Vegetarian Incredible Edibles: Gutbusters

I'm Stefan Gates, a food adventurer.

I've eaten pretty much everything on the planet, from rats to radishes,

from snakes to sprouts, I've loved them all

but now, it's your turn

because this is Incredible Edibles: Gutbusters!

SCREAMING

Today, we're joined by some of the bravest foodheads on the planet,

and here they are! Whoo-hoo!

CHEERING

So, guys, are you prepared to eat anything I can throw at you?

-ALL: Yeah!

-Oh, I like that.

OK, we've also got an absolutely bonkers studio audience here.

Are you guys ready?

ALL: Yeah!

You're so ready, but there's no point in us putting our dignity

on the line without you lot watching at home

so here's what's coming up for you.

I test drive a car that brings a new meaning to the phrase "wind power".

BREAKING WIND

You've got a car running on methane!

Nel from Newsround is scrambled by an evil looking-egg

on Incredible Or Inedible?

And we see what a year's worth

of one cow's farts and burps looks like.

Turn around! Whoo-hoo!

-OK, if you love meat, go "Roooarrr!"

-ALL: Rooooaaaar!

-Whoa! OK, who loves burgers?

-ALL: Me!

-Who loves sausages?

-ALL: Me!

-Yeah? Who loves dung beetles?

-SOME SHOUT: Eurgh!

No, that one didn't go down too well, did it?

-What's your favourite meat?

-Turkey.

-Turkey, OK. What's your favourite meat?

-Burgers!

-Burgers!

-Sausages.

-Sausages. No-one likes dung beetles? Outrageous.

Most people in Britain eat meat, and you know what?

It's great stuff but there are loads of people who don't eat it.

Sometimes it's because of religion, sometimes it's because

they hate the idea of animals being killed for food,

sometimes they just don't like it.

But there are other reasons to pass on the pork chops

and it's all about saving the planet. Oh, yeah.

My question to you is this - what do you guys think cows eat?

-Mice.

-Cows eat mice? They might do, you never know.

-Grass.

-Grass. Anyone else, grass?

-Grass.

-Grass.

Well, some do eat grass, not so big on the mice usually,

but to make them grow faster and bigger,

cows are often fed on grain and this is what grain usually looks like.

It's a mixture of wheat or barley mixed with soya beans.

Quite weird, isn't it? Now, this is a steak. Bring on the steak!

Here's Grace with the steak.

To produce one steak like this, it takes 24 bowls of cereal like this.

It's nearly a month's worth of breakfast.

I know this might be a weird way to think about it

but in a hungry world, what do you think is better -

one steak or 24 bowls of cereal?

-ALL: 24 bowls of cereal.

-24 bowls of cereal? Yeah, maybe, maybe not. OK.

Well, a cow lives for about two years

so if that's for one steak,

how much do you reckon a cow eats in its lifetime?

Is it a bucketload? A shedload?

As much grain as you reckon you can fit in your mum's handbag?

Well, I'll show you, but I need to use one of these.

Bring in the grain. Oh, yeah.

STOOOOOP!

This is how much grain a cow eats in a year.

Look at that. Oh, yeah.

Whoa-hoa, look at that! That is over a ton of grain.

Now, that's kind of fine, but when you think about it,

all that grain could in theory be used to feed humans

and it's not just grain, there's hay, grass,

there's everything else they need too,

most of which grows on land that could perhaps be used

to grow food for humans.

Now, there is loads I love about eating beef

but it's also hiding a very stinky secret.

-ALL SHOUT Burps!

-Poo!

-Stuff!

-Yeah.

Mmm-hmm, loads of stuff. We'll find out exactly what it is later on.

Most people think that all the interesting stuff about food

ends the moment it goes past their lips

but that is when this amazing cascade of reactions happens

so that you can get all the energy out of your food.

And then, you go to the loo. But the fun doesn't stop there. Oh, no.

I've come to this ingenious sewage plant in Bristol

where they turn poo into power.

# Feels like some kinda rush. #

Hey, how are you doing?

'I'm here to meet Mohammed

'and he's an expert in getting energy out of waste.'

Mohammed, this place is amazing but how do you turn poo into power?

We use a number of really incredible processes to help convert

that sewage into renewable energy and the way we do that is we take

the flow and we elevate it using these very clever Archimedes screws.

Once the sewage is elevated, it needs to be thickened up.

Oh-ho, hello!

Yeah. The sludge is coming in here, we've added a chemical

-and you can see it's quite ploppy.

-Whoa!

-So that's basically your poo?

-Yes.

-Essentially.

-Yes.

'The sludge is then pumped into huge digestion tanks

'that act a bit like giant stomachs

'and here is where the magic happens.'

They contain naturally occurring bacteria not too dissimilar to

what we have in our guts and it's those bugs that do the really

clever work and they convert the sludge into biogas.

You say that the bacteria which are in our stomachs produce methane?

-Yes.

-So is what's really happening that the bacteria are eating all

-those little bits of poo, basically?

-Yes.

And when they eat it, there's a by-product,

-they all do basically a little fart?

-Yes.

And those billions of little farts

-basically combine to make a huge amount of methane?

-Yes.

And the biogas is then put into these huge engines that

convert the biogas into electricity that we use to power this

whole site and that's the same electricity that you could use

in your homes when you're watching telly.

It is incredible that you produce enough methane gas to power

-this whole plant.

-It's even better than that, Stefan.

We have spare methane, and we've done something really clever

with that biogas. If you come with me now, I'll show you what we've done.

TRIUMPHANT MUSIC PLAYS

Wow, that is so cool! So, what's going on here?

Well, this is it, Stefan. This is the car that we use,

that's being fuelled by the biomethane we produce from this site.

This is basically a fart-powered car?

Yes. Come on, I'll show you how it works.

What we have here in the boot are two cylinders where

we store the biomethane, so that's compressed gas.

So instead of having a petrol tank, you have a couple of gas tanks?

Absolutely, it's as simple as that. Want to drive it?

-Can I?

-Yes, you can.

-Brilliant.

# It's gonna get It's gonna get

# It's gonna get louder

# We're gonna get We're gonna get

# We're gonna get stronger

You've got a car running on methane!

# You can't tame This energy inside. #

I can't believe I'm actually driving a car powered by human waste.

It's such a brilliant use of everything that happens

when we go to the toilet.

There's just one problem - the sound that comes out of the exhaust.

BREAKING WIND

OK, listen up, we're looking at what happens

when you cut meat out of your diet.

Now, let's say you're happy to eat eggs and dairy but you don't

want to eat anything that's come from an animal that's had to die.

There's loads of vegetarian foods out there,

so it should be easy, right?

ALL: Yeah!

I have a little game and I want Lizzie, Ben

and Ollie to play it for us.

Give them a round of applause, please.

CHEERING

So, I've got four foods over here and I want you to put them

in the right place so you can tell me

whether they've got ingredients that come from animals or not.

OK? So, basically, meaty or veggie.

I'm going to give you 10 seconds to do it. Ready, steady, go!

10! 9!

8! 7! 6!

5! 4! 3!

2! 1!

Stop!

-Have they got it right?

-AUDIENCE:

-No!

-No? Do you think you've got it right, guys?

-Yeah.

-Might be.

I think you done really, really well.

However, there's a little problem.

First of all, have a little taste of the smoky bacon crisps. Smoky bacon.

-And what does bacon come from?

-Pigs!

Pigs. Bacon comes from pigs.

So, you'd expect them to be meaty. However, the flavour that you have

got there - and I love smoky bacon crisps - doesn't come from pork.

It comes from this stuff here. Paprika.

And paprika is a really smoky flavoured... It's a type of pepper.

And... Smell that.

And that is your smoky bacon flavour,

so, sadly, that one has to go in the veggie pile.

Ben, put that with the veggies.

OK. Gravy. Gravy's an easy one.

Have they got it right? It's in the meaty pile.

-Yeah!

-Yeah, they've definitely got gravy right, haven't they?

I'm afraid they haven't.

Because this gravy is actually made

completely from vegetables,

and that delicious meaty flavour comes from onion powder.

So, sadly, I'm afraid that needs to go in the veggie pile.

OK, let's have a look at marshmallows. What do you think?

THEY SHOUT OUT

OK, let's have a look at these fellows.

Now, these are marshmallows.

The classic thing about marshmallows is they're really squidgy.

Would you like a little marshmallow? Tuck in.

Marshmallows have a special ingredient that maybe you wouldn't

expect to find, and it's come from...

Ewww!

This is a cow's foot, and if you eat something with gelatine in,

it's usually come from boiled-up bones.

Would you like to have a little chat with the hoof?

Hello, hoof. Have a little smell. What do you reckon?

-Oh, my God.

-Does that put you off marshmallows?

-Marshmallows still good?

-They're still nice.

-Have another marshmallow.

-Thank you.

-Excellent.

These guys have suddenly become adventurous.

There's loads of gelatine

and it comes often from bones, so you've got to be quite careful.

These guys need to go in the meaty section.

OK, so the last thing is pitta breads.

It's bread, and there's a lot of wheat and stuff like that in them,

but there's a special ingredient in here and it's called L-cysteine.

It usually comes from these...

Feathers. Pretty weird, isn't it?

And these are broken down to get L-cysteine out them,

but L-cysteine used to be made from human hair.

THEY GASP

And that's what would be in your pitta breads. Let's get those out.

Pop those in with the meat, please.

So, appearances can be deceptive.

If you want to be certain what's in your food, take a look

at the label and watch this show before you eat.

Here's what's coming up later in the show.

Newsround's Nel samples the egg from hell.

Eat! Eat! Eat!

And we see how much one cow farts and burps in a year.

'And it's even more than your gran!'

What do you reckon that sounds like when a cow does a fart that big?

HE MAKES FART NOISE

But first, it's time for three fearless foodies is to take on

the unknown terrors of my mystery meal.

Up on stage, we have Carla, Jaz and Grace.

Please give it up for the gladiators of gastronomy!

Oh, yes. Guys, how are you feeling?

-Scared.

-Oh... I don't know.

You're actually shaking a little bit already.

Grace, what is the worst thing that I could serve you?

Pig's trotters.

It's a good job - we've got the barf bucket right next to you.

-And Carla, what would you really hate to be served?

-Sheep brains.

Oh, dear. OK, first of all I need you to put your blindfolds on.

That looks pretty good.

Now, before you try it,

I'm going to show the audience what it is you're going to be tasting.

OK, I'm coming through there. Watch out. Watch out.

These guys are going to be eating...

-these.

-Eww!

-What do you think the might be?

-Um, spiky balls!

-They are kind of strange.

-Urchins!

-Urchins...

-Anemone.

-Anemone.

-They're pretty weird, aren't they?

-Big, spiky balls!

-You know what?

You don't have to eat them. They do!

OK, let's get on with it!

Why are we doing this?

Well, sometimes you can be put off eating something

because of how you imagine what it'll taste like, rather than what

it actually tastes like.

The point of the mystery meal is to put aside your prejudices

and give it a try in any case.

Now, I can reveal to you guys at home what today's mystery meal is.

It's this.

-First of all, I'm going to put one in your hands.

-Oh, what is that?

-Oh!

-There you go, pop it in there.

-Ohh!

-Grace, there's one for you.

Is it a hedgehog?

CHILDREN LAUGH

Have a little feel of them. What does it feel like?

I don't know.

-Chestnuts.

-Chestnuts. OK.

I've also got some that I've already opened, OK.

It does get a bit weirder now, so be careful. Hands out.

OK, are you ready?

Oh! Oh! What is that?

Agh!

Be very careful with it, because you can break their brains open

if you're not careful.

I can't tell you what they are yet,

but I can tell you that it

was originally cultivated by

-Mayan jungle tribes. Now...

-Oh!

It's a good source of vitamin C and calcium, which is good -

it means your teeth shouldn't fall out,

but it is dead popular across Asia.

Any idea what it might be?

-A duck egg.

-A duck egg.

That's a very good guess.

I can kind of smell it, I smelt it before but... is it a massive grape?

Is it like a grape?

Well, I need to warn you that there is something hard inside,

so you can't eat the whole thing.

-I'll have one at the same time as you.

-Is it a baby plum?

A baby plum?

-I'm going to eat this with you, OK. Are you ready?

-Yeah.

-No.

So, take a little bite of what's in your hands. There you go.

You can't bite into it!

Oh... Oh, that's horrible.

-Eugh!

-That's really nice. It's like a bit of fruit.

Nah, it's just horrible.

Is it... Oh, I don't know.

It's not an eyeball.

Grace is being absolutely brilliant

because she's still taking more of it, that's fantastic.

I think it's time to take your blindfolds off.

Oh!

-That's nice.

-And this is the original thing that it came from.

Quite strange things, aren't they? OK, you have been eating...

..rambutan. I know that doesn't mean much to you,

but basically, it's a jungle fruit.

AND it's very much like a litchi, it tastes a little of watermelon.

What do you reckon to it now?

-Nice.

-The big question is, would you like another one?

-Yeah.

-Yeah?

Grace says yeah. Jaz, you're not so keen, are you? He's saying no!

-Carla, what do you reckon, brave enough for another one?

-Yeah.

Brilliant. Fantastic. Guys, give them a massive round of applause.

APPLAUSE

Argh, my brain's on fire, it's coming out of my ears!

No, it's not. These are dragon fruit.

They are some of the most bonkers fruit on the planet.

It's like a mad inventor has invented a fruit that you

might have at a disco. Inside, it gets even wilder. Look at that.

There's bright, bright purple skin around the outside

and this white flesh inside, flecked with little black seeds.

It's very, very strange.

Now, this is the flower from a cactus,

and you get it in lots of hot countries.

Let's have a little try.

It's really tender flesh,

you can just kind of fish it out with a teaspoon.

What's really weird is,

it doesn't really taste of very much.

This is a classic case of style over substance.

It's time for the part of the show where

we force-feed celebrities the scariest foods on Earth,

as we play Incredible Or Inedible?

CHEERING

Let's meet today's celeb. It's Newround's Nel Hedayat.

Give her a round of applause.

-Hi, guys, hi!

-How are you doing?

Really well. Really nervous as well.

Because I have no idea what you're about to do to me. Very nervous.

I've got a question for you.

Now, it's a commonly held belief that celebrities like you

don't eat normal food. They exist on stardust and moonbeams.

This is not true. Is that what you eat for lunch?

I just generally do with a sandwich.

-Just like the rest of us?

-Just like the rest of you.

-Fair enough.

-Now, what is your favourite food?

-My absolute...

I'm from Afghanistan, so my favourite food

comes from Afghanistan, it's called mantu, which is like a strange pastry

looking thing filled with minced meat and spices, and you add chickpeas

on top and yoghurt,

and it's the nicest thing that's ever been in my mouth.

-It's just delicious.

-So you've brought one for me?

-I left it in my dressing room.

-Nel! OK, all right.

So, my next question then is, what is your worst ever meal?

What's the thing you'd be most scared of?

When I was a kid, I was always terrified of - don't judge me -

tomatoes. I found them really freaky.

They had this weird texture, but now that I've grown up

and now I'm ancient, like, way older than you guys, I love them.

They're delicious and I eat them all the time!

That's a really good job, I have to say.

I had a moment of fear there for a minute.

I'm going to give you three different dishes to try.

After each one of them, you have to tell us what

the experience was like, whether it was terrifying,

whether it was horrific, whether it was wonderful and transcendental.

-OK?

-OK.

-It could go either way, quite frankly.

-I'm trusting you.

OK. Come on over to the desk.

-OK.

-Bring on the first dish!

-Here we go. Thank you very much. Here we go.

-Right.

-Are you ready?

-I'm ready.

-Ayyy!

Oh! THEY LAUGH

OK.

So, grab yourself a little teaspoon there and dig into these,

-because these are eyeballs.

-CHILDREN GIGGLE

No, sorry, they're not. They're not.

They're mangosteens, OK, mangosteens

and they're absolutely beautiful.

These are a popular fruit from the Sunda Islands in Indonesia.

It was known as the Queen of Fruits,

and it was the favourite of Queen Victoria, so much so

it's rumoured she offered £100,

which was a heck of a lot of money in those days,

to the first person that could bring the fruit to England.

It's...

-actually gorgeous.

-A-ha!

-Very nice.

Basically, they taste really fresh, really fruity,

they're not very sweet.

But they've got this, like, really, like, I don't know, slightly...

I don't know how to say it, but it's slightly sweet, but not over the top.

It's not like an apple, that's for sure.

But I'm actually quite glad you said eyeballs, because they do,

when you take them out, look a bit like eyeballs. Look at them.

-It does, doesn't it?

-Yes.

-But you reckon pretty good, then?

-Mmm!

There is your sticker. So, what do you reckon, guys?

Incredible or inedible?

-ALL:

-Incredible!

-Mm.

-That sounds pretty good. What do you think?

-I think they are...

-right!

-They are incredible.

OK, that was pretty good. Frankly, that's as good as it gets.

OK, bring on the second dish.

-That's fantastic. Thank you, sir. OK. Here we go. Are you ready?

-Yes.

-Bang.

-Oh!

-Ooh...

-Ah...

-What in goodness...

-Now, this is what we've got here.

-They're quite wibbly wobbly. Can you see them?

-Ew!

-They're kind of...

Don't say that, I have to eat it!

Yeah. OK. In here is...

tomato caviar.

Oh!

What we've made...

She didn't like tomatoes before, but she thinks she's got over it.

Basically, you take tomatoes and add something called an alginate, OK.

Now, this comes from seaweed. OK.

And it basically makes a gel out of the tomatoes

and you drop that into another chemical called calcium chloride

and it makes a little caviar ball,

which is a ball of tomato flesh, with a slightly harder casing

on the outside and quite soft on the inside.

SHE CLEARS HER THROAT

-Mm!

-You are doing brilliantly so far.

-Yeah, great(!)

-It looks a little bit like baked beans.

-It's gooey!

It's like having strange bits of jelly in your mouth

that shouldn't be in your mouth.

And then there's a really strange aftertaste of, like,

cold tomato soup.

But, like, not nice cold tomato soup.

-It's actually quite revolting, I'm afraid.

-Revolting?

-Yeah.

You're bringing me back to my childhood days

when I absolutely did not like tomatoes!

We've turned you off tomatoes! So, I can see which way this is going.

Is this incredible or inedible?

-ALL:

-Inedible!

-Pop that on the board.

-I used to like tomatoes, Stef.

-I used to like them, but they are most certainly un-edible!

-No!

OK. Third and final one, this one's dead easy. OK.

Bring on the third dish. Brilliant.

Thank you very much. This is...

It's the simplest thing I've ever fed anyone, here we go.

Here we have egg and soldiers.

Crack into it.

Why is it a very strange shade of...

Oh, my goodness.

-Oh, my goodness, guys!

-I'll help you do this.

Oh, guys. Oh, no!

This is a slightly different egg from normal. It is...

-CHILDREN GROAN

-..green inside.

-It's not mouldy.

-Are you sure?

-There's nothing wrong with it.

-Are you quite sure?!

-Perfectly edible.

-There's your teaspoon.

-Oh, my goodness. Right.

I think I would have preferred brains.

You dig in and I'll explain what's going on.

Why is there a weird jelly thing? Oh, my goodness.

This is called a century egg, and it's a Chinese delicacy.

What you have is an egg that's been preserved...

I can't! No. No way, no way.

..in a very special way, so that the preservation method...

-Oh, my goodness!

-..makes it smell a little bit rank.

-It...

To say the least! To say the least!

OK, but I'll tell you, traditionally speaking,

-the smell isn't very good...

-Yes.

-The taste is supposed to be lovely.

-Oh, really?

-Yeah, it'll be fine. Eat it!

-ALL: Eat it, eat it!

ALL: Eat it, eat it, eat it!

Oh! APPLAUSE

This is a real food, by the way, people actually do create this,

but they're a little bit stinky. Do you want a try?

-Have a little smell of that.

-It's horrible, isn't it?

-It's absolutely horrible.

-Smell that.

Do you know what it smells like? It smells like when you go out

into the public and you get public toilets,

it smells like public toilets.

Thank you. Thanks a whole bunch.

So, all that remains is for you to decide

whether century eggs are incredible or inedible.

The thing is, you've really tricked me with this one,

-because it does smell foul but it tastes nice...

-OK.

..so although it smells like a public toilet, it tastes...

ALL: Incredible!

It tastes good. No, it tastes good. Sorry, guys, it tastes really good.

-Oh, my word!

-I'm going to have another one.

You have been an amazing guest, so brave!

Give her a massive round of applause.

APPLAUSE

What we've got in here is not just ant eggs,

but baby ants as well.

Now, these have been canned and cooked,

normally you have them fresh, but I need wash these and heat them up.

This is what they look like when they're ready.

It's like breakfast in a horror movie. Right, let's have a taste.

The taste and the flavour aren't much to write home about,

it's the sensation of biting into something and an ant egg

exploding in your mouth, they're not the best flavour in the world but

if you want to take your mouth on a wild adventure, I'd give it a go.

MOOING

Now, earlier on, we found out

how much grain a cow eats, but there's more.

Now, listen up, because a cow's digestion

is wildly different to humans.

They have amazing stomachs designed for grass.

When we eat grass, it passes straight through us,

but cows have developed an amazing set of multiple stomachs that

let them squeeze some of the goodness out of the green stuff.

The trouble is, there's a very smelly side-effect.

-Anyone know what it might be?

-ALL: Thwrrt!

Yep, as part of their digestion, cows create a lot of gas,

from their mouths and their bums.

Now, I want to show you just what I'm talking about -

this is how much gas you guys tend to produce in farts every day.

Does anyone here not fart? Who doesn't fart? You all fart!

Everyone there farts, I promise you.

Now, this is how much gas I produce every day. Oh, yeah, baby!

That much gas. Sometimes a lot more. It depends if I've had the beans.

OK, now, cows produce loads of farts containing loads of different gases,

but the methane alone that they produce in one day

looks a bit like this.

Bring in the big guys. Whoa-hoh! Oh! Whoo!

Where have you gone? Where have you gone?

Yep, that's 295 litres of gas. What do you reckon to that, guys?

CHEERING

Oh, yeah, whoo indeed!

Now, loads of people think that this stuff is a big cause

of global warming, and along with all the grain we saw earlier,

it might be a good reason to avoid beef. It's your call.

Now, that's a day's worth of gas,

but what about a year's worth of cow methane.

Do you want to see what that looks like?

-ALL: Yeah!

-Turn around! Whoo-hoo!

What do you reckon that sounds like when a cow does a fart that big?

Thwrrt!

Well, that's all we've got time for today. Thank you so much to Nel

and my brilliant studio audience and to you guys at home for watching.

This has been Incredible Edibles!

CHEERING

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd