Basildon Incredible Edibles

I've had years of practise doing barmy food experiments

but don't try anything you see on Incredible Edibles,

especially if it involves knives, matches, raw meat, ovens,

unicorns or windmills.

If you don't like blood, guts, gore and entrails then close your eyes

for half an hour and think about fluffy pink kittens instead.

My name's Stefan Gates and I'm a food adventurer,

which means I get my kicks from eating rotten fish,

from chewing insects and from sucking on goat's eyeballs.

The kind of food that'll make you scream.

And now it's your turn, because this is Incredible Edibles.

-You ready for adventure, guys?

-ALL: Yeah!

My adventures have taken me right across the country and today,

I'm here in glorious Basildon in Essex, home to some fantastic grub.

-Now, are you hungry guys?

-ALL: Yeah!

Woo-hoo. I think they're hungry.

It's a good job because this is what's on today's menu.

We make the ice cream flavours from hell.

The audience wants you to add a spoonful of baked beans

to your ice cream.

I reveal a mystery meal that drives our volunteer quackers.

AUDIENCE GROANS

-Now that you know what it is, do you want to try some more?

-No!

-No?

And we try a local delicacy that's so fresh

it's still alive-alive-o.

-Have you ever had oysters before?

-I've had cooked ones but not raw.

This was alive until seconds ago.

-What do you think it looks like?

-Like phlegm.

AUDIENCE GROANS

Now, I like to start every show by doing something amazing with food.

Something that'll make you shout...

ALL: That's incredible!

Who here likes ice cream?

-ALL: Me!

-But what's incredible about that?

You think there's nothing incredible about ice cream,

but I'm going to try making ice cream but without using a freezer.

Any idea how I could make ice cream without using a freezer?

-Yeah. What do you reckon?

-Go to the North Pole.

You could just be in the North Pole, couldn't you?

-Get snow and put cream in it.

-A brilliant idea.

-Yeah, what do you reckon?

-Put it in a freezing cold bath.

Put it in a freezing cold bath. That might do it. OK.

But I want to make ice cream using just everyday things. Ice and salt.

Yeah, bit weird, isn't it? And I can't do it on my own

so I've asked the help of some of Basildon's finest.

Here we have Krisdeana, Tommy and Daisy.

Give them a big round of applause!

-Follow me!

-APPLAUSE

OK, guys,

first thing when you make ice cream is you need to make your base. OK?

What's ice cream made of? Anyone?

-Apples!

-Shout out! Apples?!

-Cream!

-Cream! Somebody said cream.

That's brilliant. Exactly that. We start off with cream.

You've got a bag each and each bag has got a little bit of cream in.

Pick it up so we can see it.

We're going to add our flavours to the single cream.

So, here we have a whole bunch of different ones.

We've got bacon, fish fingers, baked beans, peas, pepperoni,

strawberries, garlic, corned beef, chilli and salt and vinegar crisps.

There's only one thing that all these have in common -

you never find them together in any ice cream on the planet.

So, first of all, Krisdeana, can you choose your first flavour?

-Er...strawberries.

-Strawberries, OK. Here's some strawberries.

You've gone for the safe option there. There we go.

Now, is strawberry ice cream very adventurous, guys?

-ALL: No!

-No. But that's fine

because it's your job to choose an ingredient to go with it.

What would you like to choose out of this to go with the strawberries?

-ALL: Bacon!

-Bacon?

All right. OK. The consensus appears to be bacon.

Krisdeana, take a spoonful of bacon and add it to the strawberries.

While you're popping that in there, Tommy, what's your base ingredient?

-Salt and vinegar crisps.

-What a brilliant idea!

Who's ever had ice cream with salt and vinegar crisps?

SCREAMS OF DISGUST

OK, our audience can chose what goes with the salt and vinegar crisps.

-What do you reckon?

-Beans!

-Beans?!

Beans. That's a brilliant idea. OK.

The audience would like you to add a spoonful of baked beans

to your salt and vinegar crisp ice cream.

-OK, Daisy, what would you like to start with?

-Peas.

Peas. OK. Pea flavoured ice cream.

OK, spoonful of peas into the bag.

OK, what do you reckon goes really badly with peas?

-Chilli!

-Chilli?!

I'm sorry, they made me do it.

(ALL CHANT) Chilli, chilli, chilli, chilli!

A spoonful of chilli.

Oh, what are you like?

OK, I'm going to go for corned beef.

I've never had corned beef ice cream.

And you guys can chose what goes with my corned beef.

-Garlic!

-Garlic?!

(ALL CHANT) Garlic, garlic, garlic, garlic!

Why do you have to torture me?

Corned beef and garlic ice cream.

Shall I put the whole lot in?

-Whole lot?

-ALL: Yeah!

Oh, my word! OK.

We need to close these up but we need to get the air out first.

So, squeeze to get the air out. And then zip them up really rightly.

OK, guys. In the bucket down here are some bags with some ice.

Pop it up on the top there.

Now, put your smaller bag into the bag, on top of the ice.

So the magic ingredient is this... the salt.

So, grab your cup of salt and pour it in,

next to your little bag of cream.

Something amazing happens

when you mix together ice and salt.

Water normally freezes at zero degrees centigrade,

but when you add salt to ice, you start off a reaction

that lowers the temperature which you can use to freeze things.

And that's exactly what we're doing here.

Now we need to start a reaction between the salt and ice.

We need to shake this up. Give it a shake. Try and shake it around,

get the ice at either side of the bag. That's pretty good.

Get all that going. Now, let's see if the magic is actually happening.

OK, so come and have a look at this. So, I've shaken it up a little bit.

Let's check the temperature with this laser thermometer.

So, it's at 10.5. The temperature is slowly dropping.

-11. Give it a little bit of a shake.

-12.

OK, so the theory is working.

Guys, I think these guys haven't been doing any work yet, have they?

-No!

-OK, time to get you shaking.

Give me your bags there. There you go.

Give it a bit of a shake about. Give it a bit of a shake like that.

Give it a bit of a waggle.

That looks like it's going crazy in there. That's it!

Let's pass it on. You can do that one.

If you take it upside down. Oh, you got ice dropping out on you!

Yes, that's looking pretty good. Pass it over here.

Brilliant guys, well done.

Krisdeana, get the spoon in there and see if you've got any ice cream.

And hold it up.

So have we got ice cream?

-APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

-That is brilliant!

But the question is, is it edible? It's time to taste the ice cream.

Krisdeana, tell us what you had in your ice cream?

I had strawberry and bacon.

Strawberry and bacon flavoured ice cream.

OK, grab a spoonful and give it a try.

(ALL CHANT) Eat it, eat it, eat it!

Krisdeana, what does it taste like?

Erm...

It tastes a bit like... a strawberry milkshake.

Strawberry milkshake! Strawberry and bacony milkshake.

-Is that a thumbs up or a thumbs down?

-Thumbs down.

Oh, no!

OK. Tommy, just remind us, what was in your ice cream?

Baked beans and salt and vinegar crisps.

Baked beans and salt and vinegar crisp ice cream.

Take a nice spoonful of it.

Have a little taste and tell us what it tastes like?

-ALL: Urgh!

-He's got an appetite on him, hasn't he?

Oh! Oh!

OK, so, Tommy, don't tell us what it tastes like, just give us

a thumbs up or a thumbs down.

Daisy, it's up to you. Remind us, what flavour did you have?

Peas and chillies.

-And quite a lot of chillies. Do you like chilli?

-I don't know.

-You don't know?

-I've never tried it.

Here's an adventure in front of you!

OK, take a little spoonful and taste it and tell me what it's like?

Big lump of chilli!

She's looking slightly concerned here.

She's in a bad place. Do we need the bucket for this?

No? You're a pretty brave lady.

So, Daisy,

what do you think, thumbs up or thumbs down?

-In the middle.

-Oh, yeah!

APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

Well done. OK, now I've got to try

corned beef and garlic ice cream.

ALL: Urgh!

(ALL CHANT) Eat it, eat it! eat it, eat it, eat it!

Do you know what that tastes like?

That tastes pretty good!

The point is, guys, is that we have managed to make ice cream

without a freezer.

I wonder if we can use this salt and ice technique to make something

much, much more exciting.

APPLAUSE

Has anyone ever made ice lollies using some of these?

-ALL: Yeah!

-Yeah. they're cool, aren't they?

You just pour juice into it and stick it in the freezer.

If you wanted to make a massive lolly you couldn't do it

in a freezer that big.

