Crawley Incredible Edibles

I've had years of practice doing barmy food experiments

but you should not try anything you see on Incredible Edibles -

especially involving 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.

Miaow!

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

I'm on a journey to discover the most delicious,

the most exciting and the most bizarre foods on the planet.

And now, I'm going to serve them to you,

because this is Incredible Edibles.

Guys, are you ready for an adventure?

KIDS: Yeah!

Woo-hoo!

Today, I'm joining the beautiful people of Crawley in Sussex.

Guys, are you hungry for some amazing food?

ALL: Yeah!

Yes! They're hungry.

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

If you don't like gherkins in your burger,

try eating a quarter pound of this lot.

See if you can put your whole hand through there, go on, keep going.

Some volunteers get the heebie-jeebies

from a creepy-crawlie mystery meal.

ALL: Urgh!

That is wrong!

And we see how much energy is released

when we burn a whole day's food in one go.

Well, that's all coming up later,

but here on Incredible Edibles, I like to start every show

by doing something that'll make you shout...

KIDS: That's incredible!

Yeah! First, I want to talk about

the most important reason we eat food.

Now, I eat it because I love the adventure of food,

but the big reason our body needs it is energy,

and so we measure energy in calories,

so if you look at a packet of food, thank you Kayleigh,

it'll say how many calories there are in it,

so the more calories a food has in, the more energy it has.

Why do you think we need energy?

-To keep you alive?

-To keep you alive - that's a great answer.

-What do you need to do when you're alive?

-You can move.

Exactly. Energy is great because it lets you run around, laugh,

to joke with people, to think.

Now, which foods do you think have loads of energy in them?

-Cake.

-Cake has masses of energy.

-What do you reckon?

-Cereal bar?

-Yeah, that can have loads.

-What do you reckons got the least amount of energy in?

-Salad?

Salad, yes.

All loads of brilliant answers,

but reading labels is no fun at all.

I want to show you just how much energy different foods have

in a more exciting way,

and to do so I need the help of a very clever fellow.

Guys, meet Dr Sella!

CHEERING

So we're looking at foods today and why some foods

have more calories than others.

But why is this important?

Well, it's incredibly important,

because if you think about, you know, yourself

and the fact that you're warm, you're actually a little bit

like a candle, you're sort of burning away very gently, all the time.

And so, energy in food is a bit like petrol that you might put in a car?

Absolutely. It's the fuel in a car, you put petrol into you -

you put, biscuits and peanut butter sandwiches.

What happens if you have too much energy?

The body's very clever. If it gets too much, it stores it

for a rainy day, and so you can build up fat.

OK, can you show us, for instance,

the amount of calories in this, which is peanut butter on toast?

Well, peanut butter sandwiches look pretty innocent, really,

but things really change when we introduce them to oxygen,

and oxygen is the stuff that we breathe,

and I've got some here in this bucket, in liquid form.

Now, this starts getting dangerous. Wear your safety glasses.

-Right here?

-You've got safety glasses, we should put those on,

we should also get a safety screen up, keep it away from you guys.

-OK.

-Are you ready?

So, you're about to burn some peanut butter on toast

using liquid oxygen, to mimic what happens inside our body?

Absolutely, our body burns things, but very, very gently and efficiently

so that it gives us sort of motion and thoughts and so on.

We're going to be less subtle and just set fire to it.

So we're going to soak our peanut butter in the liquid oxygen,

which is here in this little bucket,

and we just want to make sure it's very well soaked down here.

Isn't this cheating a bit? Soaking something in liquid oxygen?

-Well, we're actually soaked in oxygen all the time.

-As human beings?

Absolutely, the atmosphere has oxygen in it,

and the only thing is, we want to do this fast.

OK, now do not try this at home

because Dr Sella is a trained expert in burning up food,

and these are controlled conditions.

So here we go, here's our sandwich, and...

Wow!

Wow! That's like a small explosion going off!

A huge amount of energy, just from peanut butter and toast.

So do all foods have the same amount of energy in?

No, there are huge differences.

Maybe we should try a few different types of food.

-Are you up for this?

-I think we should try it.

OK, well, I'd like the help of my guests please,

so Jessica, Alex and Amy, guys, give them a big round of applause!

APPLAUSE

Oh yeah, OK.

Now, we've all got four different types of food here.

We're going to see if we can release the energy that's inside them.

-Amy, what have you got there?

-Digestive biscuits.

Digestive biscuits.

Alex, you've got mashed potato,

and Jessica, salami.

I've got broccoli. Ha-ha!

Now which one do you think of these, has got the most energy in?

I think the biscuit is because it's quite sweet.

Amy, do you reckon you've got the top one?

Yeah, mine, because mine's the most unhealthy.

A-ha! Well, let's find out.

So we'll start off with the broccoli which I think is good stuff.

Now guys, can you step into our very hi-tech safety zone back there?

Now, if this has a lot of energy in it, it'll burn bright and fast,

is that right?

-Absolutely. Just get it in there.

-Sounds like you're poaching it.

What we're doing is really soaking it in oxygen as well as we can,

OK, there we go.

So how much energy is released by broccoli?

So if there's lots of energy in it, we'll get a big flame.

-It looks just like your big match is burning there.

-Well, yeah.

-What does that tell us about broccoli?

-It's a great food,

it's really tasty,

it's full of vitamins and fibre, but it's not really an energy food.

Next up, I reckon Alex's mashed potato.

So Alex, how are you feeling about your mashed potato?

Not too confident.

-OK, Alex, step back behind the safety zone.

-Are we ready to go?

So this is dried potato, basically,

little granules of dried potato, and we'll see how that does.

Oh it's trying, it's trying, it's interesting to...

Oh, wow!

Once again it's different,

but you could see that it's much more intense,

and this is carbohydrates.

Carbohydrate literally is things like pasta and rice

and potatoes, things like that?

Absolutely, all of those things will give us

tremendous amount of energy, really quite quickly.

OK, Jessica, you were pretty confident about your salami.

Bring it on over.

OK. Now, do you think this has got more energy in it than broccoli?

Yes, because it has a lot of fat in there.

You can see the bits of fat. You're a top banana.

OK, we'll pop that there.

Step back into the safety zone for us, Jessica.

This time, let's just put the oxygen in there.

So, here we go, we're going to put in a bit.

And now...

Ooh, OK, we've got something! That's pretty good!

Wow! That's brilliant! Jessica, are you happy with that?

-Yep!

-That's really cool, isn't it?

You are really seeing the fat and the oil going.

And fat, although it's very energy-rich,

it's slower burning, it's slow release.

Amy, bring your biscuit over.

-Are you feeling confident about this?

-Yes, sort of.

Let's pop that there. You take your position back in the safety zone.

Again, here we go, there is our digestive biscuit,

let's get rid of the bowl and let's try this one.

Oh, yeah!

Whoa!

-It's like a roman candle!

-Yeah.

-But that doesn't happen inside you, does it?

-No, of course not.

What our body does is it teases the energy out very gently,

but the total amount is exactly the same.

So why did that go off in such a massive firework?

Well the thing about digestive biscuits

is that they're absolutely laden with sugar,

that's why they taste so sweet,

and sugar is really the kind of instant energy that the body uses.

And so very, very fast release, and we certainly saw that there.

And has it surprised you, the difference in the amount of energy

from broccoli to a biscuit?

Yeah, I always thought because broccoli's more healthy

that it has more energy than a digestive biscuit, or salami.

You still need the veg,

but you get different things from it, other than energy.

That's brilliant guys, well done.

There's small amounts of energy in some foods and loads in others,

but you need all of them, and I guess, everything in moderation.

-Was that surprising for you?

-ALL: Yes!

Guys, give a big round of applause to Jessica, Amy and Alex!

APPLAUSE AND WHOOPING

Oh, yeah. Well that was pretty cool,

but it's not enough to shout "that's incredible".

I wonder how much energy our bodies use in one whole day,

and I think we should try this by burning breakfast,

lunch and dinner all in one go, how big will the flames be?

Find out later.

COMPUTER VOICE: Incredible Edibles.

Miracle berries are a small, red berry that grows in West Africa.

It comes in a little sweet form like this, and when you eat them

they're supposed to change the nature of sour foods like limes.

Oh yeah, that's very sour.

The miracle berry contains an ingredient called miraculant,

and this binds to the sweet receptors on your taste buds,

and this confuses your sense of taste.

The sensation is supposed to last from 30 minutes to one hour,

here goes.

So I've dissolved my miracle berry sweet,

now for the moment of truth.

Nice piece of sour lime.

That is bizarre.

I can still taste quite a lot of sourness,

but also this lime is incredibly sweet.

COMPUTER VOICE: Incredible Edibles.

Now, I like nothing more than discovering new food,

but I also love to delve into the food we eat every day,

and pull it apart to discover what's inside,

because you never know what you might find.

I want to know what goes into one of the nation's favourite meals,

the burger, who likes burgers?

KIDS: Me!

This lot likes burgers, OK.

Well I need some help here, so give it up for Emily, Jay and Natasja.

CHEERING

Now, do you like burgers?

Yes.

Here is a homemade burger, grab a bit of that,

have a taste and tell me what you think.

-Hm. Emily?

-It's got lots of meaty flavour to it and the texture

-is quite crunchy.

-And do you like that?

-Yeah.

Well I think it's sweet and I think it's got a stronger taste.

So let's have a little taste of economy burgers.

Grab a little chunk there.

Have a little chunk of that.

-What do you think?

-It's quite salty.

It's got a good salty hit to it, hasn't it?

You can't taste the onion and herbs, more than the homemade burger.

It's a different beast, isn't it?

Follow me, I'm going to take you into the wonderful world

of the economy burger. Step this way.

OK, Emily, can you lift the green lid please?

Reveal our first ingredient, what do you think you've got there?

-Well that's salt.

-That's a lot of salt, isn't it?

Natasja, grab some of this stuff, what do you reckon that is?

-Pick up a piece.

-It's really gross.

-It is quite gross.

-Slimy.

-What do you think it is?

-Fat.

It is, exactly, it's fat.

So what we've got here is salt, rusk and fat, now rusk is

sort of like breadcrumbs, it's starch, and goes into

economy burgers to sort of bulk it up, it's a really cheap ingredient.

What's interesting about economy burgers is that they only

have to have 47% beef which is less than half,

and the rest of it is made up of stuff like this.

There's something interesting lurking under

the yellow cover, Jay, please reveal the next ingredient.

-Oh!

-Very good.

OK, we've got stuff like this...

There you go, you grab one of those.

-GIRLS LAUGH

-Jay, you grab one as well.

Natasja, you grab some of these fellows here.

So the big question is, what do you think they are?

Jay, any idea which bit of the cow?

Er...

-Are you any good at singing?

-No.

No, it's a good job, because this is a diaphragm,

and a diaphragm is a little thing that sits just down here,

below the lungs, it's a big muscle so it's a good piece of meat.

These things here that Natasja and I have got,

-any idea Natasja what that might be?

-Steak?

No, not a steak, it's a lovely piece of meat, isn't it?

Guys? Anyone out there? Any guesses to what this might be? Shout it out?

Lungs? Heart? No, not kidneys.

THEY ALL SHOUT

-I'll give you a clue...

-KIDS: Cheeks!

Oh yeah, these are cheeks.

So we've got a lovely plate of diaphragm and cheeks,

and these are some of the weird little bits and off cuts

that you often find in economy burgers.

OK, Natasha, the red lid.

Lift that lid and show us what you've got.

KIDS: Urgh!

-OK, grab that fellow and hold it up so we can see what it is.

-Eeh.

KIDS GROAN

Turn it round, turn it round. Any idea what that is?

No. I don't.

-Pass it down, pass it to Jay.

-Oh no. I don't want it.

-Jay, pass it to Emily.

-Urgh!

-Emily, pass it to me.

So can you see inside it there?

Pretty cool, put your fingers into that... fingers in there.

See if you can put your whole hand through there, go on, keep going.

-No!

-Any idea what that is?

-KIDS: Brain?

-No it's not brain.

Heart, brilliant, you guys are fantastic, that is a cow's heart.

-Do you like the idea of eating a heart?

-No.

-No.

-No? Why not?

-It just doesn't sound right.

It doesn't sound right? The thing is...

it's actually about the taste of what's inside these.

Now, when you're making an economy burger, what happens is that

all these ingredients and others

get chopped up until they're minced together, and they're mixed with

rusk and salt and a bit more fat, and then they're

squished together into a patty and then...

it's a little bit like this.

But I think we need to have another try and taste our burgers,

first of all we need to wash our hands.

We've got two different burgers made from two very different

sets of ingredients, homemade burger, beefsteak, minced up,

little bit of lovely onion that's been caramelised, some lovely herbs,

put in a patty and under the grill, so lets have another taste of that.

Now next, the economy burger.

Do you still enjoy eating the economy burger?

-Yes!

-Yes?

It doesn't matter what's in it, it's a burger, a burger counts.

-You're a burger lover?

-Yeah!

Emily? What do you think?

I would prefer the homemade burger than the economy burger.

Why is that?

Well the flavour is quite nice, it's just a bit salty,

but after what I've seen goes in, I'm not too...

-You're just not quite so sure?

-Yeah.

Big round of applause guys, well done.

-CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

-So the next time you scoff down a cheeseburger,

you may be munching on cow cheek and hearts.

There's still loads of incredible stuff to come

to tantalise taste buds.

COMPUTER VOICE: Incredible Edibles.

These are fish eggs, they're sometimes called caviar,

and some caviar is a luxury food that can cost hundreds of pounds.

These are salmon eggs, these are lumpfish eggs, and when you

squeeze them against the top of your mouth they pop inside.

Now it's time to taste them.

So, I've got a cracker here with a little bit of

Greek yoghurt on the top, little spoonful of salmon eggs.

Hm. Hm. Mmm-hm. Mmm.

That is amazing, it's salty, it's sour and it's sweet

at the same time, but it doesn't taste at all of fish.

COMPUTER VOICE: Incredible Edibles.

We're in the Sussex town of Crawley.

So far we've had a heart to heart

about the ingredients in an economy burger.

-Do you still enjoy the economy burger?

-Yes!

It doesn't matter what's in it, it's a burger!

-You're just a burger lover?

-Yes!

Next up, we bug three contestants in today's Mystery Meal.

-Look at that.

-No! SQUEALS

KIDS: Burn!

Later, we release the astonishing energy

in just one day's worth of food.

COMPUTER VOICE: Incredible Edibles.

SCREAMING

It's that time of the show where I delve into my cupboard,

and I dredge out one of the most amazing things ever eaten

on my travels, it's my Mystery Meal.

COMPUTER VOICE: Mystery Meal.

Now I need three adventurous eaters to try my dish and to prove

how great it tastes, and they are Jessica, Mathew and Kayleigh,

give them a big round of applause.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Guys, blindfolds down please,

so it's time for us to take a good look at what it is

they're going to eat.

Here we are.

Guys, have a little look at this.

-Now what do you reckon they are?

-ALL: Urgh!

-Looks a little bit like...

-It's chicken, it'll be chicken.

-Could it be nuts, do you think?

-Guys, would you taste these?

-No.

-Yes.

Really? You're not so sure?

What is it? Well, that's for you to guess.

Is it maggots?

Is it maggot cookies?

OK, well you guys aren't going to have to eat these, they are.

We've had a few different ideas

about what it is that we're going to be eating.

Now, I'm not going to feed you something

that is disgusting, I want you to enjoy foods, OK?

I think the adventure of something new is something good,

-and the other thing is, I'm going to be eating these with you, OK?

-Yes!

-Does that make you feel a little better?

-Yes!

-Excellent.

OK, just for the people at home, before these guys tuck in,

I can reveal to you that this is today's Mystery Meal.

Oh yeah.

Now, it's time to give you a little morsel of the food.

So, if you put your hand out Jessica, OK, so there you go,

it's a little cake, and you're about to find out exactly what that is.

There you go Mathew, a little cake in there.

-It feels like a flapjack.

-OK, now then Kay, your cake there.

OK, now, before you eat it, give it a bit of a squeeze,

what's the texture?

It feels floury.

That's a pretty good guess.

-And spongy.

-Floury and spongy.

Sort of a flapjack but it kind of smells like a roast dinner.

Ah, that's a really perceptive thing to say.

-It's weird.

-OK, Kayleigh?

-It feels like squidgy.

-Squidgy!

-Like a herby chicken nugget.

-Herby chicken nugget, maybe.

-I love chicken nuggets!

-You're all pretty close.

I can't tell you what it is yet, but I can tell you:

Today's Mystery Meal is low in fat,

high in protein and extremely nutritious. Now, it can be minced up

and made into stuff like burgers or meatballs, or eaten on its own.

The main ingredient is popular in the warmer countries of the world.

-Are you ready?

-No.

-Yes!

You were doing so well! Yes, that's what I like!

Three, two, one, chow down.

-Hm.

-Oh, that's nice.

AUDIENCE LAUGH It's sort of like stuffing.

-It is a bit like stuffing, isn't it. And do you like it?

-Yeah.

I like the way it's crunchy on the outside and like soft on the inside.

Would you eat it again?

-Yep.

-Excellent, OK.

I think it's time to take the blindfolds off. Lift them up.

Now I can reveal to all of you what it is that we've been eating.

We've been eating...

-Insect burgers.

-KIDS: Urgh!

That is wrong!

Let's have a closer look at what the main ingredient

-looks like when it's whole.

-No, thanks!

-Are you ready?

-Is it alive?

KIDS: Urgh.

-So, have a close look at that.

-No!

-Woo!

SHE SQUEALS/THEY LAUGH

So you've been eating locust which are a little bit like crickets

minced up into burgers, does that change your view of the experience?

-Yes!

-Yeah, and why's that?

-Because it's locusts and it's a bug.

-Yeah?

-And bugs are gross.

When you ate it you didn't know and liked it,

so does that still change the sort of the tasting experience?

-Or just the thought of the food?

-The thought really.

When you grab... grab a locust, grab hold of one.

-We're not eating that, right?

-BZZZZZ.

-Grab one of those little fellows.

-No thanks!

-Grab one.

-I'm not eating...

-Ooh, ooh I can't!

-OK.

The thing about these ingredients is they are so efficient,

they're brilliant things to eat because they breed very easily,

they don't take up much energy unlike beef burgers,

these are very efficient at converting plants

into something that's edible.

So a lot of people around the world will take a bug just like that,

-and go...

-KIDS: Ooh!

-Did you just eat that?

-They're pretty good.

-I'm not doing that!

Guys, you have been brilliant, let's make some noise

for the insect eating adventurers of creepy crawlies!

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

COMPUTER VOICE: Incredible Edibles.

Oh yeah.

Earlier we showed how different food contains varying amounts of energy.

Let's see what a whole day's worth of energy actually looks like.

And for that I need the help of a genius and an expert

with access to the right chemicals, welcome back, Dr Sella!

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

OK, now, here we have my friend Billy,

the plan is to feed Billy with a whole day's worth of food, OK?

Natasja, bring out the breakfast.

You stand here, and now show us what you've got.

Some cereal and some toast. OK. Pop them into Billy's mouth there.

That's it, chuck them all in.

That's it, squeeze it. Very good. What comes after breakfast?

KIDS: Lunch.

Lunch, OK. Samuel, bring over lunch.

Does this look good?

Very good, OK, so what have you got there?

-I've got some Jelly Babies.

-Yeah you've got some sweets and crisps.

Is this the sort of thing you might have?

-Yeah.

-Sandwiches and some dried fruit and stuff like that?

Tip them into Billy, he's hungry.

-Down the hatch.

-Very good.

OK, I'll take that.

-Last meal of the day?

-KIDS: Dinner!

Dinner, Ellie, bring over dinner.

So this is the sort of thing that you might have for tea,

so what have you got here?

-Fish fingers, peas, meringues and...

-And we make, this is powder

but it's mashed potato, tip it into Billy, he's greedy.

Here we go, and the meringues.

Now, Dr Sella, let's see what's in his stomach.

This is one day's worth of food.

Now to see how much energy it is, we need to burn it, don't we?

Absolutely, we should do the liquid oxygen trick.

There's a lot of stuff here, this is going to be a pretty big fire,

we should have a controlled environment.

We're going to take this and see what happens when we burn it.

-Let's go.

-Let's go.

Now, Dr Sella is a trained food burner,

so please do not try this at home, even if you do

have liquid oxygen hanging around.

OK, safety glass in place.

-Good luck.

-Excellent. Here we go.

Going to pour our liquid oxygen onto the food.

There we go.

And now we're ready to roll.

-ALL: Three, two, one, burn.

-Burn!

Does it surprise you how much energy there is in different types of food?

-Yeah.

-In what way?

In the broccoli there was nothing, but the biscuit was all that.

And that was just a day's worth of food.

Can you see the connection between that and what goes on in your body?

Well I never knew all the fatty food

and the sweet things we eat daily gave us that much energy.

It makes me really think about what I should eat,

because it's got loads of different food in there,

and you need to balance your diet a bit more.

I think a round of applause for Dr Sella.

-APPLAUSE

-Oh yeah!

COMPUTER VOICE: Incredible Edibles.

Yep, that's right, it is incredible how much energy there is

in a day's worth of food, what do you reckon guys?

-KIDS: That's incredible!

-Woo-hoo, oh yeah!

Well that's it for today,

my thanks to the people of Crawley,

my fantastic assistants and the amazing Dr Sella,

and to you guys for watching, see you next time

for more Incredible Edibles where anything could be on the menu.

Woo-hoo! Oh yeah, well done guys!

COMPUTER VOICE: Incredible Edibles.