Does Food Taste Better Outdoors? Gastronuts

OK, Gastronuts, let's find out what our task is this week.

"Does food taste better outdoors?"

The Gastronuts eating alfresco with me today are...

Sometimes I like eating on the beach

but you get sand in your sandwiches.

The weirdest place to have a picnic would be in a tree

because it's not easy to get to.

The best thing about eating on the beach would be

you could go in the sea and yet still eat while you're paddling.

If you drop some food, you don't get into trouble.

Coming up, the Gastros go nuts when they see what's on the barbie.

-This, my friend...

-Oh!

..is a squirrel.

We eat like a witch. These are roasted tarantulas.

And I get my gob round a king cone!

What's great about eating outdoors?

-You can have fun.

-You don't have to worry about table manners.

-Why's that?

-You can spill a little bit of food and no-one will fuss.

No knives and forks.

You can eat a bit, then play and come back later.

Today, we're going to break free from the dining table

and find out if food really does taste better outdoors.

-Are you with me?

-Yes!

-OK, let's go!

How would a Gastronut eat outside?

-Barbecue.

-Barbecues.

-Do you like barbecues?

-Yes.

-What do you like about barbecues?

You cook the food yourself outside.

-You get the control.

-And marshmallows.

Well, I thought we'd do a Gastronuts version of a barbecue,

taking all of the things that you normally find in a garden

and use them to cook our food. We've made a big fire outside

and we're cooking familiar food with some very unusual implements.

-OK, Maksim, what have you got here?

-A shovel.

Now, this is a scrupulously clean brand-new shovel.

We're going to try and fry some eggs on it.

A nice slathering of oil in the middle there. Perfect.

-What have you got here?

-Tomatoes.

-Tomatoes and...

-A rake.

-I wonder if we could grill some tomatoes using the rake.

-Yeah.

Add some lemon oil. Now put all of these tomatoes on to the rake.

-Sausages.

-And?

-A fork.

It's a bit bigger than your average piece of cutlery, isn't it?

-I wondered if we could use this to do the sausages.

-Yes.

So, that's it. Excellent. OK, that'll do the trick.

-OK, Cyara, do you know what this is?

-Slate.

-Exactly.

We're going to use this to fry some bacon.

You grab some oil from there. Lovely.

Grab a few slices of bacon and just lay them on to the slate. Brilliant.

-OK, is everyone ready?

-Yes.

-Pick up your garden tool and come over here.

Time to barbecue our breakfast, but no meal's complete without a cuppa.

I thought we'd make some tea with this watering can...

'If you're thinking of trying this at home

'you will need brand-new garden tools

'that won't leach out any dangerous chemicals when heated,

'and make sure they're spotlessly clean. Our breakfast is now ready.

'It was strangely cooked, but how will it taste?'

-Crispy and smoky.

-A bit harder.

-Try the eggs, see what it's like.

It tastes a little bit squidgey and slightly...a bit dry

and it's really nice inside.

The eggs are a little bit smoky.

I've been inspired by the idea of eating out in our garden.

I wonder if we can use the barbecue to indulge in a bit of pest control.

-Yeah, what is pest control?

-Well, let's go and find out.

Time to get down to some serious pest control.

-Have you ever heard of invasive species?

-Yeah.

-What are they?

-Rats or mice?

-It's animals that have come into our country from abroad

-that do damage to other wildlife.

-Oh, like the grey squirrels?

-Yeah.

I'm going to introduce you to these little fellas.

Have you ever seen these before? These are called signal crayfish.

These came over from North America, but in UK rivers,

they drive a lot of the other species out because they're very aggressive.

-What do you reckon his name is?

-Stinky?

-Now, these fellas

cause problems to the wildlife in the UK,

so they're bad news, except for the fact that they are delicious.

You have to boil them first and, when you boil them, they change colour

and end up looking like that. A bit like lobsters.

We'll just drop those straight on the barbecue. Let's look at another pest.

-Now this little fella has caused untold damage to our gardens.

-Slugs?

-Slugs. Anything else?

-Rats?

Well, these things are sometimes called rats that live in trees.

'In case you didn't quite catch my meaning, I'm talking about squirrels.

'If you don't want to see a squirrel being cooked and eaten,

'this is the time to leave the room and put your fingers in your ears.'

This, my friend...

..is a squirrel.

-Have you ever eaten squirrel before?

-No.

-What do you think about the idea of eating squirrel?

-Squirrels are cute!

They are very cute. However, this is a grey squirrel.

These first came from North America

and they've damaged trees and the squirrel population in Britain.

We have the red squirrel and it's thought that the grey squirrel

carries a virus which is deadly to the red squirrel.

-So what do you think we need to do to little Squirrel Nutkin?

-Wash it.

-Do you like eating fur?

-No.

-It's best to take the fur off, isn't it?

-So, what we've done is this.

-Oh!

Are there two of them?

That's what a squirrel looks like when it's had its fur taken off.

-It looks like a mini chicken.

-Or a mini rabbit.

-How much meat is there on it?

-Not much.

-Is there much fat on it?

-No.

It's very lean meat, which means it's really good for you.

'Because the squirrel is so lean, we've marinated it in olive oil

'and wrapped it in bacon so it doesn't burn on the barbie.'

It's time for your pest control lunch.

So everyone grab a crayfish, have a little taste of your pest.

-It's nice.

-I like it.

-I think it's delicious.

-It's like scrambled egg.

-OK, it's time to move on to the squirrel.

-Do you reckon this is going to taste good?

-Yeah.

It just seems cruel to kill sweet little squirrels.

-And what about killing a chicken, is that cruel?

-No.

-They taste nice and they don't feel pain.

-Yes, they do, they...

-OK, are you ready for squirrel, guys?

-Yeah.

-OK, chow down.

-It tastes a lot like chicken, actually.

-It's nice.

-That's nice.

At first it seems cruel, but then, when you taste it, it's really nice.

It's nice and moist. I thought it was really cruel to kill it as well,

but it tastes really nice.

You get lunch and you do some pest control, so it's like...

killing two squirrels with one stone.

OK, let's talk about street food.

-What does street food mean to you?

-Sandwiches.

-Hot dogs.

Hot dogs, that's a real classic street food. Hamburgers.

-Chinese.

-Just like normal takeaway food, but on the street.

-In Spain, they have sweetie counters everywhere.

-Yeah.

It's fun buying new foods out and about. I want to introduce you

to some weird and wonderful street food from all around the world.

-Are you going to be brave?

-Yeah!

-Are you going to try it?

-Yeah!

-Excellent!

Welcome to Stef's Strange And Wonderful Street Food Shack.

We have a selection of strange and wonderful foods from round the world.

First of all, from Scotland, these are deep fried chocolate bars.

So everyone grab a chocolate bar.

It's really nice.

A classic Scottish delicacy.

-Is it a good idea, do you think?

-No.

-Why not?

-In case you're on a diet.

-It tastes nice, but it's unhealthy.

-Why would you want to add more fat?

I guess it's quite fun. Now we're going to go further afield.

From Denmark we have raw herring

with a scattering of onions and gherkins.

Herring is absolutely delicious,

but it does sometimes have tiny, tiny little bones in.

-It's quite nice.

-I like it.

It's mild, but the onions just makes it really strong.

OK. Well done, guys. Now we're going to go to South America. Colombia.

What do you reckon those little fellas on top of the yoghurt are?

-Ants.

-Ants.

-Urgh!

-These are some of the finest insects in the world.

These are fat bottomed ants.

Everyone grab one of those. Pick off an ant...

I don't want to look at the face.

-..and have a little nibble.

-I don't like it that much.

-Horrible!

-They just taste weird.

-These are very, very salty ones.

It's horrible.

It's really salty.

I just... It's horrible.

-It doesn't feel nice.

-If you were in Colombia...

-It's disgusting.

..you'd scoff this down. I'm going to have a whole piece! Urgh!

I think they taste of smoky bacon.

Which foods do you think you shouldn't eat?

-What sort of animals and insects...?

-A spider.

-Poisonous...

-Poisonous spiders.

Well, let me introduce you to a little delicacy from Cambodia.

-Oh!

-These are roasted tarantulas.

Urgh! No.

-So, grab a little chunk of that.

-It doesn't look very nice.

-Yeah.

-I'll grab a leg.

-The legs are furry!

Are the legs edible?

Erin, you grab that fellow there.

It's nice.

Very good. In Cambodia, this is a classic snack.

People eat them because they're really delicious.

The meat inside is actually quite salty.

You can see the head and the claws.

-I'm just going to have to take the whole head off.

-That's not a head!

-Oh, no!

-It's like crisps, isn't it?

When you eat outdoors you discover a whole new range of tastes.

There's more things on offer.

I'm now getting a little taste of shrimp.

We are exploring whether food tastes better in the great outdoors.

We've chargrilled some pests...

That's what squirrel looks like without fur.

In a bit, we'll be using a hammer to crack an egg.

And later on I take a delicate lick of a Gastronut sized ice cream.

-Am I allowed to try it?

-Yeah!

So, this is the classic kind of outdoor food. A little picnic.

Grab a sandwich.

-What's really useful about the sandwich?

-You can grab it.

It's kind of finger food.

Sandwiches aren't particularly interesting, are they?

Except for the fact that they had to be invented by somebody.

It's a genius idea that you can grab this and eat it on the go.

And now billions of pounds are spent on sandwiches every year.

-What have we got here?

-Cornish pasties.

-Do you like them?

-Yeah.

-I love Cornish pasties.

-I don't like pasties.

-These are special pasties.

These are the original pastie and you've got two ends here.

You've got an end with a cross on and an end with a spot on.

-Like a croissant size.

-Take a bite from the end with the cross on it.

-Meat.

-Um-hmm, meat.

-It's nice.

-Yeah.

-Potatoes.

-Potatoes.

Miners and people who worked outside, their wives would make them,

they carried them to work and they would stay in one piece,

which was really important.

They could just get this out of the bag and eat it.

Let's have a little try of the end with the dot on.

-Apple pie.

-Is it...main meal and a pudding side?

Brilliant! It's exactly that.

It's a two course meal in a pastry case.

You'd have your main course first, and finish off with a pudding.

-If you ate the middle bit, would it be a mixture of both?

-Have a go.

You are eating dessert and your main course at the same time.

I thought you said you didn't like them? You're scoffing that now!

-So, what else have we got here?

-Fish egg?

-It's something French.

-It's actually not, it's something more Scotch...

-Scotch eggs.

-Scotch egg!

A coating of sausage meat around the outside. Inside you've got an egg.

We should make our own. But if the Gastronuts are making a Scotch egg,

we want to blow the whole concept apart.

-Putting egg on the outside and sausage inside the egg.

-Yeah.

-Will we try another way of making it really spectacular?

-Yeah.

OK, let's go make a Gastronut Scotch egg. Follow me!

-The essential ingredient of any Scotch egg is what?

-An egg.

How long does it take to hard boil an egg?

-Five minutes.

-Five minutes, yes.

But I think we should start with something more spectacular.

This, my friends is an egg of champions!

-Do you know what this is?

-Ostrich?

It's an ostrich egg, exactly!

It's huge! It takes one and a half hours to boil an ostrich egg.

This has already been hard boiled for us.

-So all we need to do is what?

-Crack the shell.

-Exactly.

Be very careful because eggs are very delicate.

Maybe a little bit harder than that.

OK, why don't we try one of those instead?

Well, it's time for the hammer.

Oh, oh! OK, we're getting in there, a bit more.

-Yeah, we're in!

-Cool.

-Wow! Look at that.

-Blimey! It's extraordinary.

You can see this massive yolk sitting inside the white there, can't you?

-It looks like a bruise.

-It does, doesn't it?

-What else goes into a Scotch egg?

-Sausage.

-Sausage meat.

'To make the sausage meat,

'we mix minced pork with herbs and spring onion...'

-Squidgey.

-Urgh!

-It looks like a big mess of fat.

'We then slap it onto some floured cling film

'and wrap the egg up in its porky jacket.'

Beautiful. OK, what we need now is to cover it in breadcrumbs.

Lovely. Now we need to deep fry it.

'Deep frying the world's largest Scotch egg can be rather dangerous,

'so if you're going to try it, get the help of a responsible adult.'

That's going to take a long time to cook so we should get ready.

We're eating this in a spectacular picnic and you need to get changed.

So, this is how the Victorians would have a picnic.

They would take their dining room and bring it all outside.

You can take your beards off now.

So, what it's like wearing all this Victorian stuff and the beards?

-Is it relaxed?

-Itchy.

-It makes you quite stiff, doesn't it?

Victorians liked the stiffness and formality

and they liked their food to be spectacular and formal as well.

-So what can you see around the table?

-Cake.

-Cakes.

-Scotch eggs.

-Loads of pies, Scotch eggs, a whole ham.

The other thing they liked having at picnics was one of these -

Lenny the lobster. So, ever had a lobster at a picnic before?

-No.

-The Victorians loved things like this, but there were rules.

Can you see the amount of cutlery you've got there?

Vast amounts of cutlery. It's quite terrifying looking at all that stuff.

OK, we need to eat the monster egg!

That is ridiculous. Look at that.

-I used to think that Scotch eggs were quite big until I saw this.

-Massive!

Get ready for your first ever bite of ostrich Scotch egg.

Get your whole face in there.

Way to go, girl!

The Gastronuts are absolutely right, the Victorians were bonkers.

What do you want to bring the whole dining room outside for?

What I do love about the Victorians is their love of spectacle.

They liked extravagance and that makes eating outside an adventure.

How do you make ice cream in a plastic bag? Let me show you.

Here is our little bag and we're going to put into it strawberries.

And then we're going to put in chocolate buttons or chips.

And, finally, we're going to put a mix of cream and eggs and sugar

with a little bit of vanilla flavouring in it.

So there is our ice cream ready to be made.

But how are we going to freeze it?

Well, for that we're going to use a slightly larger bag

and we're going to put lots and lots of ice first of all...

and then we're going to put our favourite secret ingredient -

ordinary table salt.

And so here goes - lots and lots of salt in there.

The salt tastes terrible, but our ice cream's going to be in the bag.

We're going to zip it shut.

Now we're going to mix them up, the salt and the ice.

The temperature actually drops well below zero.

It's probably down around minus 12, and this is because the salt

actually stops the ice freezing and it acts a bit like a freezer.

Now that's all mixed. Feels ready.

Let's pull it out, let's unzip the bag,

and the proof of the pudding is in the eating.

And have a look.

We've got gorgeous strawberry...

..ice cream.

Mmmm! With chocolate chips.

Tastes brilliant.

OK, Gastronuts, you've eaten your main courses outside,

now it's time for dessert outdoors.

What do you reckon is your favourite outdoors dessert?

-Ice cream!

-Ice cream!

-Ice cream!

OK, Gastronuts, what's the most unusual ice cream flavour

-you've ever tried?

-Cappuccino.

-Anything else?

-Rose.

Rose ice cream? Do you think it was made with essence of roses?

-I don't know what it was, it was just weird.

-That's so cool.

I thought we would invent some brand-new ice cream flavours.

Morgan, you'll make cheese puff flavoured ice cream.

Maksim, you're going to make fish and chips flavoured ice cream.

You've got chips here and some fish stock here.

Over here we've got Bolognese flavoured ice cream.

And what you've got here is beef stock and some sun dried tomatoes.

Erin, you're going to make sick flavoured ice cream!

No, that's not sick flavoured ice cream. This is pesto.

What I'm going to make is a bacon and egg ice cream.

So, I know this sounds like a crazy idea,

but there are some famous precedents for this.

Up in Worcestershire, they eat Stilton cheese flavoured ice cream.

In Japan there's even raw horseflesh flavoured ice cream.

-Eurgh!

-Pretty weird, isn't it?

Well, I wonder if some of these might be even weirder.

What you've got here in this bowl in front of you

is what's called creme anglaise.

The base of every ice cream.

We should wait for the cheese puffs until the last second,

otherwise they might go a bit soggy.

Everyone else, grab away.

Now, the thing is an ice cream maker takes about three or four hours.

We haven't got that, we want to do this instantly.

My instant ice cream making device is Matthew.

Now, Matthew isn't the actual ice cream making device.

-Matthew, tell us what you've got.

-A vat containing liquid nitrogen.

This is a very, very cold substance.

It's actually at minus 200 degrees C. That's far, far colder than ice.

OK, we're all ready to go.

Let's get those cheesy puffs into the creme anglaise.

OK, I think we're all set.

Everyone, take four steps back.

OK, let's go.

Believe it or not we're not the first people to do this.

A Victorian cookbook from 1885 suggested using liquid nitrogen

to make instant ice cream at picnics and dinner parties,

but they probably didn't try cheesy puff flavour!

OK, guys, in you come.

-That's nice.

-It's too cold!

-I think that's delicious.

-It tastes really nice.

It tastes like custard and cheesy puff at the same time.

-It's surprisingly nice!

-That's what it is!

Next up for freezing is Maksim's fish and chips ice cream.

That's nasty.

-What do you reckon?

-Eurgh!

-It's too fishy.

Now the spag bol gets the liquid nitrogen treatment.

Oh, yeah, it's Bolognese ice cream!

-Eurgh!

-I think I put too much tomato in.

-I don't like it.

-That is... Eurgh!

-I don't know, it's got this...

really weird flavour that I don't really like.

-Not happy about that.

-Sickening!

-I quite like that.

-Eurgh!

Will Erin's pesto flavoured ice cream go down any better?

That is brilliant!

I think it needed a bit less pesto.

It's a bit like when you have pistachio ice cream

and you get that flavour that comes in,

sort of 10, 20 seconds after you start eating it.

-It's like that.

-I'm not keen on it.

I know, and it was your pesto!

Last up it's my eggs and bacon flavour.

It tastes nasty.

-Here goes.

-I like it.

Once you've kind of got all the cream out it's OK.

The bacon's the best. Why don't we just have ice cream and bacon?

Ice cream and bacon and skip the eggs!

-Guys, which one is your favourite?

-Bacon and eggs.

-Cheese puffs.

-Bacon and eggs.

-None of them!

Cheese puffs and bacon and eggs are the joint favourites, aren't they?

I've got a special Gastronuts ice cream machine

and I thought I'd let you have a go.

-Yes!

-Would that be cool?

-Yeah.

-OK, you wait here, I'll go and get it.

-Oh!

-Aaaaah!

That is so cool!

-Do you want to get in?

-Yeah!

-OK.

I'll see you round the other side.

-Oh, wow!

-This is seriously cool.

OK, Gastronuts, what does it feel like being inside an ice cream van?

-So cool!

-It's like you're inside heaven there, isn't it?

-Yeah!

-OK, right, well I guess you'd better have a go

at making some ice cream.

-Ever done this before?

-No.

-OK.

Whoa-ho! Stop! Ha-ha!

It comes out pretty quick, doesn't it?

How much better can you get than that?

OK, just a quick squirt. Try make a better one.

Whoa! There you go. Are you ready? Whoa! Look at that!

You've made your very first ice cream. What do you think of that?

-Yeah!

-Yeah, cool and big!

Gigantic!

-Ice cream heaven.

-Tastes good.

I now have a challenge for you.

I want to see if you guys

can make the most spectacular ice cream in the world ever,

and I've got something that might be useful for you to make it in.

That's a cone!

OK, I'll go away, I'll be back in one minute.

-Yeah! We're ready!

-Come on, Stef, we're ready!

-Yes!

How have you got on, guys? Oh, my gosh!

-That is extraordinary! How much are you go to charge me for that?

-£5.

-£5. Spot on.

-100!

-25.

-No, I'll take the first offer. There's a fiver.

-Yeah!

-OK, am I allowed to try it?

-Yeah!

Brilliant. It's like a 999, isn't it?

We've had the most fantastic experience.

When you're outside, your senses are more finely tuned

and flavours taste much stronger.

You find extraordinary foods, things I've never tasted in my life.

Being on Gastronuts has made me think differently about food

and think what foods you think you can't eat, you can,

and actually they're really tasty.

When I see a squirrel tomorrow I'm not going to think about it,

but I know that they taste good anyway.

When I tasted the tarantula it tasted really nice,

though it looked like a really weird food to eat.

The best bit about being on Gastronuts

was being in the ice cream van

because it's a once-in-a-lifetime chance

and you'll never get to go in one again.

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