However, how about using this?

This is a water butt.

It's basically a big bucket that you use to put water in.

Now, around the outside of it is a duvet

and the duvet is there to insulate it, to keep the cold in.

If we use this salt and ice technique we are going to try

and make a massive lolly.

DRAMATIC MUSIC

I need a bit of help so a big hand

-for Bradley and Devon, please.

-APPLAUSE

OK, first thing we need is,

we need one of these moulds but on a massive scale.

OK, Bradley and Devon, pick up that big old heap of wire and wood.

This is my lolly mould. OK. Let's put it in the water butt.

Squeeze back a little bit there, guys.

So, first of all we need the juice.

That's the concentrate for the squash. There we go.

Argh, that's a bit much!

-Now we need to fill it up with water to dilute it down a bit.

-In here?

Yeah, yeah, it's all going in there. That's perfect.

-Every good ice lolly is held by what, guys?

-Ice!

-Ice?!

-A stick.

By a stick! A lolly stick. OK.

Over there is a lolly stick. Can you go and grab that for me, Devon?

That is a massive lolly stick.

Like every good lolly stick, this one's got a joke on it.

How do you make a lolly stick?

How?

You cover it in glue.

SILENCE

Tough crowd.

OK, let's put it straight in there. All right.

-What did we use to freeze our ice cream earlier on?

-Ice.

-Ice and..?

-Salt.

-Ice and salt. OK, so,

40 bags of ice. We'd better get started. Sorry, guys.

Chuck yours in there.

There you go. Thank you.

You need a jug of salt. Whoa! There we go.

OK, now you need to spread that all into the ice we've got there.

We need to layer this up.

Before, we could just shake things around.

This time, we need to mix ice, then salt, ice, then salt.

What we're hoping is that the salt and the ice will drop

the temperature enough so we can freeze our enormous ice.

-Guys, do you think it will work?

-ALL: Yes!

-Let's cross our fingers and wish for the best, all right?

-Yes!

-No!

My mission to find the most weird and wonderful foods

has taken me all the way to chocolate heaven,

right here, in Belgium.

We all love chocolate, but there's one man

who's so obsessed with it that he's dedicated his life to chocolate.

He woke up one morning

and decided to build his very own chocolate world.

I've tracked him down all the way here

to a small coastal town in Belgium. I'm going to find out more.

This is David, the man with the best job in the world.

Welcome to my world of chocolate.

There's such a beautiful smell in this place.

We try to make little jewels, one or two bites and the flavours

and taste have to be perfect otherwise I won't sell it.

This choco-bonkers man has created some mysterious concoctions

and I'm dying to dive in and test them out.

Wow, look at this. It's like a field of chocolate. Can I try one?

-Yes, sure.

-Which one do you suggest?

I suggest you start with the passion fruit, that's my favourite.

Your favourite? Oh, well, perfect. Look at that.

-Is that covered in a little bit of gold?

-Yes, that's gold dust.

-Real gold dust?

-Real gold dust, yes. Enjoy.

LAUGHS

Wow.

What shall I try next, do you think?

Mmm. The horse milk, you have to try it.

It's one of, it's a favourite chocolate of many customers.

Oh!

Wow!

Passion fruit with real gold dust!

Horse's milk!

David uses some really curious ingredients in his truffles.

But I reckon I could top that with my very own special flavour.

What do you want to make?

I'd just like to try something absolutely brand-new, a little food adventure.

So, could you combine crisps with chocolate,

cheese and chocolate, something like that?

Sounds a bit weird, but I'll give it a try.

If David thinks salty crisps and stinky cheese is weird,

I must be onto a winner.

First I need to mash up the crisps

and stir them into the melted chocolate.

This creates our first layer.

Do this nice and quickly before it starts to go soggy.

Now for the top layer. Grated parmesan cheese

adds a strong smell and lovely cheesy flavour.

Well, hopefully!

The final touches leave my chocolates looking

like a work of art.

And this is just a little bit of mangled up crisps

to give it the final finishing touch.

OK, here we go. Time for tasting.

Will they be a brilliant new chocolate crispy creation,

or just a cheesy catastrophe?

-You ready for this?

-Yeah.

-Mmm.

-A very nice crunch.

-Mmm.

It's got the texture of sort of peanut butter.

-Yeah.

-Bits of crunch. Very smooth.

I think I could sell these in my shop. Yeah, honestly.

-Wow!

-Yeah.

I am blown away.

Success! My chocolates are strange and beautiful enough

to sell in David's shop.

Today we're in the Essex town of Basildon

where we've already made some ice screams...

-What was in your ice cream?

-Baked beans and salt and vinegar crisps.

ALL: Eugh!

Squeeze that into there.

And made a start on a large lolly.

-Think it'll work?

-ALL: Yeah!

And later on, three volunteers quack up after trying my mystery meal.

Ugh, I don't like it.

-Ugh! Rotten eggs.

-Rotten eggs. Rotten eggs!

CHEERING

Now, it's my job to explore the world searching for exciting food,

but you can find amazing stuff right here in Essex.

To show us some of that we've got local food expert, Richard Eames.

Big round of applause, everyone.

CHEERING

-Richard, how you doing?

-Hi, how you doing?

Thanks for coming. What are you making?

We can prepare one of these crabs. This is a local crab.

These came from just off Clacton yesterday.

So Clacton, just up the coast.

So, has this already been cooked?

This has already been cooked. It was boiled for about 20 minutes.

Now, to dress a crab.

What you do, put him like that,

you put pressure underneath there

and you pull the middle bit out.

Now, these are called dead men's fingers.

They're not actually poisonous,

but they don't taste very nice, so we take them out.

Now the other bit you don't eat is the stomach sac,

which is just behind its mouth. There's its mouth. Can you see?

So all you do, you just push that, out like that

and you just pull that bit out and you get rid of it.

That's that bit done. You pull the claws off.

-Ouch.

-And pull the legs off.

While Richard carries on

his expert crab dressing over there, I'm going to

show you a slightly quicker method.

This is what I do at home. Take a crab.

You take a pair of goggles, like these. Very good for snorkelling.

You don't need the snorkel, but you do need one of these. A hammer.

You go like this.

THEY SCREAM

It's a little bit messy, granted,

but it's a much quicker way of getting into your crab.

Little bit of that there.

There we go. Maybe a little bit of that. That looks quite tasty.

Little bit of that. Fantastic. OK, Richard,

I think you can finish off there.

That looks beautiful. What we need is somebody to taste it.

So, everyone, please give a big hand for Tansin.

Tansin, up you come.

CHEERING

-You all right, there?

-Yeah.

-OK.

-Have you ever had crab before?

-No.

-No. OK.

Which one do you reckon

looks better out of the two of these?

-That one.

-That one? Richard's!

-Well done. Thank you, Tansin.

I think you should try some. See what you think.

-Kind of tastes like fish.

-Its a little bit fishy, isn't it?

-Chewy.

-Chewy. A little bit chewy. Now, would you eat that again?

-Yeah.

-You would.

-Good girl.

-Brilliant. Big round of applause for Tansin.

CHEERING

-OK, Richard, what else have you got to show us?

-Right. OK.

Next thing I have to show you, I've got oysters.

-Oysters are normally eaten raw.

-Raw.

-OK.

And when you open up an oyster

that is the point that it dies.

What we need is somebody to taste it.

So everyone please give a big hand to Tommy.

CHEERING

-Hi, Thomas. You all right?

-Yeah.

-Top man. Ever had oysters before?

-I've had cooked ones but not raw.

-OK.

-So this was alive until seconds ago.

-What do you think it looks like?

-It looks like phlegm.

-It looks like phlegm.

ALL: Eugh!

-Do you want a bit of lemon on your phlegm?

-Yes please.

I tell you what, you are one brave guy.

Having your first oyster is always a big brave experience. Go for it.

AUDIENCE SQUEALS

Ah, it's the whole thing. You are such a star.

Give him a moment. Blimey, that's got... Ooh, has that all gone down?

Yeah.

Wow! A quick round of applause. Look at this guy. Top man.

CHEERING

-Question is, did you like it?

-Yeah.

-Would you eat it again?

-Yeah.

Fantastic. Which just goes to prove

that you don't need to go far to find some amazing food.

Give a big hand to Richard and Tommy. Well done, guys.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Now, it's my mission to get you guys

to explore the world of exciting new foods.

So, I'm going to serve up something that's very wonderful

but very, very strange. My mystery meal.

Now, up on stage we have Wilson, Sophie and Charlie

who are going to be trying out the mystery meal.

First of all, can you please put your blindfolds on?

They can't see anything, so we can look at what they'll be eating.

-What do you think these are?

-Chicken legs.

-Chicken legs.

-Fingers.

-Slugs. Anyone else?

-Fingers.

-Fingers. What do you reckon they are? Say again?

-Rotten pasta.

-Rotten pasta!

Those are all some pretty bizarre guesses, but none are right.

I don't want to eat it.

OK. So...

How you feeling guys? Charlie...,

some of the things they said that it might be were slugs.

-Do you like the idea of eating slugs?

-No.

I don't particularly like the idea of eating slugs.

-They also said it might be pigs' ears. Ever had pigs' ears?

-No.

And have you ever had slugs before?

No. Somebody said they might be rotten fingers.

-Have you had rotten fingers before?

-No.

Now I can reveal to you at home what it is

that these guys are going to be eating.

AUDIENCE SQUEALS

Uh-huh. Oh, yeah.

OK, first of all I'm going to give you one.

Put your hand out nice and flat. OK. There we go.

I'm not putting it in my hand.

OK, Sophie. There you go, there's one of them.

Charlie, let's give you that one there. OK.

Now, what does it smell like?

Have a little smell of it.

What does it smell like? I think...

-It smells like crackers.

-I think they smell really good.

What does it feel like, what's the texture of it?

-It feels a bit slimy at the top but...

-Yeah, bit slimy.

When you go down it feels really drier.

-Guys, are you ready?

-Yeah.

-No.

-Yeah.

Guys,

have a little chew on what you've got in your hands.

Ooh, yeah. It's pretty good.

The soft bits around. Don't eat the bit, the hard bit in the middle.

-You've all had a little munch.

-Ugh, I don't like it.

-Sophie, what do you think of that?

-It's crunchy.

It's crunchy.

-It tastes like French fries.

-French fries.

-Ugh, rotten eggs.

-Rotten eggs. Rotten eggs!

I don't know. Slug?

Slug.

Now, the thing about these

is that they are very, very popular in China and Vietnam and Thailand.

Any idea what they are?

-A kind of fish?

-A kind of fish. That's a good guess. Wilson?

-I think it's a sea creature.

-It's time to remove your blindfolds.

Have a little look at what you got there.

-Ugh.

-It's quite odd, isn't it? Now, I'm going to reveal

what our brave Basildon eaters have been eating.

You have been eating...

AUDIENCE SCREAMS

Now that you know what it is,

-do you want to try some more?

-No!

-No? Do you want to try some more?

Charlie, you going to try another one? No.

You're so cool. Let's hear it for the bravest eaters in Basildon.

CHEERING

Woo hoo!

OK, the moment of truth has arrived.

At the start of the show we made a wild attempt to make a massive,

massive ice lolly. It's been sitting here

while we've been mucking around and let's see if anything's happened.

Well...I can see that there's ice in there

but it hasn't quite worked.

OK, I know what you're thinking, "What a disaster!"

Ha-ha, that's where you're wrong, because I thought this might happen

and I started one a little bit earlier.

Follow me.

This is exactly the same lolly.

It's got the same joke on the stick.

Let's see if this worked. It's taken a couple more hours. There we go.

Squeeze it out.

Argh. Argh. Ha, ha. So heavy.

All right, watch out guys, coming through.

STEF GROANS

There's a fair bit of water there. You never know, it might be a lolly.

Let's open it up.

OK, can salt and ice create

the biggest lolly in Basildon?

A little bit of... Be a lolly.

(CHANTING) Be a lolly, be a lolly!

CHEERING

Yeah!

I think the end's poking out a bit. OK, guys,

you've done such a brilliant job

you should put the finishing touches on.

So let's cover it in chocolate.

You grab some of these.

CHEERING

(CHANTING) Chocolate, chocolate!

-OK, Devon, hundreds and thousands.

-Oh, yeah.

Go for it!

There we go.

Wow. All right.

Now, that is what I call a Basildon lolly.

Guys, you've earned this. Tuck in.

CHEERING

That's all we've got time for. Thanks to my brave volunteers,

the wonderful Richard Eames and the brilliant people of Basildon.

We'll see you next time for some more Incredible Edibles. Bye!

How's it going there, guys?

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd