Above image: Indiana Jones explains the benefits of Moroccan chewing gum to Helena and Teddy.
I nearly stood up in the theatre and cheered for this reference of science and food history. Meska is not to be confused with Gum Arabic or Gum Acacia, which is also a tree resin, but from the acadia tree. The meska Indy alludes to, also referred to as mastic, is not native to Morocco. Meska comes from Africa, but Gum Arabic is imported from Greece and Mediterranean basin. Like Gum Arabic, meska is used as a flavor and binding agent in a lot of Moroccan food especially confections and pastry. Meska, however, and not gum Arabic is used in Moroccan chewing gum. It is incredibly more sticky than American chewing gum, and thus makes an excellent putty and leak stopper as Indy shows us in a very Macgiverian way.
Back to Medieval days, Moroccan merchants made a huge business of the import of meska from Niger and Mali and shipping it to areas of Europe. It and gum Arabic are still hugely important imports to the rest of the world, one of the most important from Africa, third only to, as many would argue chocolate and chili peppers.
So, my fellow foodies, make haste and go see Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny this rainy 4th of July weekend!
dannwoellertthefoodetymologist 