Newport Incredible Edibles

I've had years of practice doing barmy food experiments,

but do not 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've been travelling the world looking for the best, the worst

and the most bizarre foods on the planet, and now I'll serve them

to you because this is Incredible Edibles,

Guys, make some noise!

Today, I'm here in brilliant Newport.

Guys, are you hungry?

They're starving.

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

-Oh, no!

-We glug down some bubbly gravy...

..get our heads around some brain food...

Those are brains.

..and go supersonic with a cake ingredient powered rocket.

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

by doing something that will make you shout...

ALL: That's incredible!

Yeah! And today I want to talk about bubbles and how they

get into our food and drink.

So what sort of food has bubbles in it, do you reckon?

-Bubbly chocolate.

-Bubbly chocolate. Yeah, exactly.

-What about you, sir?

-Lemon...

-Lemon? Lemon...

-..ade.

-Yeah.

How do those bubbles get in the drinks?

The air is trapped inside it maybe?

The air is trapped inside it. Top man!

I'm going to show you how bubbles get into our food and drinks.

But I need a little bit of help. I can't do this on my own.

So we've got...

Guys, follow me.

Guys, in front of you, you have some cakes and some muffins.

What I want you to do is pull them apart

to see what they're like inside. Oh, well done!

It's really soft and you can tear it really easily.

-It's quite light, isn't it?

-It's spongy.

These cakes have got little bubbles.

That's why they're so light.

Here's one cake. That's not solid food because

if you press it down you can push all the gas out.

Now, the way that that gas gets in there is by this,

bicarbonate of soda.

It might be lurking in one of your cupboards.

It might be called baking powder as it goes into lots of cakes.

Here we have a glass with some bicarbonate of soda in.

Next to that is a glass full of vinegar.

When you pour it into

the powder, it will react with the bicarbonate of soda.

So, guys, in you go!

Now it's reacting with that soda.

What's happening, guys?

-It's spilled it.

-It's bursting.

-It's like a volcano.

The bicarbonate of soda is reacting with the vinegar

and letting off a gas

and that gas is carbon dioxide.

So when you look at your cake,

all these little bubbles inside there aren't just air.

It's carbon dioxide given off by this bicarbonate of soda.

Sounds like somebody's having a wee!

I thought, "What's going on here?!

"Oh, no, it's the bicarbonate of soda."

I want to show you how much carbon dioxide can be released

by bicarbonate of soda and vinegar.

I think the best way of doing that is by having a race.

So I've got my race gear on, guys. Do you like it?

Rubbish, yeah! I look like a right wally, don't I?

Anyway this could get a little bit explosive and a bit messy.

We've moved the crowd back so they're nice and clean.

Over here on the red team we have Alisha and Tyler.

Over here on the blue team we have Keesha and Samuel.

The idea is these balloons at the top are filled with bicarbonate

of soda and this big jar is filled with vinegar.

We need to get all the bicarbonate of soda

into the jar and then to agitate it, to move it around,

to get the reaction started, so carbon dioxide gets released

and then whoever's balloon bursts first will be the winner.

Three, two, one!

Get in there!

Get your hands in there as well, squidge it together.

OK, you've got it on there.

Oh, it's getting quite big,

Keep wiggling it so the bicarb creates masses of carbon dioxide.

You can see all this is filling up with gas.

All the gas is being let off at the top.

-Go really fast.

-There we go. Waggle, waggle, waggle!

Oh, I like the action there.

What do you reckon, guys? Who's going to win here?

The blues, looking like they're in the lead. Come on, reds.

That was really cool!

But it's not quite enough to say that's incredible.

So I wonder, can we use the same method again

and do something on a really big scale?

I'm feeling pretty ambitious today.

Can we use everyday ingredients like bicarbonate of soda

and vinegar to power something as big as this?

Oh, yeah!

This is the Incredible Edible food rocket.

So, guys, do you think we can launch this?

Well, let's see what happens later on.

Toasted weaver ants.

These little fellows are found in

the tropical forests of Africa and India.

They can leave a nasty bite so whoever collects them

has to be very, very careful.

I'm told they go really well with rice

but I thought I'd try them sprinkled on some yoghurt.

Oh, yeah, look at that! It's like furry yoghurt.

Lots of nice texture, lots of nice crunch.

You do get the legs in your teeth a bit. Weird but good.

I'm here in brilliant Newport in Wales where

they have some fantastic local foods.

They have one great delicacy which is made using this stuff.

Samuel, bring on the stuff.

AUDIENCE: Ewww!

Thank you very much, Sam.

Look at this.

This is wonderful local meat. Anyone know what that might be?

-Meat, bladder.

-That's like a lung, a brain or something.

It looks a little bit like a brain, doesn't it?

Well, these are used to make brilliant local faggots.

And this is how you make them.

Oh, yeah! Alisha, in there you have pork belly.

Go on, get in there!

No, that's not pork belly.

Oh, yeah. Pass it down.

This is a very, very sharp knife so do not use these at home.

If you cut it straight down there,

you should just about be able to see

that is like a slice of streaky bacon.

Have you had streaky bacon before?

-Yeah.

-That is what you're eating when you do that.

Now, can you find for me the liver?

Is this it?

That's not the liver, no. Alisha's got some there.

Give me a few of those.

AUDIENCE: Ohhh!

Oh, yeah! This is lamb's liver.

It's full of really good stuff like iron which need in your diet.

-Have you ever had liver before?

-No.

If you look really closely there are these little holes in it

which are the veins that go all the way through the liver.

Have a smell. Smells slightly kind of intestinal.

The last thing in there is some lamb heart.

Oh, yeah!

Have you ever held a heart in your hands before?

No, but now I have.

Shall we have a little look inside the heart?

If you slice it down,

you can open it up to reveal all

the weird bits and the ventricles.

All of these ingredients get chopped up really, really small

and then they get minced together with a little bit

of bread crumbs and some other bits and pieces, some herbs

and some fat, and that's what goes together to make your faggots.

Now, before we can try the faggots, we all need to wash our hands.

So here we are, guys. These are the cooked faggots.

And what you do is pour some gravy over them

so it's all of that stuff that you saw before, but all minced together.

The great thing about this is that it's from this area.

It's a Newport delicacy.

Tuck in, guys!

See what it tastes like.

Oh, that is nice.

They don't taste like hearts or liver.

-What do they taste of?

-Like mince.

It's better than I thought. I tried them when my mum cooked

them and they were disgusting, and she reckons I liked them.

Ha-ha! She's going to see this.

-Sam?

-They're quite hard on the outside but soft on the inside.

I used to love them but now I just like them.

So not so keen now that you know what's inside them?

-Lewis, what do you think of the faggots?

-Quite nice.

They've got quite a nice texture inside.

They're quite nice and soft.

It's like a really lovely sausage. Quite nice flavours too.

They were really nice and I would have them on my Sunday lunch.

So, guys, you've all been eating the stuff in that bowl there.

-Nice!

-There you go. You don't have to travel

the world to taste something amazing and unusual.

Sometimes it's right on your doorstep.

Guys, give them a big round applause.

I love roaming the country uncovering the wildest ingredients

and the kookiest cooking.

Today, my travels have brought me to Brighton

where some familiar foods are being served up in a mind-blowing way.

I've come to Brighton to visit a truly bizarre restaurant

cos this place has all the usual stuff on the menu.

It's got lasagne, it's got pizza, it's got burgers,

but they claim to do this without a cooker and without using any meat.

I want to find out what's going on.

Meet Felix, the head chef.

-Felix, how are you doing?

-Hi, Stefan. Welcome.

So, what do you do here?

We do vegetarian raw food,

so no dairy, no chicken, no eggs, no flour, no sugar.

And made without a cooker?

Made without a cooker.

Doesn't that make you a little bit of a lazy chef?

No, not at all.

Just really good natural food and it tastes good.

-You've got burgers on the menu?

-Yeah.

That's a big claim, that you can make it taste fantastic.

-Maybe even better.

-Yeah? OK, come on, the proof's in the pudding.

Now I love a good burger but can Felix's raw veggie version

convince me that you can have a fantastic taste without using meat?

This is the raw food cooked world and what's this big boy here?

So this is our dehydrator - dehydrates fruit and vegetables

and burgers, and looks just like a microwave.

What are these weird old maggots you got here?

These are bananas. That's how they look before.

-So all the water has been dried out of it?

-Yeah.

OK, so now we are ready to make the burger and fries.

We start with the sun-dried tomatoes.

Oh, I love sun-dried tomato!

We're adding a little salt here and flavour for them,

we have some chopped up beautiful red peppers.

-All of them in?

-All of them in.

Red beetroot and you see the colour is red

so it makes our burger look like a burger.

Ah! Liking your thinking!

Having added some garlic, celery and seasoning,

the mixture's ready for a good old blitz.

It looks like beef mince already. That's amazing.

OK, so now we can take it off, put in this bowl.

Now that we've got a reddish brown colour, it's time to blend

some walnuts and seeds to give this veggie burger the texture of meat.

Let's do one burger now.

Put it on my tray and then I form it into a nice big patty.

And that is your burger.

It does look weirdly like a normal burger.

That's a little bit wibbly-wobbly!

-How's that?

-Great.

The raw chips are made from avocado slices which are then seasoned

and put into the dehydrator along with the burger.

Et voila!

Six hours later and the burger and chips are dried to perfection.

We put the burger in a bun made of mushrooms and dressed with salad.

But what will it taste like?

Enjoy.

Can a raw veggie burger possibly be as good as a cooked meat burger?

Oh, my word, that is absolutely extraordinary!

It's packed with flavour.

Proper burger but vegetables and no cooker in sight.

He's done this without using any meat, any dairy products

and without doing any normal cooking.

The thing is, this stuff - it's absolutely delicious,

but more than just delicious, it's fascinating.

Today, we're causing chaos in the Welsh town of Newport.

So far, we've burst some bicarb balloons.

Later on, we play a game of bubble bath with some freaky, fizzy food.

But first, will our volunteers have any idea

what's in today's mystery meal?

I'm a food adventurer so I live for new food experiences.

I've tried some pretty weird things and want to know what you think.

-I've tried cane rat in Cameroon.

-It'd be disgusting.

You know what? It's actually the most delicious meat I've ever tried.

The other thing that I really, really like is quite strange.

In China they eat chickens' feet.

I think that'd be very chewy and tasty.

You know what? You're spot on.

Well, I've found three fantastically adventurous food-heads right here

in Newport and they're going to help me out by trying

one of the world's most adventurous foods in today's mystery meal.

So up on stage here we have...

They'll show us that trying something new and unusual isn't

something to fear, but something to have an adventure with.

Guys, give them a big round of applause.

Oh, yeah! So how are you feeling up there?

-Jack, how are you feeling?

-Not that great.

It's a new experience! Still not that great.

OK, Essie, are you ready for a new challenge?

I feel excited and curious at the same time about what we're eating.

Brilliant! Ethan, what's the most adventurous thing you've ever eaten?

Probably these fishy things that my dad made once

that I tasted and they didn't taste that nice to be honest.

If my dad made fishy things, I'd be quite scared as well.

-But you're up for an adventure?

-Yeah.

-Excellent!

Now, to make this a complete mystery I need you guys to

put your blindfolds on.

-Has that covered everything? Are you blind now?

-ALL: Yeah.

OK. Now I can reveal to you guys what it is

that our volunteers are going to be eating.

Today's mystery meal is this.

-Eugh!

-Eugh? It's something covered in breadcrumbs.

Beneath those breadcrumbs, it could be anything

What do you reckon it might be?

-Worms.

-Worms?! That'd be a strange-looking worm!

-A pig.

-A pig?! That's a small pig!

Well, you're not the ones who are going to try it. These guys are.

The thing about this is that sometimes when you know what

something is, it'll stop you from trying it and that

might stop you from having a fantastic adventure.

You might discover something you absolutely love

that you might otherwise not have tried.

Now I can reveal to you guys at home what it is they'll be eating.

It's these.

OK, grab one of those.

There we are. There we go.

-It feels all squidgy.

-Yeah, it is a bit squidgy.

Essie, you've got a funny little grimace on your face.

It feels crumbly. All I can feel is breadcrumbs covering my hands.

Yeah. Lots of good things come in breadcrumbs.

It feels a bit soft. Can you smell it?

Yeah, have a little smell. Everyone have a smell.

-What do you reckon it smells of?

-Stuffing?

-Roast dinners.

-Yeah, absolutely.

-It smells like onion.

-Yeah, a bit garlicky, I'd say.

-Any idea what this might be?

-Meatballs.

Something to do with onions inside.

It could be something like stuffing.

I can't tell you what it is yet but I can tell you that they are

rich in vitamin B12 and phosphorus and things like that.

They're a fantastic food, a really good, dense meat

and they're a real delicacy in places like India, and China,

Bangladesh, eaten a lot in France and Italy as well.

-So, are you ready, guys?

-ALL: Yeah.

-Yeah!

OK, three, two, one, chew it!

Mm-hmm! These are very good.

It feels creamy inside and it feels like cheese.

Yeah, I think you're absolutely right.

It tastes like chicken and fish, sort of.

-Ethan, do you reckon it tastes like stuffing?

-No, not really!

-Something with mayonnaise in the middle?

-Mayonnaise?

-Cos it's quite soft in the middle.

-Yeah.

-Nice and creamy.

The most important question is, do you like it?

-Yeah.

-I love it because I like the textures.

It's OK, I like it a little bit.

Now you can take your blindfolds off.

LAUGHTER

These are what you've been eating, in front of you here.

They're like little nuggets, aren't they?

I'll show you what they're like when raw.

-They look a little bit like this.

-Those are brains.

You have been eating...

AUDIENCE: Ewww!

..lambs' brains.

You go "yuck". These guys have been super cool.

Now you know these are lambs' brains, would you try them again?

-Never. Ripped something out of a lamb's head.

-Yeah!

But then you could say that about a sausage, couldn't you?

You ripped something out of a lamb's back, huh?

-Essie, would you try them again?

-Yeah.

Fantastic! That's really adventurous.

Ethan, have you discovered something new and exciting?

-Yeah, I would try it again.

-And you'd try it again.

-Would you like another little nibble?

-Yes, please.

Go for it. Amazing! Give them a big round of applause.

So, does anyone here love fizzy drinks?

ALL: Meee!

-Why do you like fizzy drinks?

-It makes a funny tingle in your mouth.

-Good answer. Why do you like them?

-It's kind of sour.

Yeah, some of those colas have a bit of bite to them.

-They make me hyper.

-They make you hyper!

Now, the big question is,

does every liquid taste better when it's got bubbles in?

ALL: Yeah.

Well, I want to find out and I've asked these people to help me out...

Guys, follow me.

OK, guys, I'd like to introduce you to a friend of mine.

This is Sidney the soda machine.

Inside here is a big canister full of carbon dioxide,

the same stuff released by the bicarbonate of soda.

When you press the button, it pushes out lots of carbon dioxide.

So we can use this to make pretty much any liquid fizzy.

We don't want to do boring drinks.

We've all had colas, lemonades and things like that.

Can we take something that you drink

probably every day and make it fizzy?

In here, we have some milk.

-Disgusting!

-Have you ever tried fizzy milk?

Ah! So you don't quite know yet.

-It sounds quite nice.

-Doesn't it?

Well, let's find out by putting the bottle onto the machine.

Press on that button there. There we go.

Ah, get that all coming up. Ohhh!

OK, that means

the milk is ready.

Fantastic! So, we can just have a little wash.

Cleopatra always washed in this stuff. Maybe it wasn't so fizzy.

So, the big question is then,

will the bubbles make it better or make it worse?

You ready?

Oh, my word!

-It's very strong and fizzy.

-Fizzy, I should cocoa!

-Is the milk better for having bubbles in it?

-No.

No. Clearly no!

It tastes a bit sour.

Doesn't it? It tastes really sort of sharp.

That's all the carbon dioxide inside it.

-Horrible.

-Do you like milk normally?

-Yeah.

-Yeah, and that's just destroyed it for you?

-Ten times worse.

Oh, it makes me want to vomit so OK, milk doesn't work.

I also started thinking what about other things that we normally have

as liquids, but we've never tried with a bit of fizz in them.

Here we have a selection.

We've got hot chocolate, cola, tomato soup, coffee,

cheese sauce, tea, custard, and vegetable gravy.

I've pre-fizzed all these so, first of all,

what do you think Mason should try?

ALL SHOUT OUT

Hot chocolate. Hot chocolate, OK.

Don't worry because I'll taste this with you.

The big question is,

is it actually going to taste better with fizz in it?

There you go, Mason, you grab that.

Three, two, one, down it!

Bleurrrgh... Mmmm.

-Mason, what do you reckon?

-Better.

It puts a bit more taste into it.

He likes it! It's a thumbs-up.

OK, it's Alina's turn.

What would you like Alina to try?

-Cheese sauce.

-I don't want it!

Do you like macaroni cheese or

-anything like that?

-Yeah.

So macaroni cheese with a bit of a twist should be pretty good, no?

HE LAUGHS

Three, two, one.

Oh, God!

Disgusting. Cheesy and fizzy.

-The two things just shouldn't go together, should they?

-No.

It messes with your idea about what food should be.

It's a thumbs-down, guys.

Lewis....

I heard two things mainly there, custard and gravy.

-Can I choose?

-Can you choose? No!

What do you reckon, custard or gravy?

Custard!

I think that was gravy.

OK, mate, it's warm, fizzy gravy.

Oh, my word!

Eugh! It looks like somebody's been really badly sick.

Three, two, one.

Round of applause, look at that.

Can I have a bit more? It's actually quite nice.

You really are adventurous! I love the idea of that.

Top man!

What do you like about it?

It has got a bit of zing and zazz to it

but there's still a bit of gravy in there.

I think that's another thumbs-up!

Trouble is, we've got five left.

It would be a shame to waste all five of these.

I've got a big jug.

Oh-hoh! Please! Oh, no!

AUDIENCE: Mix them, mix them!

Cola,

tomato soup,

tea, coffee.

Let's make this baby nice and creamy!

And custard.

It's either staying down or coming back up!

This is Newport cocktail! Are you ready?

In here we have cola,

tomato soup, tea,

coffee, and way too much custard.

OK, guys, three, two, one, down the hatch!

-It's actually really nice.

-Actually quite nice?!

Bit fizzy at first but it was all right when I got into it.

So, do you think that all these were

-actually better with bubbles?

-No.

-No?

-Ish.

I liked it a little bit but it was all lumps in it

and the colour of it put me a bit off of it.

The slightly vomit-y lumps and colour

don't really help it, do they?

Oh, I'm welling up a little bit now.

So there we have it, conclusive proof that not everything

tastes better with bubbles,

but we've had a lot of fun trying haven't we?

AUDIENCE: Yeah!

Mmm!

Flowers smell delicious but you can't eat these.

You can, however, eat these.

These are edible nasturtiums and they're fantastic to add to salads.

Some flowers can be dangerous

so only ever eat ones that are sold in the shops as edible flowers.

Woo!

Really peppery, a bit like rocket salad.

Got a real kick to it. Yeah, fantastic!

Earlier on we discovered a reaction that releases carbon dioxide

which is used to make our cakes

and our muffins all lovely and light and fluffy.

Now, I thought, could we use that same reaction using food

to power the Incredible Edible food rocket?

What do you reckon, guys, is this going to work?

ALL: Yeah!

They're more confident than I am. OK, wish me luck.

ALL: Good luck!

This is quite an extraordinary idea!

We have a high-pressure canister here which we filled with vinegar.

There's about four of these in it, four big bottles of vinegar.

Sort of stuff that you put on your chips all the time, nothing unusual.

Now, I'm going to put this chunk of bicarbonate of soda

into the barrel, put the lid on and then the pressure should

start to build up as the carbon dioxide gets released.

Gas should build up, up to this tap here. I will then release

and hopefully this rocket will come off the end here.

Maybe it'll fly, maybe it won't. We'll see.

Do not try this at home.

You need to be a specially trained idiot like me.

Are we ready?

Bicarbonate of soda, just wrapped up in a bit of tissue here.

In we go.

Lid on, nice and tight.

Hopefully, inside here, the reaction will begin.

Give it a little bit of a wiggle.

These are just ingredients that go into every normal cake.

Brewing up there.

We've got to wait for it to just start those bubbles moving around.

Hopefully the gas will begin to build up, up to here.

OK, give me ten, nine, eight, seven,

six, five, four, three, two, one.

Woo-hoo!

# Baby, you're a firework

# Come on, show 'em what you're worth

# Make 'em go oh, oh, oh!

# As you shoot across the sky... #

A little bit of damage, but look,

we made about fifteen metres!

That's all we've got time for today.

My enormous thanks to

our brilliant volunteers,

the fantastic people of Newport,

and to you guys at home watching.

Join us next time for some more Incredible Edibles where

absolutely anything could be on the menu.

Woo-hoo!