Ep 300: Ed Gamble and James Acaster (with special guest genie AJ Odudu)

James, huge news from the world of off-menu and indeed the world of the world.

Yes.

Ever heard of the Royal Albert Hall?

I have.

We've done live shows there.

And guess what?

We're doing more live shows there next year.

Sure, a lot of them are sold out already.

But we thought, hey, throw these guys a bone.

Let's put on one final Royal Albert Hall show in that run.

The show will be on Monday, the 16th of March.

It's going to be a tasting menu, a returning guest coming back, receiving the menu of another previous guest.

Those shows have been a lot of fun.

We cannot wait to do them live.

Who will we pull out of our little magic bag?

You'll have to come along on the 16th of March to find out.

If I'm correct in thinking, presale tickets go on pre-sale on the 10th of September.

Pre-sale tickets are 10th of September at 10 a.m.

And then the general sale is 12th of September at 10 a.m.

So if you miss out on the pre-sale, don't forget general sale is only two days later.

The day in between is for reflecting.

Get your tickets from royalalberthall.com Hall.com or offmenupodcast.co.uk.

You check your feed and your account.

You check the score and the restaurant reviews.

You check your hair and reflective surfaces and the world around you for recession indicators.

So you check all that, but you don't check to see what your ride options are.

In this economy, next time, check Lyft.

Welcome to the first episode of this Off Menu series, taking all of the meals, all of the ingredients from 299 episodes of the best podcast on planet Earth, mixing them in a pot and seeing what comes out.

It's episode 300 of Off Menu, James.

Happy birthday to you, Ed.

Happy birthday to you, James.

Very exciting.

300 episodes.

I mean, mad.

Mad.

Just mad.

Ed and I, when we started this podcast, thought we'd only do 10.

You.

And here we are now at 300.

Who would have thought it?

Who would have thunk it?

And we're very excited because as regular listeners may well know, James and I do our dream menus and they have changed over the years.

And we have a special guest host in the past.

For 100, we had Claudia Winkleman.

For 200, we had Rylan.

And we have another fantastic broadcaster to host this episode 300 of Off Menu.

The guest genie waiter is

AJ Adudu.

AJ Adoodu, of course, has been on the podcast before.

We love AJ Adoodu.

Absolutely love AJ.

Really excited to have her be the genie waiter.

Yes.

This evening.

This evening?

this evening yeah yeah i've just decided it's the evening for the that's the setting for our actually that our celebration mine's a lunch oh okay i prefer a lunch so

a big boozy lunch yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah okay well no spoilers is it gonna be boozy ed's menu spoilers yeah yeah I like the balls.

Very excited.

AJ, of course, is going to be hosting Big Brother once again and Dress the Nation later this year.

So be sure to tune into those.

And I'm also very excited, Ed, because

this is the first episode of the new series,

which is always exciting.

But for the last few series, I believe the first episode has been someone who has gone on to be in these Beatles movies that they're making.

Yes.

The guest.

And now we're the guests on the first episode.

Bonito furiously tapping away on his little archive to work out whether that's true.

I think it's true.

I think we've had, as the first guest of each series, Harris Dickinson, Paul Mescal, and Joseph Quinn.

Is that true?

they've all been first episodes of series those Beatles now are you suggesting James yeah that that means one of us is going to be in both both are going to play we'll be in I think the Beatles film cast Barry Kyogan though they've cast Ringo but I mean we'll be in the film oh right okay so surely it would only make sense if we both played Ringo rotating like one of us played him young and one of us played him old yeah yeah yeah I suppose we could play maybe Ringo the car park app.

I don't know if that makes an appearance in.

There's a car park app called Ringo.

I'm just trying to find a way we could play a character called Ringo.

I mean, we could.

I mean, you know.

Or maybe we could play When Ringo voices Thomas the Tank.

Yeah.

We could play just Thomas.

Thomas the Tank together.

Yeah.

We could be like Thomas and Henry and people.

Both with our faces squidged up at the front of a train.

That'd be horrifying, wouldn't it?

Yeah, it would be.

But this is what happens when you open a series of off-menu.

Yeah.

Who is the other person we've had open a series in between them who hasn't been in a row?

Are they in the Beatles movie?

If they are, then it's looking good for us.

Sophie Willen.

I'm not ruling out Sophie Willen being in the Beatles film.

Who's she going to play?

Yoko.

Yeah.

I'd watch Willen as Yoko.

I'd watch that.

But you know what?

I'd listen to our 300th episode.

Yes.

If I was the listener.

Yeah.

Who's tuned into this?

I'm very excited about this change.

We've done our dream menus.

There's been a lot of discussion leading up to it on what hacks we're going to apply and what

courses we're going to put in there.

I'd expect it to be a feast again.

Yes, we've got a feast on our hands, so let's not dilly-dally.

No, no, and no secret ingredient for us.

No secret ingredient for us, please.

We're going to get kicked out of our own restaurant.

Are you kidding me?

And also, we'd know it.

Yeah, we'd know it.

Yeah.

This is episode 300 of our menu: guest genie waiter.

Genie waiter by AJ Doodoo.

Welcome, Ed Gamble and James A.

Caster to the Dream Restaurant with guest host, AJ Adoodu.

Hello!

Yes, thanks for having me.

Finally, welcome.

A proper host on this show.

Yeah.

Who gives it some energy at the top?

Yeah, that's what it sounds like.

Well, I give it energy when I come out the lamp.

Aggressive and AJ coming out the lamp there.

Were you in the lamp just now?

Yeah, basically.

I'm just a big northern genie.

Yeah.

Poof.

I'm here.

Yeah, yeah how many is the northern genie community a large one or are you one of the

I think it's quite quite prolific actually

but you have to be in the inner circle to like really know but you know I'm letting you into our world our genie northern world yeah you also did for people just listening to the podcast you also did genie hands as you said hello there as well hello yeah properly like you represented yeah coming out of the lamp exactly it's got to be visual as well i know that obviously everyone's listening but you gotta you gotta pack a punch yeah come with the hands give it some relay is that what when you're when you're hosting big brother for example are you very aware of your hands i am actually uh i hold a microphone when i'm holding when i'm hosting big brother so gotta have good mic control yeah gotta have people hear me do you know what i mean sure gotta make sure i'm coming in your ears and then the other hand can't be too distracting so it's on my hip it's also grabbing the mic

because of that you also you can't just have a completely dead hand next to you right it can't be limp sometimes I watch myself do stand up I'm holding the microphone and the other hand is just like a completely useless appendage just hanging down around yeah flapping about like it's got no feeling in it exactly like an elephant's trunk it is like an elephant's trunk agent that's why he sits down for traitors yeah yeah

he put it flopped that dead arm yeah on the side of the sofa that's why i got an iPad for Traces Uncloaked because there's nothing on that iPad, but it's just something to hold.

Just something to hold.

Sometimes you need something to hold.

I've got a mic.

Not everyone has a mic.

Yeah.

That's it.

What dress donation?

Do they give you a mic there?

Do you get to?

Don't have a microphone there.

So then, with my hands, I'm very aware not to cross my arms.

Don't want to look standoffish.

I want to look very approachable still.

Hand on hip.

Or just like, you know, natural hand gestures, but nothing too much.

Do you know what I mean?

Yeah.

this would be too much.

I'd love to do a hand on the hip, but I don't feel like I've got hips.

No, I noticed that I

sometimes

got hips for days, but like, when I'm

not when I'm on stage, but what's when I'm around the house?

Sometimes when I'm sitting down, we're sitting down, I just have a hand on my hip, and my girlfriend will point it out.

I would never even realise I was doing it.

I'll be like, why are you sitting like a little teapot?

Why are you doing that?

I'm like, I don't know.

The teapots have it right, though.

We should all all take a leaf out of a teapot book, do you know?

We

uh worked together two days in a row now, AJ.

Both days you've had peppermint tea.

I have you love a teapot, I love a teapot.

I do think they got it right.

I love a brew.

I don't know what basically, I'm trying to reduce my coffee up me water.

Peppermint is the way forward, yeah, and it gives you a minty fresh breath as well.

It's nice, it's like hot mouthwash, it's the best of all worlds.

Wow, I'm gonna get on the peppermint tea train if it's like hot mouthwash.

What a lovely description.

That only sounds good to someone who is like, like you said, you're a very healthy person.

So to you, hot mouthwash sounds like, oh, that's the best drink.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It'll clean my mouth at the same time.

Your fresh breath, and that's that's more important to me than something that tastes nice.

But yeah, well, good on you.

We're very excited to do our menus, AG.

Episode 300.

I mean, honestly, congratulations.

Thank you very much.

Happy Happy birthday.

Thank you.

You're 300 years old.

Yeah.

We've done one a year since we were born.

If an episode was a year, that's how old you'd be.

That's amazing.

How does it feel?

It feels...

Do you know what?

When we sit down to do these 100 episodes, it does feel great.

Yeah, it does.

It does feel really cool.

The rest of the time, I just think, what a pathetic life hosted a podcast.

But then, like, when we get to do these episodes, it feels like a nice little

word.

I know, a milestone.

It's a huge milestone.

Something that you should be obviously very proud of.

And I'm so delighted to be doing your dream menus with you.

Yes, thanks.

Because the tables have turned.

The last time I was on here, it was all about me, me, me.

And now it's about you, you, you.

So I want to kick things off and ask you what you having when you're when you're walking.

Are you having an alcoholic beverage?

Are you having still or sparkling water?

What are you doing?

You know why I love this, AJ?

It's because you didn't just go with still or sparkling.

You've offered the option of an alcoholic beverage.

So

now this doesn't feel like a hack that, yes, I am going to have an alcoholic aperitif.

You're doing a hack.

It's not a hack because AJ's offered me an alcoholic drink.

Why not?

But is this for your water course?

Yeah,

or is this before a water course?

I'm thrown off now.

Uh-oh.

I'll also let you know

on the last time we did this,

James put in multiple extra courses that he'd not okayed with me first.

So I had to come up with stuff on the fly if I wanted the same amount of food as him.

Gotcha.

Last night he texted me saying, I'm not doing as many hacks this time.

I'll read out the text, actually, because I just he kept saying.

This is last night.

What time was this text sent, please?

It was an alright time, actually.

Yeah, eight o'clock.

Eight o'clock, right?

It was five past eight.

Oh, wow.

Pretty good.

Yeah.

Pretty good memory for Medicare, though.

So he told me previously he's not doing loads of hacks this time.

It's going to be pretty much straightforward format.

Yeah, yeah.

And then 8.05, I get this text.

Firstly, hello Ed, which is always a bad start.

If James just sends hello ed, you know something annoying's going to be.

That's the text on its own, by the way.

Hello Ed.

And then I follow it up

with the

Hello Ed.

Yeah.

He pressed English.

Yes.

Would you like to know the hacks I'm employing tomorrow so you don't have to do it on the fly again?

Long story short, fish course, cheese course, pre-dessert, putty four.

Oh, those are all extra courses.

So then the next two hours of my life at home was spent scrabbling through my brain trying to work out what to pick.

I'm just fish.

What's the catch of the day going to be?

So, I am going to have an imperitif.

Okay.

Okay.

And this is addition to the water course.

Yes.

Yeah.

Okay.

Lovely.

Would you like to know what my imperitif is?

Yeah, go on.

It's a drink called a manuela from a tapas bar in Madrid called Taberna La Concha.

It's the only place I've ever had this.

I don't know.

If you look it up online, they seem to be famous for it.

Okay.

It's in a little sort of martini-style glass.

They do three sprays of gin from a little spray bottle.

Oh, right.

First of all, it's sounding quite pretentious.

It's not pretentious at all.

This is like we can't just pour our alcohol, we've got to spray it.

We're pouring on top, but you just want the flavour of the gin, not necessarily the full whack of gin.

Okay, a perfume, a bit of perfume, yeah.

Three sprays of gin, then vermouth.

Okay, basically, yeah, pretty much like sweet vermouth all the way up, then a dash of campari bitters or a few dashes served with an olive and orange peel on a cocktail stick in there.

Punchy.

And me and my wife had had this when we went to Madrid Madrid to go and see Metallica.

That's what you had before, Metallica.

No, no, that was the day before.

So what we'll do is we'll go to a European city.

We go to a European city for a gig or something or wrestling.

And the night before we'll get there and have like a fancy day where we go to nice restaurants and do a bit of touristy stuff.

And the next day will be full dirty gribo grunger day.

That's nice.

That's balance that.

Yeah.

That is balance.

And the Manuela at Taberna La Concha was a real highlight.

I think I had about three of them.

Oh, nice.

So delicious.

I bet.

Very moorish.

Quite strong as well, no?

Vermouth, yeah, a bit strong.

I mean, but that's what, I think that's what I want for an apparent teeth.

Yeah.

I want to be pissed before my ass hits the seat, basically.

Yeah.

Before any water, before the water goes.

I'm not drinking water until I've had my vermouth.

Yeah.

You can't fill yourself up on hydration.

Exactly.

Complete waste of time.

You know, like those funny coffee signs where they're like, don't talk to me until I've had my coffee.

Like, don't give me water until I'm waste.

Until I need it.

Until you're gasping.

That does actually sound really nice, to be fair.

Have you ever had that?

I've not had that.

I would like to have that.

I'd like to watch someone make that and spray some gin.

And they make loads of them as well.

So, I mean, it's like, it's a proper tapas boss.

It's quite small.

Everyone's stood up.

Yeah, cute.

But everyone knows that drink there.

So they often have like 20 of those glasses lined up ready to go and they're just

spraying in.

Have you tried to recreate this at home outside of Madrid?

I've not because I enjoyed it and I didn't look up the recipe until last night.

Okay, I was gonna say this is really good knowledge, you know, when what drink is being poured into the glass or sprayed onto it.

So I will make it at home, but I don't know what vermouths to buy, so it'll probably be a disaster.

But I think I was a, if I was a bartender at that place, I'd be spraying gin in my mouth every now and again.

Surely they've just done it.

They've just done that.

Yeah, yeah.

Exactly.

Yeah.

They must have all done it everyone who works there must have sprayed gin in their mouth as well yeah again like a little breath spray yeah kind of i'm big on oral hygiene yesterday yeah yeah hejo's here to promote big brother uh dress the nation and oral hygiene well if you're having a pair of teeth i will have as my pair of teeth the oyster shell martini from bratt yes from brat called brat okay i thought

for a second i thought you said pratt

it's on the secret menu at Pratt.

It's like, what?

Yeah, you can go in order a martini at Pret.

You have no idea.

It's really good.

Real proper French martinis.

But back to Brat.

Oyster shell martini.

It's one of my favourite drinks anywhere, actually.

And I didn't, I'm actually really glad Ed's done the para tea pack because I did find a home for it in the menu.

Actually, I think it's going to fit quite well with other things I've got planned.

I've never been sure if it's either gin or vodka, actually, the oyster shell martini, because it's so I've said about it before on the podcast.

The amazing thing with it, because because they do use like ground-up oyster shells in there somewhere.

I don't know what I don't even know how they make it, but it means it tastes dirty and clean at the same time.

Yeah, so it's like got a bit of like a saltiness from like the oyster, but it's just got a really clean taste, and I think I like it better than any martini I've ever had anywhere else.

Wow, I do like it so much that I've just realized I don't know the booze in it, which is like that, that is a real sign that I love it.

Because normally, if I'm ordering a martini, I'm like, it has to be vodka.

I think it is I think it's vodka and I do think it is you can't find it uh but now I'm doubting myself because I've just had so many and never asked because they taste so delicious well I mean that's it and also when you're going in it's you don't need to know it's the experience isn't it that's the that's the point well usually I do need to know because I'm part of the experience I love it but with this like I didn't even realize until just now that I don't know if it's vodka or gin it is vodka but

nodding his head i'm glad to discover it's vodka because normally i order it and i make sure it's vodka whenever i order other martinis and i was going to be quite distressed then if i just discovered i mean it tastes like my favorite martini is a gin one

but uh surprise but i'm glad i'm glad that it's uh it's we went to um bratt recently they've got they've got two uh two restaurants we went we went to one recently and we booked quite late and james was like sorry i go in there quite a lot i'll sort it out and they how this sounds like something from good fellas they sort of just put a new table in for us wow felt amazing Thank you so much to the people at Brett, if you're listening.

Yeah, how many martinis have you had there?

A lot.

I've had a lot.

They're like, right, come on, let's get the table out of the basement.

Yeah,

there's a few things that I regularly order there that they almost.

There's one thing called roast chicken rice, which is an incredible dish.

I thought that was going to come up later on your menu.

No, it's not on this menu.

Veil, nice opportunity to shout it out because it is one of my favourite dishes anywhere.

Just amazing, like the roast chicken, the different bits of chicken, like there's a chicken sausage, sausage a chicken drumstick in there um loads of different ways that chicken's been cooked in the rice itself love it and then you just stir it all together but you put some salad in as well so there's like the salad comes along that's like got a vinegare on it and you put it into the rice and you mix them all together and normally they come along with a spiel and tell you this is yeah this is all the different parts of the chicken we've got here and here's the salad and what you're meant to do is put it in here and now when they bring it over to me they just laugh and then walk away

he knows how to do it all he knows what to do he knows that vibe I'm helping out other tables around him with a roast chicken rice.

He's so used to it.

Because when we went, there was someone there who James was like, he's new.

I've not seen him before.

And he came over and he didn't do the full spiel.

And he left, and James was like, he should have said to mix the salad into the rice.

It did get to me.

It did.

He's not going to last long.

He's not going to last long at all.

But I don't want the salad mixed in because I don't want cold salad mixed into a hot thing.

Right.

Because I was going to say, it's quite controversial that I think you know hot and cold you know you're wilting it then it wilts yeah it makes the salad a little bit soggy but it works for you does it work the vinaigrette in there with with with everything and and the salad adds that bit of the only thing i'd say is that sometimes you get a big salad leaf uh that's in there with everything else and uh that can take you by surprise yeah

well you try to put this isn't even on either of our menus no but it's good to shout out but it's good to share it's a hall of famer for me yeah now i want to go i've I've never been to Brat.

Brat does sound quite dry, though.

Is the rice not dry?

No, it's really moist and because it's got all the juices and the chicken.

The chicken is all in it.

And also it comes in a skillet, so it's kind of still cooking a little bit.

So it's still crispy, get some crispy bits in there.

And then that's at the brat that I go to quite regularly.

There's the other brat.

They do roast duck rice.

Oh, my gosh.

Now we're talking.

It's the same dish, but with duck.

And that's amazing as well.

So like,

maybe do them on the same day.

Do a little.

Just do a little brat crawl.

Yeah, brat rise crawl.

Okay, well, they're nice drinks.

Great start.

Both martini boys.

Yeah.

Yeah.

When Ed was saying that, I know what would go perfect.

I will have a martini and I can cheers Ed from across the

eye.

I love a martini.

I love a martini.

I love a lychee martini.

Oh, my gosh.

This is the 300th episode.

Jeannie.

Thank you.

It is.

Have a lychee martini.

Yeah, cheers.

What water are we washing all of this down with?

I mean, I'm not going to try and hack the water.

I've done a pint of Guinness before as the water, but I feel like I've got my appearance now.

I think I'd just like some lovely water.

A classic still.

Just a classic still, like we've got here, just a jug of still.

It can be tap.

I like to have it constantly, constantly at the table.

You know, talking about hydrating,

I'm trying to keep my hydration up.

Yeah.

And may I say, you look splendid for it, hey?

Exactly.

Bless you.

Bless Bless you both.

Yeah, I like to hydrate.

Hey, sue me.

Wow.

It's good to hydrate.

I used to be a cool kid who was like, water sucks, man.

But now I love water.

Water does a good thing.

It's here for a reason.

That's a really, what a journey.

It really, it really is.

I mean, obviously, the last time I was on, I was picking up Blackburn Water because it is absolutely delicious.

I was just up north at the weekend, actually, and I was guzzling it down.

Wow.

So maybe, maybe I'll have that then.

Appreciate the shout out to just a classic tap water.

It's very underrated, especially in certain parts of the country.

London tap water, questionable, not going to lie.

Sure.

So, but you'd still do London tap water.

No, must it be filtered?

Because I like London tap water, but I feel like maybe then I get some Blackburn tap water.

Oh, yeah.

Because then I'll taste the difference, right?

You really, you really will.

You really will.

You will, Ed.

Thanks.

Water from up north is better.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And no ice, just tap water.

Just as it comes.

Rim temp.

Why is that?

Sensitive teeth?

No, not really.

I just feel like ice gets in the way.

And also, it's just the same thing, isn't it?

But different.

You want one form of water at a time in a glass.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Don't be pretending that they're different things.

Yeah, let's not dilly dally.

I'll say that.

If anyone ever brings me ice water again, I'm going to go, let's not dilly dally.

Let's not dilly dally.

With two types of water in one glass, please.

Come on.

Come on.

Are you trying to get worried about you, james i'm just like it actually i'm very excited about this because i've actually got a water course for the first time the the last two i've hacked them and said like causten press and then i had a kombucha for the last one i actually had a water that i'm really excited about uh i had it at um scoff in manchester nice again this is just an opportunity to shout out a whole restaurant i mean probably favorite restaurant in the country at the minute so it's just like such an incredible place everything on that menu is brilliant tom barnes of the chef there but the water that they well i i had the the non-alcoholic pairing last time I was there.

And one of them had this hop-infused sparkling water as one of the ingredients

in the like little non-alcoholic cocktail.

And I really got the flavour of that.

And I was like, this is, this, whatever that flavor is, is really great.

And they said, that's what it is.

And then they gave me some cans to take home of just the water.

So they're from Track Brewing.

Right.

So describe this flavour.

So it's a hop-infused sparkling water.

Is it a beer-y sort of taste?

Yeah, so it's like, well, it is, yeah, just like the hops that they make beer with, but it's like infused in, but it's not like an alcoholic flavor, really.

It tastes like weak beer.

No, do you know what?

My description of it is going to make it sound bad.

Right.

Okay, I'm glad that you know that hop smell.

If you smell, yeah, when you can smell hops.

I'm saying this because I grew up in Northamptonshire, and in Northampton, there's the Carlsberg factory, and everyone knows what hops smell.

Okay, yes, okay.

The Black Bernard Three

brewery as well.

And Edinburgh's very, like, if you get off the train in Edinburgh, you are hit by the brewery smell pretty quickly.

So I guess it's a bit of a, almost a stale water smell.

I guess

what I would like is that in my drink, because it does have this kind of like, I think that's why I like it so much is because I can't even fully put my finger on it and describe it because I haven't had it anywhere else.

Is it nostalgic to you as well?

Maybe it doesn't mind me of walking past the Carlsberg factory in Northampton and going around trying to do gigs with my band.

But like, yeah, that kind of like, it's almost, I don't want to say the word mildewy

because uh again what doesn't sound good yeah but uh yeah and it's sparkling as well i would never think i'd go for sparkling water i gen generally prefer tap water or still water but it just really worked and this this this company track brewing never heard of them before really excited to get more of this uh i mean i'm basically next time we go to scoff i'm gonna have some more the cans of that when you sort of them from track as i'm saying it now i'm realizing i should do that

won't you be a grown-up and buy your own stuff from the place that you know it is?

They'll send it, yeah, surely.

I've gone up my way to say that who they are

a couple of times.

Always, AJ, is send us some stuff.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, always.

Yeah, I mean, I can't, I can't, I personally can't wait to try Scarf in Manchester the next time I'm up north.

You should go there, man.

It's like so many things that on that menu are so good.

The Tiramasu.

Also, there's this like cashell blue cheese course that they did the first time I went.

And it's like a sweet cheese, like a bridge over it into the desserts, which is my, I really like it when people do that in restaurants too, that like a savory to sweet course.

Love that.

And I loved it.

Said to the hedgehog, it's my favourite food on the menu.

I love it so much.

Next time I went there, it wasn't on the menu.

Ah, and he was like, yeah, we took it off.

But then he made me a little special one.

Oh my gosh.

I need

rolling with you to restaurants must be like rolling with the big dogs.

Yeah.

I mean, like.

Tables are coming out.

Yeah, as I was saying

is like being adjusted live.

Doesn't sound

nip to the shops.

We do feel like ingredient mafioso goes.

Yeah, it's all good.

As I was saying it, I was like, oh no, we've already said someone put a table out for us.

You know what I'm saying?

This is bad.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Reviewing stuff.

Like,

Knuckles Acasta's coming.

Get the table.

Did you get the blue cheese?

Oh, fuck.

Oh, fuck.

He's going to go fucking shit.

You heard what he did to the last chef.

You can tell us not to swear?

Please do not swear.

Thank you.

Beautiful.

Although it is your podcast, so you can do what you want.

Thank you.

Thank you, AJ.

Both got water courses.

This is the first.

Water courses, that's good.

I'm glad.

Sparked water, to be fair.

Yeah, I've got water.

I've got sparked and water.

Yeah, but you went that.

I just went that.

What's in front of me?

What's that?

I got black burnt water there.

Yeah, I got black burnt water.

Yeah, you upgraded it, to be fair.

Yeah, broadening your your horizon yeah and you've made yours fizzy with hops in it which you're right it doesn't sound nice but i'm i'm up for trying that from track brewing

right come on what are you having for the next bit are you having poppa doms are you having bread are you having crisps do we count crisps as a bread or a poppa dumb i think people have in the past hacked this course and had crisps

some people have even had crisps as their starter i'm thinking about Rosie Jones, who had a lot of different types of crisps as her starter.

But yeah, I think you can, especially with dips.

Genuinely, I mean, I know that this is your dream menu, but I've been in Ibifa recently and I went to Casamaca, this amazing restaurant, gorgeous ambiance, like beautiful meats.

And one of the starters, my mate, ordered crisps.

And I was like, come on.

We're on a holiday.

Let's be classy about this.

Do you know what I mean?

But they were great.

These like homemade crisps and they were like lightly salted and they were just so good with like a baba ganoush.

Well, they're quite oh, baba ganoush is so good.

Oh, it's so good.

I've just spinning that in my mouth on its own.

Baba ganoush is so good.

Was it thick homemade crisps?

They were a combination of the two.

They were like not chunky,

but not thin.

They were the perfect

consistency.

And also freshly done.

So they were warm as well.

They were warm.

Right, right, right.

They did something similar at we went there, James, after we'd interviewed Jeff Goldblum.

What a life.

What a fucking life.

Agora.

Do they do it?

Or did we demand it and they did it for us?

They do like fresh potato chips with, and they do incredible dips like a Baba Ganouche and stuff.

So huge shout out to Agora as well.

Yeah, nice.

I've not met my dream menu, but you came very close.

Maybe next year.

I mean, we're doing as many shout-outs as we can at this point.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Just before Poppadum's or bread, I do have a quick chef's welcome.

A chef's blooming welcome.

I did a chef's welcome last time.

He's got me.

He's got you.

A chef's welcome, but this is a genuine chef's welcome that exists in that position on the menu at the hand and flowers.

Everyone gets a little sausage roll.

You sit down and they bring you this perfectly sized, like homemade, obviously, it's a restaurant, sausage roll.

It's absolutely incredible.

Okay.

Nice.

Nice pastry.

Nice pastry.

Beautiful, like crispy, golden.

It flakes, but also it's got that fatty taste to it as well.

I love that.

It's a little bit of girl.

It's not too heavy on the sausage roll, though.

Not too in terms of, yeah, I mean, it's like it's quite because the sausage roll, I love them,

but they can be quite girthy.

And to have that as a welcome.

Yeah, it's not too girthy.

We don't want it to ruin the appetite.

It's not a girthy welcome.

Yeah, it's not a girthy.

It's not too girthy.

No, no.

Just the perfect.

Sorry, I've got a lot of fun.

Which is relative, which is relative to people

to what you'd enjoy.

But yeah, it's a beautiful thing.

And it's exciting to sit down and not know you're going to get a sausage roll, and then you get a sausage roll.

But do you get a sausage roll every time, or did they change that on the menu?

I think I've only been once.

When you went, did you get a sausage roll?

I actually don't think we did.

I went once and it was earlier this year.

It was just a couple of months ago.

Okay.

Did you get a welcome?

It was my partner's birthday.

So you weren't concentrating on what was happening.

So when we sat down, I think we were giving...

Our lives are going to sound so bad now.

I'll be giving champagne.

oh god it all comes out because i texted the chef in advance to let them know oh my god oh my god i'm like this can't go out we can't put this out for you

you just sound awful this is changed you'll be able to track it how how our lives have changed hang on during this podcast your partner is not eating pork right yes she's not did you tell them that in advance yes so maybe that was yeah that was it that was that's why that was it that's why

what did you have they were very nicely gave us a couple of glasses of champagne oh champagne

Happy birthday.

That was the chef's welcome.

It wasn't a ball.

It wasn't a drink ball.

Yeah, yeah.

It was a little drink, which they might do for everyone who's their birthday, to be fair, if you tell them ahead of time.

Oh, yeah.

I don't know that.

Oh, God.

But Effen's doing a chef's welcome.

I'm going to do a chef's welcome.

Yeah.

And I went to Effen's Pod.

Well, actually, Paul Feig, who came on this podcast, invited me to a get-together he was having.

And we arrived, and he's got his own chef.

Oh, my God.

Yeah, so some of us are not doing as well as Paul Fig.

Yeah, yeah.

So Paul Fig's doing better than us.

Yeah.

And I just want you to know I was invited to that too, but I couldn't go.

Yeah.

Yes, he was invited.

Yeah.

And Ben might have even been, no, he wasn't involved.

He wasn't invited.

Ben didn't make the curve.

No, he wasn't.

But when you arrived at that party, you were instantly given a little chef's welcome from Paul Fig's personal chef.

And it was called Steak and Chips.

But it was, I would say, it was a cocktail stick, and on it was these tiny little like fried potato

like mini chips very small almost like a potato bravas yeah like so but little like the the chip they look like chips like crispy chips nice like little matchsticks in their own right and then

a bit of like a very thin bit of steak that was like a ribbon that was like in a in an almost m shape on the cocktail stick the way it was folded on there love and it was like the perfect mini mouthful of steak and chips just a salty really juicy meat the crispy salty chips it was i was really into it, and I was actually quite disappointed.

It was just, you get it once on the way in.

How can I keep on doing laps at this place?

Yeah, exactly.

Because I was really.

Also, it was on a boat, wasn't it?

Yeah, I don't want to mention that bit because, like, my lives already sounded on a boat.

You were on a bloody yacht, weren't you?

There wasn't a yacht, it was a boat.

In the restaurant recommendations on the website, make sure you write down, you've got to go and get the steak and chips from Paul Fig's personal chef on a boat.

Oh, no.

Oh, no.

I wasn't even going to do this.

And then just the chef's welcome and then someone's like what's the nicest mouthful i've ever had when i've arrived somewhere and it was on the private boat party

oh no

oh no oh my gosh that's heroin boys

so dreamy

it was delicious though it was absolutely one of the best mouthfuls of food i've ever had yeah especially upon arrival sounds like it's a royalty that let me tell you the problem is this podcast has really changed James, and I'm fine because I've never been relatable.

So no one expects anything less from me.

He's come up to your level.

Yeah, finally.

Welcome.

Here I am.

The weather's great up here.

It feels uncomfortable.

Sorry.

So we've done the chef's welcome.

I do like that I've got that chef's welcome on my menu because that was so good.

I mean, it sounds amazing, but should we get you back onto dry land?

Yes.

Talk about poppadons and breaks.

Thank you.

You've still got my sea legs right there.

myself.

James, do you want to go first?

Well, I'm going bread and I always respect it when someone goes bread basket when they come on the pod.

And I always think, why don't I do that?

Why do I always just...

So, like, I've got a little bread basket.

So, I'd like the charred flatbread with whipped bataga, which I think is a butter thing.

I don't know.

It tastes like butter.

From Soon in Hackney.

So it's a

new restaurant, S-U-N-E.

Nice.

I think it's run by someone who used to work at Noma in Copenhagen and is now got this place.

It's really great.

The whole restaurant's great.

This charred flatbread.

So I can't tell you how much I love stuff that's charred these days.

I love it.

Burn it.

Just burn it.

Flame grill it.

Yeah.

And it doesn't sound, it's something that doesn't sound on the menu, you see charred flatbread.

How good's that going to be?

And again, I'm going to describe it and make it sound bad.

But it's like you've been making...

those American style pancakes at home and you've accidentally taken your eye off the pan.

and you burnt the pancake

they smell like that when you smell them they smell like burnt pancakes burnt pancakes like some sweetness to them yeah

and i've always liked that smell but never liked the taste of burnt pancakes and these smell as good as they taste they taste as good as they smell right but they smell burnt yeah

By the way, Bataga is fish rye, you know?

Oh, it's fish roy?

Yeah, I mean, it's quite close to the caviar.

Oh, my god.

Oh my god.

It's like a gorgeous buttery.

Oh, Jesus fucking Christ.

I'm even eating caviar, I'm not even aware of it.

That's how bougie I am these days.

Yeah, I think it's butter.

I think it must be butter.

I just slaver it on there like it's butter.

Must be.

Sometimes it falls on the floor.

Get it all over my lap.

I don't care.

I let my cats eat it.

Just a bit of butter.

Jesus Christ.

Okay, well,

it's a whipped caviar that I have on my charred flatbread.

And

it is absolutely delicious.

I bet it is.

It's so good.

Where was that from, sorry?

Soon in Hackney.

Yes.

So that's first thing in the bread basket.

Next thing in the bread basket, I've shouted out on the podcast before.

The Daigle.

The Daigle.

From the Doe Hut and Lee.

First fish bump.

First fish bump.

Because that's my bread course.

Yes.

Oh!

We've got the same bread course.

Oh my.

Okay.

So we're cooking on gas.

Tell you about this.

Yeah.

Let's go, boys.

What's so good about it?

What do you think the daigle could be?

A daigle.

Is it like a bagel?

Mixed with.

Combined with something dayy.

So like egg.

Donuts.

Doughnuts.

It's a doughnut bagel.

So basically, you've got the dough of a donut.

Oh, nice.

Filled with sour cream and chives, like a like a bagel.

Cream cheese, sort of.

Sorry, cream cheese and chives.

Yeah.

And then on the top is everything bagel seasoning and sugar.

And salt.

They roll it in sugar and salt.

Yeah.

So you get.

Whoa, it's sweet and savoury.

Yeah.

AJ, it's incredible.

It sounds interesting, not going to lie.

Like, usually sweet and savoury, I reserve for like popcorn

or, you know, cheese with a bit of pear and honey.

Yeah.

But this is what we're doing.

This is how we're tipping it, Bobby.

Honestly, I think you would like this.

Okay.

Because I'm sort of the same about sweet and savory.

I don't like it when people have pancakes and maple syrup and bacon.

I don't like any of that sort of stuff.

But this is,

it's a mind fuck as well because it's like bagel, donut, sweet, savoury.

And the first time I had it, the first bite I took, I had full body goose bumps.

Yeah.

Me too.

Oh my God.

I remember where I was.

I was in my hotel room because I was the one who was.

I was in my hotel room.

Because it was brought to you

by a servant.

We have the dough hut set up at New Branch within my hotel room.

So I could get daigles on tap.

Now, quite conveniently, the dough hut in Leeds is opposite the hotel I was staying in.

So I was able to get one straight to my hotel room.

I remember biting it and like having to stop everything.

I was just having a freeze and taking what was happening to me because I was like, I've never tasted anything like this before.

And I couldn't get enough of it.

I wolfed it down.

I was there for like four days.

I probably had.

about three of them while I was there.

And then he started talking about them on this podcast.

So I was like, that does sound good.

Next time I was in Leeds on tour, I went there maybe noon and I went, do you have any daigle?

They went, no, sold out because James keeps talking about them.

So I had to go back at 10 a.m.

the next day when they opened to get a daigle.

Yeah.

And it was worth the 24-hour wait, was it?

My God, yeah.

Well, I had a chocolate one the day before.

Just because when you're in there, right?

Which are excellent also.

Yeah, so much custard in there.

But yeah, the daigle is also my bread course.

That is amazing.

That sounds so hearty, rich, and confusing.

It sounds like we shouldn't like it.

They do whip the cream cheese a little bit, so it's like light and fluffy in there.

It's not just like thick cream cheese.

It's like it's a beautiful mouthfeel.

Nice.

It is.

Gosh,

what a breadbasket.

Oh, there's one more thing in the bread basket.

Okay, wow.

I just remembered how long these episodes gone.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

No, no, no.

Come on.

We love to talk about food.

And by the way, I did have four things in the bread basket.

And this morning I thought, no, come on.

It's written it in.

I'll put it down to three.

Yeah, yeah.

And lastly, I would like from Family Mart in Japan, which is just a chain of sky.

Just a hop, skip, and a jumper bread.

A chain of soup, like little convenience stores.

I would like the peach, pineapple, and tangerine sandwich.

So those, you get loads of eggs shaking his head, but sugary.

I like it so much.

I'm soggy.

Yeah, so I would eat these breads in the order I've said them in.

I would have the charred flatbread, and then I would have the daigle, a little crossover, and then I would have this sweet, this was basically a cake really it's white what it's white bread yeah and then you basically get like a tinned a little tinned peach

in there

some little tinned pineapple and a little tangerine segment and it's cream like you would but it's not actually the cream itself isn't that sweet I would say but it's still a bit sweet that there's all in there and that's that that's the little sandwich you get from the from the shop and they do loads of savory sandwiches and i worked my way through them when i was there yeah but when i had this one, again, I remember I was, I was literally sitting outside of a shop when my girlfriend tried to find some trainers.

We really wanted these trainers, and I was like, sat just on the floor, pretty much, and eating the sandwich and was like, it's the highlight of my holiday.

Wow.

If I'm honest, I would put Family Mark at the bottom of the convenience stores in Japan, apart from, and they're very, very famous for this, their fried chicken.

Their fried chicken.

Okay.

Fammy chick.

Yeah.

Family chick.

Fammy.

I would say family chick.

Fami.

Fammy chick.

Fami chick.

Yeah, that is

top.

Yeah.

Top tier.

Yeah.

Top tier energy.

Extremely good.

That bread course, honestly, sounds like a lot of ingredients.

Yes, a lot of people.

A lot of ingredients going on.

With that bread course, I'm taking the same amount of time most people would take for a meal.

Right?

Because that was the three-course bread course.

There's a lot of cream in it as well.

So much cream.

There's a lot of cream there.

I'm going to the toilet before I start eating anything else.

Anything else?

But like, I'm enjoying that bread course like it's a little meal I do appreciate a bread basket though I do I do I also appreciate a pop-a-dom basket have you had like the pop-a-dom basket at like Jim Corner in Mayfair yes with all the different types of popads

yes because even like a pop-a-dom like breadstick yeah it's so good yeah there's so many different types that we're not like you know, we're not always privy to in the UK.

When you get that and it's like a whole bunch of different ones, really, you can really take your time with one of those.

Oh, yeah, absolutely.

Well, thank you for them.

I'm full.

I'm full.

Yeah, I mean, I'm glad I held back and only had a full doughnut for my breakfast.

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i'm absolutely stuffed but there's still room for a starter yeah so what we having i am going to have from the restaurant mountain which is i love mountain well the chef at mountain is the same guy who runs brat

So if you like Mountain,

you're going to love Brat.

I'm going to love Brat.

Okay, this is good to know.

Thomas Parry.

I am having the spider crab omelette from Mountain.

Wow.

It's delicious.

Which excellent, good.

I'm glad you've had it.

So good.

It is incredible, isn't it?

How do they get that consistency?

It's so perfect every single time.

It's amazing.

You just cut it open and it's just perfect.

And they say you've got to cut it open quite soon because it's going to keep cooking in there.

You cut it open and it just, I mean, it feels like you're almost doing some sort of disgusting surgery, but it just peels back, and you've got that sort of perfect consistency, not too liquidy, not too solid, and then very generous helping of spider crab meat in there as well.

Yeah,

they're not stingy with it, do you know what I mean?

Yeah, yeah, the spider crab.

Have you had that with that bread, with their bread that they do?

And

I can't remember what it's called, but it's like this big dorm of bread, and then you just pop your knife in, and then the bread flattens.

And then, oh, that with that omelette together, 10, 10 experience.

And there's so many great dishes on that menu anyway.

Yeah.

But every time I go there, straight to the spider crab omelette.

Yeah.

Is it quite juicy?

It's pretty juicy.

Juicy omelette.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's rich as well.

Yeah.

Any sauces coming with it?

No, you don't need it.

It's self-sourcing.

It's self-sourcing.

It is.

It does sound really good.

Is it big?

It's a decent size, but you're sharing everything anyway.

And there's order a lot.

It's almost got, you know, when you see, like, I can't remember the name of it, in Japan where they do the omelette on top of of the rice omi rice and then they cut the they cut the top of the omelette and it just sort of folds and sort of spills over the top it opens yeah it's slightly less liquidy version of that i'd say so you don't need any sauce in it really i wonder how they make it sort of like hollow in the middle as well i don't know it just honestly it blows my mind i'm like it doesn't make sense it's like a folded omelette yeah but then you open it and you're like oh that was hollow inside and busy and what is it just a little spider crab waving it

Yeah.

Welcome.

Welcome to Mountain.

Yeah, that was the easiest choice.

That's a good starter, though.

I want to eat that now.

I can't, I can't.

Too late to put it into my menu.

Well, you can try it some other time.

What do you want for your starter?

Well, it's not ideal given the narrative so far.

Okay.

Okay.

Here we go.

How many stars has this place got?

Come on, King James.

What have we said to your majesty and i wasn't telling what already with this one when i put it there i actually wasn't happy about it because i didn't want to put a dish from noma which is like seen as being three michelin star regularly voted the top restaurant in the world yeah dinner yeah

yeah i went there earlier this year how many times you've been there three times wow one for each star you can always get a table you can always get a table

these restaurants hard to get in but somehow

leave one empty for him at all times.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

This is the one that's attached to the side of my house.

So, yeah,

when I ate this, I was like oh no, that's gonna go on the menu.

This is one of the best things I've ever had.

I've got to put it on the menu, I've got to have no more on my menu.

This king crab, crab, it's almost worth a fist bumper, I think.

Crabs, crabs are more here.

It was like these crab legs, really thick.

They may as well have been sausages, these crab legs.

They were so big, big and meaty.

Try selling that to a crab.

The girf.

The girf of misses

talk about the girf or these crab legs.

Served with frozen quince that you then

quince.

I'm not happy about it.

Can you

explain quince to me, please?

I'm actually not sure what it is.

It's a fruit.

They'll love to often serve like a quince-based things with cheese, like a quince jelly.

Quite often you'd have with cheese, but it's sort of...

This has looked like a little...

Sour and sweet.

It's got that.

Like the end of a lemon, it looked the way they cut it.

Yeah, okay.

And then you squeezed it over.

So it's the citrus fruit.

Yeah.

Right.

So then I squeezed it over the crab legs.

Lovely.

It was like it had been frozen, taken out, left for a bit, and then you squeeze it over.

But it didn't taste like lemon.

They couldn't

have a centric, I think.

Yeah.

And sweet.

Okay, gotcha.

And then to brush over it was a savoury fudge.

So it was this like...

It came with a brush that almost looked like a shaving brush.

Okay.

Love it.

Your descriptions are so appetizing too.

You got all the savoury fudge on it, and then you spread it on top of this big, juicy crab's leg that already had the frozen quince on it.

It was just so melt-in-the-mouth, crazy, delicious.

I felt very emotional while eating it.

It was so nice.

But like I say, I was like, oh no, I'm now going to have to put

number one restaurant in the world on my menu.

I'm not going to appear very relatable here.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's too late for that, man.

Yeah, but yeah, but yeah,

it's sort of losers at the whipped caviar of of which

that was blind side of me, if I'm honest.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, and the little steak and chip situation on the

looking down this menu.

I'm not redeeming myself anytime soon.

When I look at what I've got coming up, my menu's less pushed than James's.

This is it, this is where we jump the show.

What a day, what a day, but you know, gotta admit, nicest startup I've had, yeah, exactly.

I mean, listen, it's your 300th, you know, go all out, splash out, right?

Exactly.

What are we having for me?

Pack.

Oh,

boom.

Fish course.

Oh, before, wait a minute, we've had starter.

Yeah.

And before we have the main, we're going fish course.

Like a fish course.

Yeah.

Okay.

Because you're the one who called the fish course.

You texted me last night about it.

Jack.

Pull some fish out of my ass.

Not surprising anyone.

We're not going to be moving away from the Michelin guide.

Okay.

Okay.

So as start as you mean to go on.

So it's a restaurant in Nottingham called Al Camilla.

Okay.

A-L-C-H-E-M-I-L-L-A.

I think that's how it's pronounced.

And they did an aged gilt head bream.

It was just very, you know, simple, just like fill it with fish.

Now, I'm going to annoy myself here because basically it was the best fish I've ever tasted, like, ever in my life.

And my memory of it is that it had like a bit bit of a crispy skin and just really juicy fish, but the flavor was amazing.

I'm not going to be able to do a great job of explaining it aside.

From I was like, Well, fish has just never tasted this good.

Okay, but why, why?

Yeah, why is this so good?

Was it the texture?

Was it the crispy skin?

I mean, was it the way it fell off the bar?

Was it the aged thing?

Maybe it was because it was aged, but like it was definitely, it was just the right amount of juicy.

So, like, uh, it wasn't too dry, wasn't too wet.

Okay, it was just this really nice, meaty, juicy fish.

I love a crispy fish skin.

Yeah.

And it was done to perfection.

And there was a, also,

it was a tasting menu.

And it was a good amount of it as well.

It was like the main course, pretty much.

Okay.

And also, I think, and the people of Nottingham who came to see me that week probably know this, but it was one of the worst weeks of the tour.

And it was like, I'd done four nights in Nottingham and it wasn't going great.

They weren't really enjoying the show as much as I'd like but then that's probably on me so i was like oh man not performing the show very well this week and

and then just found this place last minute on the final day for me and my tour manager go and have a meal and yeah it meant that the last show was probably even worse because i was full

i was full of food yeah

but but especially on the last tour i really wanted to find as many places to eat around the UK as I could that I could like

if anyone texted me saying where should I go and eat in this place I could I could say this this place is great like yeah so if they're in Nottingham I'd have somewhere to signpost them to and I'd recommend everyone go to Alcamello it was so delicious all these little bites at the beginning were insane that they just bought out that weren't even like the main dishes so like yeah that the whole meal was great but that fish is like it was one of those ones where I just said out loud like a boring person this is the best fish I've ever had to my friend and he had to listen to that

but it was did he also enjoy it he enjoyed it a lot yeah yeah he he really liked it Although he was tour manager as well, as my friend.

So he was also thinking, we've got to get to the venue.

He's clockwatching.

Yeah, we've got to do this, this, and this.

And how many more courses are coming out now?

So I don't know.

You've got shit face rolling around.

Yeah, I'm like, oh, what was it?

That Martinique.

But like, yeah.

So I speak on his behalf, but I think he enjoyed it.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Sounds exquisite.

It was exquisite.

And I'm just going to have to lead into that now.

So I'm looking at what's coming.

And I'm.

Yeah, you're bougie now.

At no point am I going to look any less bougie?

Yeah.

Well, I'm down to earth.

Yeah.

So for my fish course, I'd like oysters charantes.

Wow.

Wow.

Down to earth.

Wow.

I thought you were going to take a chippy.

It's going to have a battered cod.

Just a battle.

I didn't think about that when I was panic sorting my fish course last night.

I was like, what about fish and chips?

Because obviously, it's, you know, one of the best.

ways to have fish is battered but really is i decided on oysters charantes

um which i believe is popular in the Bordeaux region of France.

I had it in, never had it before, never heard of it.

Then I had it in Rick Stein's restaurant, in seafood restaurant in Padstow, in Cornwall.

Oh, my word, which one was this?

Because I just went to Padstow.

To Padstow, but I went to the Chippe.

Oh, nice.

Well, he basically runs that town.

It's like

he's like the godfather.

It's like so good.

I mean, that battered God.

God just laughed because you imagined it in his head, the godfather.

I guarantee that's why he laughed.

It is, isn't it?

yeah he laughed to himself when ed said rick stein is like the godfather yeah he went ben just did a little laugh to himself i knew he'd imagined the cod father

and that is what he did he's a very popular name for some fish and chip restaurant yeah yeah so no but that that their chip eating pad star oh my gosh the rickstein fish and chip on the sea beautiful he knows what he's doing that guy oh everything battered i had this massive platter there actually yeah and they had all of the catch of the days like little fish bites.

But honestly, the batter.

Wow.

Next level.

It's so good.

All the fish was amazing.

The guy knows fish.

You know, I went on to

Cooking with the Stars with Jack Stein, Rick Stein's son.

Yes.

And he's amazing.

So I met him that night, actually.

Oh, how nice is he?

What a nice guy.

He taught me how to make this amazing fish burrid.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

And it's really good.

I thought you were going to say buried.

It was almost like

a French soup.

Oh.

So there was like

loads of different fish in there.

Crab.

You'd love it.

It's right up your street.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Really fancy.

Yeah.

Lovely.

That.

Imagine all of your favourite fish in the world.

A caviar bowl in basically a caviar bowl.

Savoury fudge, man.

Yeah.

Music to my ears that when they said

when I heard the phrase savoury fudge, I was like, hey, Castor,

things have worked out well.

This is what you always dreamt of as a kid.

This is the dream.

Anyway, sorry, hijacked your course.

No worries.

So I had never heard of this before, but it just played into just my dreams, like savory fudge.

Oysters, very simple, just shucked, ready to go, raw, plain oysters.

On the side, three spicy sausages.

So like Charitho or Merge style sausages.

So those bright red, super spicy sausages.

Beautiful.

And you just have them together.

And what I was doing was oyster in the mouth, keep the oyster in the mouth bite the sausage so they're in there together and just enjoy that and you get the fatty spicy sausage and then the salinity of the oyster cutting through that fat it is such a delicious combination and the ideal sausage because it still feels light but it's decadent as well yeah i like very decadent yeah yeah yeah yeah oh my gosh that sounds so delicious and i went with my uh gang of mates um who have a little club um absolutely reprobates these guys oh yeah yeah wait to hear about this reprobate we're not reprobates we're very polite It's me, my friend Freddie Bulmer, who works for the Wine Society, Pierre Novelli, the comedian, Phil Wang, the comedian, and Ollie Smith, the television wine expert.

Okay.

And we go on little trips around the place.

We go to restaurants and we call ahead and we say, Do you mind us bringing our own wine?

What?

And we turn up with, I'd say, between five of us, ten bottles of wine.

Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute.

So you mean to tell me that you guys can just tip up to a restaurant, pull out tables, you know, have meals

that aren't on the menu served up, and in addition to that, make everything a B-Y-O-B.

To be fair, we pay corkage at most places.

We pay corkage.

Oh, sorry.

You've got to pay corkage.

You can do that in any restaurant.

You can take your own stuff.

You just have to pay corkage.

Wow.

Paying corkage.

And also, and I'll be honest.

You don't mind paying corkage.

You guys are going to survive.

Most of the time, the restaurant's right off the corkage.

There you go.

You get some corkage written off anyway.

Gratis, you know,

every time he's out with those reprobates, at some point in the evening, I'll get a selfie of him, just him and all of them, just looking absolutely fucked, just sitting in a really nice restaurant, just all of them.

None of their eyes are completely open, just completely

thinking that they're looking cool.

Exactly.

Don't know whether they paid Corkage or not.

Yeah, who cares?

I just throw the card at someone when I get in there.

Yeah, that's four.

Remind me, you've got that at the end.

I trust you'll wave the corkage.

My maid.

Gosh, that sounds amazing.

We're very polite diners.

And oysters are very hit and miss, aren't they, for some people?

Some people don't love it.

I personally love oysters.

Yeah.

So I can't wait to try that.

Yeah, I think.

And it's something you could do at home.

Yeah, sure.

But we've rolled into our main course.

So what are we having?

Well, we've had mention of this restaurant already today.

Oh, yeah.

It's our friends at Scoff.

Oh, yeah.

lovely manchester restaurant michelin star

only recently it's the it's

so desperate it's only recently it wasn't even that when we went there when i went there i did have a mission star it was just it's just just a really nice place yeah just a nice place that the guy um the head chef of long clem started

three michelin stars

um it is the duck main course

from Scoff.

I'm gonna read.

It's the dry, dry-aged slades down duck.

It's this beautiful bit of duck, just the most perfectly cooked duck you can imagine, like pink.

It's got that deep dry-aged flavor to it as well.

The sauce is what is perfect, this shiny, beautiful, like decadent sauce, which has got tapioca balls in it, which gives it a little bit of texture and little flicks of fig leaf as well,

which sort of lifts the whole thing.

Just an amazing sauce.

You know, when you have a sauce at a restaurant and you're like, I don't know.

how you've made this or how long you've spent making this.

But you feel like it's gone through so many reductions.

They've added so much stuff it's been reduced again they've put it through one of those big conical sieve things yeah they've spent days making they've strained it they've reduced it they've stirred it they've boiled it they've done it all yeah it's been horrible for them yeah and that's what i like to taste

the pain and effort

but here's here's the killer with this it comes with another bit of bread oh my god this tiny little wholemeal perfect loaf and you tear open the loaf and inside is the leg of the duck that's been con feed down.

What?

So, you've got con feed duck leg meat inside the bread, and then you're mopping up the sauce, and there's bits of duck falling out of the bread into the sauce.

You're scooping it all up, and it's the perfect size because it's part of a tasting menu.

It's not like you're going to be dead after you eat that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's delicious.

And if you are me or James, they'll bring you a bit more duck as well.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Bring you out with duck pate,

duck, duck anywhere you want.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

If anyone is going to scoff, you just have to work in a disguise so you look like either me or Edge.

So depending on who you look more like, you want to start from there.

Just lean in.

Show and go in a disguise.

And then at key points, go, excuse me, where's my extra portion?

But yeah, I just thought that was a and rarely on tasting menus do I enjoy the main meat selection.

Sure, but this is where we are in our lives now.

Yeah.

Guys, don't you agree with me?

Text in if you agree.

Yeah.

But I just think it's phenomenal.

And what a restaurant.

And I'm glad I got to give that a shout out.

Yeah.

That sounds so good.

I'm also excited to shout out this place where I'm having my main.

It's Grexis.

Yeah, it's Grexes.

It's McDonald's.

Yeah, yeah.

I'm going to have the Beef Wellington from Ron Gastrobar.

Hang on.

Is this third year in a row?

Huh?

Yes.

Third time in a row.

Wow.

I haven't found a better main course.

You're taking a court over it.

The Beef Wellington at Ron Gastrobar remains.

In Amsterdam.

In Amsterdam.

Remains The finest main course I've ever had.

I had it again after the second.

So I've had it twice now.

I had it again after the second tasting menu.

My girlfriend took me there for my birthday.

I was nervous about it.

Why?

Because I was like, I've really run my mouth off about this, you know, and how good it is.

Also, you worry that the memory of it is better than the actual thing.

Gotcha.

And I knew that people had been there because of the podcast as well to try it.

And I was like, well, if they've been there and they've had it and been like, this is rubbish.

Yeah.

The pressure's on.

If anything, it was even better than my memory.

Actually, I've had it three times.

For the first time, I went twice in one week.

I'll tell you what, I recommended this dish to De Niro.

Did he have it on his menu in the end?

It was one of the many things.

Actually, Joe, what I should have just said, I'll have whatever's good.

Yeah.

Why didn't we do that for this menu?

We should have just said, we'll have whatever's good.

Because that is no way to treat the formats.

Oh, nice.

Yes, I did pitch this to De Niro, but he changed it for Wagyu Beef in the Wellington.

But he still was going to have it from Mon Gastrobar.

Okay.

I've had the beef Wellington in Estelle Manor.

Have you been there?

No.

Oh my gosh, delicious.

It's in Oxfordshire and beautiful, beautiful ambiance, beautiful vibes.

But sometimes, you know, when you go to these, you'll know, when you go to these posh places sometimes, they focus a lot on the dining experience and then sometimes the food's lacking.

Yeah.

Whereas this, you get a 360 experience.

It's like you're in a gorgeous manor house.

you've got beautiful service like everything's decadent old lovely yeah and then the beef wellington raved about talked about that paired with a gorgeous little pinot noir stunning

and the beef wellington honestly the meat was thick yeah but like

so

like succulent and pink and just oh just so good and the pastry on the outside next level like so good you know golden but stays together hate it when it crumbles off the edges yeah don't like that at all a beautiful gravy to go with it

that little rim in between

just full of flavor yeah just so so too much but not never too much so was yours comparable to that yeah because actually you just described one gastro bar

I need to go.

That's where I need to go.

Amsterdam.

I'm gigging in Amsterdam towards the end of the year.

So first thing I'm doing is booking Ron Gastroba.

Yeah.

I can't wait.

Although, one thing I did do, I had to warn our good friend Bob De Niro about the Ron Gastroba because I was like, look, I had it.

It's amazing every time I've had it.

But I sent a friend there

and they put loads of black truffle on it, which wasn't there when I was there.

And then they put like a smear of like...

sauce on it.

It didn't look very appetizing.

He said it still tasted delicious.

Yeah.

They seem to have changed it.

Then when Ben went, he sent me a photo of it and it was back to how I had it.

So, then I had to text my friend and be like, I think they were punking you.

They weren't punking him.

He's really famous.

He is quite a famous guy.

They were like a guy, I guess.

Let's absolutely give this guy the truffles.

Oh, yeah.

They're not breaking out the truffles for you.

This guy's living a better life than we are in restaurants.

It's hard to even imagine that.

Yeah.

I mean, the dizzying heights that you guys are, I just can't even imagine.

Anyone.

Someone is.

Someone's getting truffle.

Getting truffle without even asking because they want stranger things.

You check your feed and your account.

You check the score and the restaurant reviews.

You check your hair and reflective surfaces and the world around you for recession indicators.

So you check all that, but you don't check to see what your ride options are.

In this economy, next time, check Lyft.

Side dish, you first squeeze anything in?

Oh, yeah, I'm dead by this point.

Yeah, yeah, sure, dead, but um, yeah, so I've got two side dishes.

We've let people do that.

Feels like you should pick one.

What do you reckon, AJ?

You're that?

It does feel naughty, but I think we're feasting, aren't we?

Let's just binge.

So, when you hear what they are, I'll have two as well, then.

Yeah,

when you hear what they are, it's like more, you know.

So, because one is just the lime pickle slaw from Mildred's.

Of course.

So that's like a fine.

Yeah, yeah.

That's like a light side.

There's some slaw.

Yeah.

And the lime pickle slaw, I mean, it's exactly what it sounds like.

They've stirred lime pickle into some cold slaw.

It's next level.

It's outstanding.

I can't stop thinking about it.

Lovely.

And I'm very disturbed at the minute because it has temporarily, I hope, disappeared from the takeaway menu on the app.

And I'm like, where the fuck is it?

Because like that and the artichoke and Caesar salad has gone as well, which is my other favorite thing from the menu.

And I'm panicking at this stage.

Yeah, it's awful when they do this to us.

Do you know what I mean?

Like, they get us hooked on these delicious

things.

And then they go, oh, yeah, we've changed the menu completely.

They used to have a thing.

You need to bring it back.

They used to have everything with artichokes and like charred bread and this whipped, creamy garlic sauce.

And I used to have that all the time and they got rid of it.

Yeah, this is what I'm going through.

Like, I've only just discovered this lime pickle store thing.

I've only had it three times.

This is the most accessible thing on your menu for listeners, and it's about a small train in London.

Yes.

Yeah, I mean.

So you just have to catch the train or fly in.

Heavy man, James A.

Casper, who's the lime pickle store for Mildred's.

And then, I guess the headliner for my side dishes, the Kentucky Fried Mussels from Ox Club in Leeds.

Oh, nice.

We're back in Leeds again.

Yeah.

But, like, Ox Club.

One of my favorite restaurants in the country.

I think it's incredible.

Again, just keep sending people there because it's so good.

And I mean, that was definitely one where the gig I did in Leeds that night was so bad because I went in just,

I'm going to get one little thing.

And then they were, and we really do recommend you have the Kentucky Five Muscles.

They're really good as a starter.

Had them.

They're exactly what they sound like.

Perfectly cooked muscles with this amazing like Kentucky seasoning on them, Southern Five seasoning on them.

Eating them with a toothpick.

Ed always does this gesture when he's copying, when he's making fun of me for how I always talk about food.

Yeah,

he always minds like he'll have a bag of something, he's walking down the street, just throwing them in his mouth.

Like a cartoon character would eat.

That's definitely what I was doing with the Kentucky Five Muscles.

I was throwing them all in, exclaiming after every single Kentucky Five Muscle how good it was.

Every time I've recommended to a friend and they've gone, I was like, if they're on the menu, you've got to get them.

But the menu changes quite often.

They haven't been on there.

So I'm hoping shouting them out means that they'll get back on the menu.

Sometimes I like to bully a restaurant

into putting my favourite things permanently on the menu.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Because they can't just, you know, reserve these dishes for you when you walk in.

I don't know why.

Just trying to bully restaurants.

I'm just trying to bully them into putting it on the menu permanently.

Bring it back.

Bring it back.

And then, yeah, that whole meal was amazing.

Had this amazing duck breast.

And then they had a baked Alaska.

And then I was absolutely full.

And no one in Leeds laughed that night.

They do a different baked Alaska, don't they?

They change the baked Alaska.

Baked Alaska is different every time you go.

It is a great restaurant.

I've had the muscles.

I can back James on this.

They are fantastic.

Yeah.

Really good.

Okay.

I do have a couple of choices for side here, so I will just say both of them.

This is something I tried to make recently.

So

I want it when I've made it, but I've got it exactly right.

I didn't get quite get the balance right of the flavor.

So I want to do this again.

Is a barbecue miso butter hispie cabbage.

So hispie cabbage, really simple.

Split in half and then miso and butter mixed together.

Put it on the cut side, get it onto the the barbecue, down, like really, really grill it until you've proper charred it.

Then set up the other side of the barbecue for indirect heat.

So basically you're just sticking it on that side, shutting the lid for like 15 minutes, 20 minutes, and then constantly basting with the butter you've got left over.

And it's soft and delicious and sort of almost meaty, but it was just too salty when I did it.

I think I used salted butter, which I think was a mistake.

Got to go unsalted butter, not as much miso, and then a bit of some sesame seeds over the top right at the end.

But I love burnt vegetables.

You two like burnt things.

Love burnt things.

And may I say, Ed is doing some superb food description.

Yeah.

I'm all over the place.

I'm saying stuff is mildewy.

I'm trying to make it sound that like a burnt pancake.

This is mouthwatering stuff.

It was mouthwatering stuff.

You can taste the barbecue.

You can taste the smoke.

Especially if you get it, shut the lid and get all the smoke rolling around it while you're cooking it.

Absolutely fantastic, but I want to nail it.

And then my other side dish is salt and pepper chips right

delicious where do you have them from i everywhere i get everywhere i get them from they're good i've never had bad salt and pepper chips but from from chinese restaurants really basically yeah yeah it's amazing and i like anything salt and pepper i love the salt and pepper chicken wings i love all of that but salt and pepper chips for me that's the best how do they do it so good it's that seasoning i mean i guess it's like MSG and sugar and salt and garlic and chili and sometimes there's like the spring onions in there that have been fried a little bit, but they're at the bottom, so they're almost steaming in there as well.

And you'll get like onion and spring onion and chili just collecting at the bottom.

And I'm having that on a big spoon.

Yes, just having it.

Yeah.

It's so

mouth-watering stuff.

Salt and pepper chips and a glass of Riesling.

That could be my whole meal.

Oh, yeah.

Well, bad luck, you got about a billion.

Yeah, exactly.

I'm glad that you mentioned that drink because we are coming on to our drinks course.

You're right.

So what are we washing all of this loveliness down with?

I'm not having a Riesling.

Oh, okay.

I had a Riesling last time.

I'm having a Rose, actually.

Oh, right.

But don't get ideas in your head about what kind of rose this is.

This is not...

And I've been known to partake.

In an Echo Falls.

Not an Echo Falls agent.

You're not that relatable.

The news agent is.

You couldn't even take that as a joke.

You couldn't even pretend to be a bit of a double-clicking.

I don't want people thinking I.

It was furious as soon as you said it.

I buy dusty bottles of Echo Falls from the news agent.

I do not do that.

Whispering Angel, I've been known to

lean into my ear on occasion.

The Whispering Angel at a Patty Smith concert.

Thank you.

It is.

Got three tickets because I need the drummer.

It is the Lopez de Herede Vinya Tondonia Rosado Grand Reserva.

That's what it is.

Benito's viewers, he's got to look up at that sky.

It's a Rioca rose.

A Lopez de Heredia, Vina Tondonia, Rosado Grand Roserva.

They make fantastic Rioca, white and red, but the rose, which I believe they've stopped making, so the latest you can get vintage-wise, I think, is like 2012.

So now coming hard, it's hard to come by.

It's the colour you wouldn't know it was, you wouldn't know it was a rose.

It's not pale, it's got a real deep, deep pink colour.

Otherwise, known as red.

No, not that deep.

Not that deep.

Benito, get me a picture of the glass of it.

You've got to finish spelling it.

It's going to take him an hour.

That's what I mean.

There you go.

So orangey.

It's a legend of whiskey.

This is a bottle of whiskey, actually.

It does.

It's got a full flavor.

It's not quite a lot of the time with rose.

If it gets hot, I'm like, I really crave a rose because I just want to get that super cold.

And then you're almost necking.

It's just like water.

You can barely taste it.

Exactly.

But this has got a flavor.

You take time over this.

It's hay.

It's strawberries.

It still tastes summery, but it's still warming.

It's just got body and it's exciting.

Wow.

Good.

That does sound so good.

As I was saying, I'm just trying to think about how I'm going to describe my drink and all I can think of is nice.

Yeah.

And I would urge our listeners to go and get some.

Okay.

About 120 quid a bottle.

Part of a menu's going to get it sent.

Yeah, yeah, he's going to get it sent a crate of them.

Yeah.

End up on your doorstep.

No, I've had it very, very rarely because it is hard to come by.

It is expensive.

But this is the dream.

This is the dream

dream menu.

Can you get it by the glass or it's a bottle situation then?

It's mainly a bottle situation.

Once we're getting into the three digits for a bottle,

it's a bottle or nothing, really.

Unless you're going somewhere that's using the Coravan system where they can extract a glass without taking the cork out.

Yeah, that's nuts.

Well, that sounds nice.

It's delicious.

I can't wait to have it again one time in the future.

Okay.

Got to be crisp and cold.

Cold-ish.

I mean, we're we're getting into the area now, AJ, of where I start speaking.

I realize how boring I'm being, but also I do need to finish the thoughts.

Yeah.

I mean,

personally, if it's white wine or rose, you really should be getting it out of the fridge 20 minutes before you drink it.

Because

if you're having it ice cold, you're missing out on all of the flavours.

If it's a nice bottle of wine, it's out the fridge 20 minutes before.

Right.

Champagne, fine colder.

With red, some reds benefit from 20 minutes in the fridge before you drink them.

Because of course, we all say wine was meant to be drunk at room temperature.

But what we're not taking into account is room temperature has changed over the years.

So, yes, when wine was being stored in a stone cellar and people were drinking it in castles, room temperature was perfect.

But now we have central heating, AJ.

So

room temperature, no, thank you.

I'll have fridge temperature.

There you go.

Sort finished.

Sorry, everyone.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Those are annoyingly helpful.

Yeah, it was actually very helpful.

And now I've envisioned myself having a nice glass of Pinot Noir in like a castle.

Yeah, yeah.

At castle temperature.

Yeah, yeah.

Peat up on the traitors.

Yeah.

Yeah.

They're drinking loads of Pinot in that.

I'll put a word in for you, AJ.

Cheers, love.

For my drink, we're going to a restaurant called Behind in Hackney.

I think Behind opened during the pandemic.

Okay.

Didn't stop it from getting a mesh in star pretty quickly.

Wow.

It's a seafood restaurant.

Okay.

And at one point, and so I'm going non-alcoholic for this as well.

It's so delicious.

A cardamom and coriander lussy.

Right.

I don't know what this means.

So lussy, like, yo, like, I mean, a lot of people say like lassie, like mango lassie.

Okay, yes.

I do know.

Yeah.

James is doing the thing where you're saying something for your whole life, then you're told it's something different, and now he's acting like he's always got it right.

Yeah, right.

Well, no, I'm just trying.

Yeah.

A lot of people say lassie, but I say lussy.

Christian Guru Murphy corrected us on the podcast.

Yeah.

And so, especially when I'm on the format, I'm on the thing that I got corrected on.

Yeah, sure, but we still say poppadoms, don't we?

It was just super refreshing.

It's really light as well.

And I just wanted more and more of it.

So I think that's why it's on my menu.

Yeah.

It's because I had four decent glugs of it and it was gone.

Yeah.

And then like,

I just wanted to keep drinking it.

I've wanted to keep drinking it ever since.

Is it like a nice thick

consistency though?

Like almost like yogurt.

It's not not too thick.

No, it's not

like

you've got like a thing of yogurt there.

No.

Like

more of a lighter milkshake, not like a jokeshoe.

A smoothie.

A juice.

Maybe.

Well, no, no.

In between a juice and a smoothie?

Like smoothie consistency if it was yogurt, but it's not yoghurt.

Oh, no.

I mean, it is yogurt.

Another one making my mouth water.

Jesus.

I'm not doing this.

I apologise to all the restaurants that are shouting out because I've made it all sound disgusting.

It's the most delicious things I've ever had.

It's a probiotic in your fridge.

It's a big yuck old, you have, wasn't it?

Actually, that's more like it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But it was really refreshing.

It's a very good palate cleanser as well.

And it went with all that seafood.

I've got quite a lot of seafood on my menu, even though I went for the...

You added a fish course.

I added a fish course and I had the crab, I had the mussels.

Unknowingly, I had whipped caviar.

Caviar, yeah.

So, like, you know, that adds to it.

Yeah, it's quite a nautical theme as well, you know, yeah, yeah, given the fact that, like, you've had some of this on an actual ball, yeah, Jesus Christ,

yeah,

yeah, yeah, so that all helps, yeah, yeah.

Um, so yeah, I mean, that that that lussy is um absolutely delicious, and that's what I would like, and it it pushes me nicely from all those mains into the next hack that I'd like to do.

A hack before the desserts, yeah, come on, then I absolutely love

the hacks, by the way.

Thank you, Yeah, I do.

I love the hacks.

I want it's like a bonus, isn't it?

Juice little bonus round.

I am able to do both of these hacks, the cheese course and the pre-dessert, kind of in one because I had them in the same place last week.

So before last week, there was no hack here.

I was going to go straight to the dessert and be a good little boy.

Right.

But then I went to Asteria Giorgione Di Massa in Venice.

Wow.

Who did you go with?

George Cluner?

I probably did.

Yeah.

Med absolutely lovely.

I met my girlfriend.

We met our friends there who lived there.

And

they were like, this place is amazing.

Got to go.

The whole meal was delicious.

And then for dessert, they were like, we should order all the desserts because they were all brilliant.

And now, here's what I'm worried about is that I've not done very well at describing food

up until this point.

Edge straight in there.

Yeah.

And

looking at what I'm about to describe, I don't think I'm going to do these justice.

Okay.

Listen, there's still

a piece of shit on an old log.

But I know it sounds bad,

but you can really taste all the shit when you're eating it.

So my cheese course

is blue cheese ice cream.

from this place.

How are you feeling about that, AJ?

Right, you've lost me.

You've lost me.

I love blue cheese.

I love ice cream.

But together sounds criminal.

Trust me.

Actually, incredible.

I'm calling the police.

Looks like a scoop of that yellow vanilla ice cream.

We get the vanilla ice cream from shops.

It's yellow.

Yeah.

Looks like that.

Really generously.

Looks bad.

It's delicious.

Yeah.

Looks very cheese-like.

Please, please.

Don't look like bad ice cream.

Looks incredible.

Would it convince you, AJ, if I told you that the cheese flavor is incredibly strong?

Because it really is.

It is so strong of blue cheese.

Is it one of the things, the sort of things you eat it and your brain's like going wild going,

why is this happening in my mouth?

What I'm looking at.

I couldn't stop eating it.

It was so good.

No.

No.

No.

You might, I know you're saying no.

No.

But trust me, if you like cheese and you like ice cream, you'd be surprised how much you'd like it.

Right.

It was.

Both these things I'm shouting out, I immediately ordered them again.

Well, I had them both again immediately.

Do you know what what I'm going to say here?

I think you're one of those people who's like, who's loving that trend of ice cream and salt and olive oil?

Yes.

Oh, I love that.

That was on my menu last night.

Which I

do not like.

I nearly did it again.

Wow, no.

You see, I've tried it and I really tried to like it because I was like, everyone loves this.

Yeah, yeah.

Come on, AJ.

You know, broaden that palate of yours.

It's just not for me.

Oh, you would hate it.

You would hate this, actually.

Tampering with ice cream like this.

Do you know what I mean?

What's ice cream ever done to you to deserve this?

Well, actually, and I know this because I studied it for my mastermind round.

One of the original flavours of ice cream was cheese.

Yeah.

So then it pretty much got abolished

and transformed

vanilla and chocolate

because that's better.

No.

He loves ice cream, but it's got to the point now, you know, when you like...

hear about like porn addicts where they've they've been through all the standard stuff it doesn't do anything for them anymore so it needs to get more and more extreme.

Yeah, to the point where everyone else is disgusted at you.

Yeah, this is like hardcore.

This is beyond hardcore ice cream.

This is triple X rated.

Yeah, I'm in big trouble if people find out I've been eating this.

So I had that.

But then

this is like my head was spinning because there was that, but also there was grappa pannacotta that we had.

Wow.

And the grappa, I would say, had been free-poured in there by someone who did not give a shit.

Is this your pre-dessert now, by the way?

Pre-dessert.

So, blue cheese ice cream is my cheese course that bridges from the mains to the desserts.

And then my pre-dessert is the grappa panicotta, also from the same place.

These were on the same table at the same time.

I was going back and forth, going, these are two of the best desserts I've ever had.

I can't believe I'm eating them at once.

Two more immediately, please.

And I ordered them again.

The grappa in this, it is the most boozy thing I've ever tasted.

It again, way up my mouth, I was like, that is way too much.

That is incredibly, that is ridiculous.

Also, that's one of the tastiest things I've ever had.

And I'm going straight back in for another one.

I cannot emphasise enough how much this was more grappa than panicotta.

Like, it was still a solid pannicotta, but it just tasted like pure grappa.

It was mad.

And I loved it so much.

And that, having two things on the table at once that were 10 out of 10s, and then being able to order them again immediately because I didn't want it to end.

Wow.

Felt great.

And I knew I've got to get them into this menu now and I've got to do the hacks.

Do you you know what i love that for you i love it for you you know you enjoyed it you loved it emphasizing the word you a lot

you really

really like that and i do love that for you yeah do you think um the booziness

of the seconds of the panicotta um you know influenced the taste of that very cheesy ice cream no way no way because i think i think i started with the ice cream actually and i was going back but but like maybe it did a man that's why i want them on the same menu as well yeah you need them together you experience them together you want them together again so even though they're separate courses i would like them on the table at the same time so i can i can relive that for you

emphasis on you uh for you a match made in heaven a match made in heaven uh i was in heaven and i love heaven

i panicked here aj okay because i didn't know we were doing a cheese course or a pre-dessert Okay.

I was pretty happy with what I had so far.

I was struggling over a couple of the main ones anyway.

So cheese course, I mean, I should be the one who knows what I want for my cheese course.

But you're going to have a cheese shrink.

No.

Was that the panic?

No, it wasn't the panic.

It was baby bell.

I always knew I was having baby bell.

But I think I do want blue cheese, but in a more traditional format.

Okay.

AKA blue cheese.

Yeah.

But Stilton, you know when you get a Stilton in a jar?

Yeah.

In like a ceramic jar.

Yeah.

For some some reason, I prefer that to slices.

It feels like a cut above, though.

It feels like a cut above.

And you can spoon it out of there.

Yeah.

And I want a spoon and I want a big jar of Stilton and I want to eat it like a yogurt.

What?

That's not traditional.

That's not traditional.

That's the twist.

But also,

for when I'm a little bit overcome with the blue cheese taste, I want a plate of cold and crisp pear slices.

Delicious.

That, that, we're back.

Yeah, you lost.

You lost me for a second.

Yeah, and now we're back.

And I want to, you know, occasionally in between great gobfuls of blue cheese,

I'll take a little nibble of the pear slice just to bring my mouth back to life.

Exactly.

And then I'm back in with the spoon.

And now you're back appreciating that cheese.

You know,

you never thought of just spreading it on a cracker?

No.

Or just spreading the cheese onto the pear.

Why must the spoon be so heavily involved?

Now and again, I will spread the cheese onto a pear slice to mix it up a little bit okay right right that'll probably make me think i'm gonna go back to my previous method of spooning this blue cheese into my mouth and freshening my palate up with a cold pear slice

it's so good this is dangerous though guys i can't believe you've been such a good nick

oh we actually do this

this is the dream

I'm like, wow, just like a ball of cheese.

This is Christmas, and I would do that at Christmas.

Yeah, so nice.

oh pre-dessert so i didn't didn't know what to do for this obviously i've eaten many nice pre-desserts in my life judge on great british menu we get pre-desserts as part of it but i sort of set myself a rule for not picking anything from great british menu that because i want people to be able to go out and have the things but also it's like then you're like you're picking a favorite like uh exactly one of your friends i saw one of your one of your and i've already judged you know yeah yeah it's not fair now when i went to japan last year the whole point of the trip to trip to japan as james knows is sure you go out and and have some nice food, you see some great sights, but then at about 10 p.m., you head to a 7-Eleven or a Lawson's or a Family Mart, and you just fill the bag full of stuff every night, filling like cans of whiskey, soda, iced coffee for the next morning, so many snacks.

And the thing I got every single night in Japan, I had to remind myself of the name of the company, and I did that by searching the picture of it that I sent to James when I was in Japan: is a bag of dark chocolate-covered frozen banana slices.

Yes, oh,

that sounds so good.

They're from a company called Tropical Maria.

Are they frozen?

Are they frozen?

Yeah, so they come out of the.

Well, room temperature, interesting.

You say about room temperature.

They come out of the freezer section.

So they are frozen.

But I think they're quite ripe.

So you get that proper banana flavor.

So you eat them frozen.

They're like little ice cream treats that you're going to be.

I've led them in the mind that I did.

Yeah.

I've just thrown them in.

How big are they?

Like, how good is this for people with sensitive teeth?

Not good.

Do you think they're like really chew?

No, because they're more chewy than hard.

They're not like those like hard bananas, like you know, like banana chips.

So yeah, they're nice and chewy.

Because I think they leave them to ripen for a decent amount of time, so it's quite intense banana flavor and also a little bit softer.

And even though, you know, because you get them out of the freezer, you buy them, take them back, they're thawing a little bit on the way back.

So they've got a softness to them.

But honestly, AJ, I was going through bags of these things.

Oh, my word.

How much in a bag?

Is it this?

Is this like a 1kg sack?

No, God, imagine.

Well,

I just need to know.

It's more of like a sensible portion for one person.

Yeah, maybe like 10 or 11 little banana slices in there.

Oh, nice.

It's a 30 grammar.

Yeah, and it's only a pre-dessert.

We don't want to go crazy.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

What about dessert?

Are we ready for that?

Yes.

Yeah.

Always.

So we talked about cheese at Christmas.

I mentioned cheese at Christmas.

Yeah.

Huh?

I'd say cheese is built on I would have at Christmas.

But what are you about to do now?

Yeah.

I'm about to go Christmas.

Oh my.

But you're dropping the C-bomb.

I'm dropping the C-bomb.

Well, well, well.

Christmas pudding?

Christmas pudding, but I'm eating it the day after it was the main dessert.

So Boxing Day traditionally,

depending on whenever this dream meal is happening, the Christmas pudding was served the day before, and this is leftovers.

And I'm warming it up by pan-frying it in butter.

And then then I'm adding, when it's really, really warm and I've pan-fried it in salted butter, putting it in a bowl and I'm adding brandy butter, single cream and cart d'Or ice cream.

That sounds good.

That sounds good.

The day after as well.

Vanilla cart d'Arr ice cream, yeah.

The day after as well, because everything just hits different.

It really does.

Yeah.

And it's just a essentially because I'm putting so much stuff on top, it just turns into a big bowl of thick Christmas soup.

Yeah.

That time between Christmas and new year it's all just christmas pudding and then i'm tipping custard and brandy uh brandy cream yeah

over it at the same time like it's cereal right yeah mashing it all up yeah just walking around like it's like some special milkshake i got from mcdonald's

it's just like a a muflowy but christmassy yeah oh my gosh yes like a festive ice cream so that's what i'm doing that sounds so good i'll allow the c-bomb for that thank you yeah yeah and It was risky.

I'm going to pair it with a quick drink, if I may.

Oh.

Well, do you know what?

Go on.

If I may drop another C bomb, Chateau Equem.

The greatest dessert wine in the world.

Wow.

Considered by many to be.

I've had it a few occasions.

It is, this is pricey stuff.

So this is not, this is, I'm not buying bottles of this.

This is a present.

This is a gift.

This is a gift from someone who's pretty flush, I'd say.

Right.

But it is just the most gorgeous sweet wine.

It's, you you know and it's got all those flavors you want in there from the sweet wine the sort of orange peel the

the slightly honeyed but just and almost floral so it's light and it's got that dessert dessert wine a mouthfeel as well of being a little bit a little bit thicker so if I were to push the bar out yeah and treat myself to a glass of a bottle of this what am I pairing it with

not the crisp pudding no it's hard too sweet yeah no I know what you mean because I did someone say the other day that the pudding should never be sweeter than the dessert wine.

So the dessert wine should always be the sweetest thing.

I mean, you could have it with cheese, but maybe a lighter dessert.

Okay.

Maybe like, and this is just off the top of my head.

Wine nuts, don't get angry with me.

Maybe like a tartana.

A tartanta.

Okay.

A creme brulee.

A creme brulee, perhaps.

Yeah.

But honestly, I would just, it's the dream meal.

I'm not paying for it.

So I'd say, bring me chateau y quem from loads of different vintages and I'm putting straws in them and I'm I'm drinking it like a yop

just guzzle guzzle yeah I'm guzzling it down wow so that's that's my that's my drink pairing cheers to you cheers to you AJ

well look top that not a million miles away from what Ed just said

is it fit are we in fist bump territory well maybe half fist bump territory I'm going to I've mentioned it on the podcast before and I this is a successful bullying that I did to a restaurant where they had it as a special, and I bullied them into putting it on permanently.

And it's from a restaurant called Core, C-O-R, in Bristol, and they do this tiramisu that instead of using sponge fingers, they use Panettone, and it tastes like Christmas pudding tiramisu.

It's not quite a fist bump, I don't think.

Not a fist bump, but it's Christmas pudding.

The flavor of Christmas pudding is there, believe you me.

Yeah, yeah,

yeah.

It's got a great orange and nutmeg on it as well.

It's very festive.

It's incredible.

Again, it was one of those ones where as soon as it went in my mouth, time stood still and I saw the world differently and I was glad that I'd been born at all

and that I got to experience such a thing.

It does, I mean, it does taste exactly like someone has taken the best elements of Tuimba Su, best elements of Christmas pudding, and they phone them together.

And,

you know, like a little brat, I was like, they got to have that on the menu permanently, blah, blah, blah.

Because my tour manager had gone the day after I'd had it because I'd gone on about it so much.

And they weren't there?

Not on the menu.

And they said, oh, that was just for yesterday.

So I came on the podcast, run my mouth off enough.

And then same tour manager was back in Bristol with someone else because sometimes.

Ports of the people.

And he went back and they remembered him and they went, oh, well, you're glad to hear it's now on the menu because he's bullied us.

That's great.

Success.

Really glad with my bully in there.

Yeah.

So yeah, that's, I mean, that won't surprise anyone who regularly listens to this podcast because I went on about it so much the first time.

And shout out to my mum.

She tried to recreate it for Christmas.

And Joe, what, mum,

for a first go, it was great.

Awful.

And Dad knew, wasn't it awful?

You were texting me saying how bad it was.

I was not doing that.

Mum, he's lying about that.

He's making that up.

You know that he's a stirrer.

And Dad said it's how he wants to in masu from that one.

So dad clearly preferred it to the regular.

You said it was all split.

Didn't say it was all split.

Mum.

I didn't say it.

You said it was like cottage cheese on toast.

I didn't say it was like cottage on toast, mum.

Please make it again for Christmas.

Well, these desserts aren't just for Christmas, they're for all year round.

Yeah, I agree.

And I hadn't planned to pair it with anything, and I probably won't.

I'll leave it at that, I think.

Fair enough.

That's nice.

Well, thanks for that, boys.

That sounds absolutely

good.

Oh, I'm so sorry.

So sorry.

How dare you, Adam?

I feel like I've wrapped it up.

I tried to skip the main course.

The fish course almost almost got vetoed.

And now this.

Yeah, so petty four.

Where are all my manners?

How could you forget the petty four?

Oh, my God.

I can't believe.

So sorry.

The petty four.

Let me tell you, if you were working at a restaurant, you'd be fired pretty quickly if you did that to us.

Yes.

We would get you fired.

Now, again, I mean, I'm almost going out of my way now to get a further roasting because

this is not going to set again.

You're going to hear this and go, that doesn't sound nice.

But it is.

It's incredibly nice.

And I couldn't stop eating it.

I went to my friend Jonathan's house in LA and he was cooking people.

In LA?

It was

unnecessary to add L.A.

wasn't it?

It's just after the running...

Yeah, why did I do that?

Yeah, my friend Jonathan's house in L.A.

Yeah, idiot.

Absolute idiot.

I did that.

Do you know what?

For the listener, I'm not going to retake it.

I deserve everything I get.

I've got a friend who lives in LA

and went for dinner.

And for dessert, this is from a cookbook called The Family Meal by, now you'll probably know this person, Ferran

Adria.

Yeah, Spanish chef.

Watermelon, cubed, drizzled with lemon syrup.

And this is where I might lose you.

Dusted with ground up, powdered menthol cough drops.

Cough drops.

Menthol cough drops.

So they got a bunch of cough drops, smashed them up with a rolling pin to smithering, and then dusted them over the top of this cubed-up watermelon and lemon soap.

This is experimental, to say the least.

It was.

Can you get the drops from boots?

Oh, yeah.

Wow.

Just wherever you buy menfold cough drops from, smash them up.

So it's very easy to make this.

Did your mum try and make this for Christmas as well?

No, I can't convince her to do it.

She'd probably end up pouring cowpole over a honeydew.

Mum, ignore this man.

And by the way, that sounds nice, Ed.

Yeah, it does, actually.

So

gentlemen, people might try doing that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

If anyone listening wants to try pouring Campbell on a honeydew and letting us know how it tastes, please do because it does sound good.

No context off menu.

But yeah, my mum, I have mentioned this to my mum and she refuses to make it because she thinks it doesn't sound nice.

Yeah, yeah.

But it was so nice.

Again, I've chosen another thing where I can't describe the taste because I've never tasted it anywhere else.

And when I was tasting it, like a lot of things on this menu, my eyes just turned into spirals that were going round and round.

And I wasn't thinking anything about how it tastes.

I was just like on this other plane being like, whoa, I'm in space right now.

This is crazy.

And now when I try and explain how delicious it tasted, it's very difficult.

But it is also, I guess it tasted exactly how it sounds.

So if that doesn't sound good to you, you might not like it.

What was the texture?

What was just like a watermelon?

Oh, because it was so powdered.

Crunchy.

So it was like, they were powdered to the point where it was like sprinkling sugar on it.

So it was like, it's like what you weren't like getting these like lumps of like cough drops you weren't having to crunch through.

They were dusted all over the watermelon and the lemon syrup was spread nice and evenly as well.

So it was just like you were just like like that, throwing the watermelon

watermelon in your mouth.

And it just had this kind of, first of all, you just get the hit of the watermelon with the sweetness of the lemon syrup.

And then this wave of like menpho cough drops

would just go through your head, go through your airways.

It was something else, man.

It was so good.

Well, you know,

anything is worth the try, isn't it?

I'm glad glad that you

explained the texture, though, because I was envisioning sort of like watermelon with like chunks of lockets on them.

Yeah, no, no, no.

Sounded quite aggressive.

No, no, no, no, no.

Do not do that.

And I'm pretty sure, actually, the coffee.

What's the name of the place?

Well, it's the family meal.

Was the cookbook?

Was it from a cookbook?

Yes, at my friend Jonathan's house.

Oh, so Jonathan did it at his house?

Yeah.

Yeah, okay, cool.

It's made at his house.

Yeah, yeah.

In LA.

Got pettifors?

Yeah.

Madeleine's from the French house.

Oh, yes.

What's this?

Beautiful, beautiful Madeleins.

Freshly baked.

I mean,

I don't normally like spongy, cakey things, but there's something about Madeleines.

The smell, the smell when they come out of the oven, that's crispy on the outside, soft and steaming in the middle.

Absolutely delicious.

I think I've shouted out the Madeleines from St.

John before.

They're still great, but we went to the French house for my birthday and got the Madeleins at the end, and it is joyous.

Yeah, they were really good.

Yeah, lovely way to end a meal.

Yeah.

Right.

And I'll, I will have a Puppy Van Winkle 15-year bourbon, please, as well.

Yeah, just thought, just throw that in there.

Just casual.

It was on a previous menu I did, the Puppy Van Winkle.

Still haven't been able to have it.

I had it once way before I chose it before.

It's so expensive.

I'm going nowhere near it.

You know, the recommended retail price of these bottles is like 160 quid.

But once the shops get their hands on them, they're so highly allocated that they're selling them for two and a half grand, AJ.

Oh my god, and I'm going nowhere near that because nothing is worth two and a half grand, and I'm including cars.

And I'm just a down-to-earth guy.

Yeah, just a down-to-earth guy.

They sound so good.

I'm glad we've got some like cakey, cakey numbers in there as well.

Yeah, yeah.

Because you know, like my favorite dessert still is like custard and cake.

It's very underrated, but you know, that texture, unbeatable those flavours nothing else scratches that itch no it doesn't comfort you'd love those maddens you'd love them yeah yeah so i want to try that i want to try i want to try a lot of the menu i'm really clear from the cheesy ice cream i have a feeling that if you had to eat a dream menu out of mine and edge you'd eat ed's dream menu i i would i would yes uh you know you've got you've got some bangers in there though yeah you do you know your bread course alone yeah was exceptional the bread course includes my bread course sure and two other delicious sounding breads yeah that's true well thank you for that boys i'm now going to read your menu back to you yeah fasten your seatbelts because we've had an absolute feast here i'm gonna have to loosen my seatbelt actually yeah yeah loosen it loosen it um you're a pair of teeth ed you're having manuela from to burner la concha beautiful delicious drink james you're having an oyster shell martini from bratz yeah chinchin to you both we're going to wash it down with some water but not just any water ed blackburn tap water exquisite choice as a blackburn native myself and james you're having the hops infused sparkling water from scarf track brewing in manchester track brewing sounds interesting thank you worth a try worth a try

now you are both used to being welcomed by the chef

and of course you're both having your chef's welcome as a result ed you're having a cheeky little sausage roll from the hand and flowers.

And James,

you're having steak and chips on a cocktail stick from Paul Fag's personal chef.

On a boat.

On a boat.

Jesus.

Listen.

It's all right for some, isn't it?

It really is all right for some.

This is how the other half lives.

I'm just experiencing it.

I've come out of the lamp to just experience this.

Thank you.

Papa Domso bread.

You both went bread please um ed you've gone for a daigle yes from the door hut yes and james you're having a bread basket yeah you're having a smorgasbord charred flatbreads in there a daigle from the door huts in there and then there's peach pineapple and a tangerine sandwich from the family mart it sounds sweet a little bit soggy but you said it's good so that's in the basket

Starter, big on starters, both of us here.

Ed, you're having a spider crab omelette from Mountain.

I can highly recommend.

James, you're having king crab legs with frozen quince and brushed with savoury fudge from Norma.

You really are a man of the people.

Oh, God.

You know, we're going on to the fish now.

I'm following on with the man of the people, you know, persona that you've got going on here, James.

You're having the age guilt head bream from Al Camilla.

Yes.

Okay, I just wanted to make sure that I pronounced that right.

Alchemila, that's what we're going with.

Ed, you're having oysters.

Yeah, oysters.

Chartantes.

With spicy sausages from Rick Stein's seafood restaurant.

Delicious, boys.

Delicious.

Now we're moving on to the main now.

We're not missing that, even though we've had all of this food.

Ed, you're having having the dry-aged slaves down duck with a whole meal loaf filled with comfy duck from Scoff.

Yes, please.

And James, you're having a beef Wellington again for the third year running from Ron Gastrobar.

Cheeky little sides now.

Yes.

Ed, you're going to have some barbecue, miso, butter, hispy cabbage

and salt and pepper chips from any Chinese.

And James, you're going to take the lime pickle slaw from Mildred's and you're also going to chuck in some Kentucky fried mussels from Oxclub.

Yeah.

And you're just going to chuck them into your gob.

Yeah, I am.

Chuck, chuck, chuck.

One after the other.

Drink.

Ed, you're going to have the Lopez di Herida Vina Tondonia Grand Reserva Rose Rhine.

Yes.

Thank you, AJ, and sorry for that.

What a gorgeous pronunciation for my dulcet tones.

James, you're going to have the cardamom and coriander lassie from behind.

Yes, please.

In Hackney.

And we're going to get some cheese, a big cheese course now.

Edge, you're going to have a big jar of Stilton eaten like a yogurt with a plate of cold, crisp purse slices.

And James, you're going to indulge in blue cheese ice cream from Austeria gio gone

di massa in venice yes please

um we're gonna have a pre-dessert of course we are obviously um ed bag of tropical maria dark chocolate covered frozen banana slices sounds exquisite james you're gonna have the grappa panna cotta from asteria gio gionea di massi sounds boozy and pricey thank you actually wasn't that pricey that place i said shut it out

you do have to fly to venice

but you do have to fly to venice probably get a boat to the restaurant um

thank you paul

see you next time

dessert now leftover christmas pudding is all yours ed we've pan-fried it in salted butter with brandy butter single cream and vanilla cartoon ice cream and a glass of chateau de chem james christmas pudding tiramisu from core yes nice simple.

And finally, you're both finishing things off with a pet e4.

Ed, you're having Madeline's from the French house and a Papa Van Winkle 15-year bourbon.

Yes, thank you.

Two and a half grand bottles.

Sure, why not?

And James, you're having cubed watermelon drizzled with lemon syrup dusted with powdered menthol cough drops.

What a horrible way to end it.

Delicious.

Incredible way to end it.

That pete four, James, is from Jonathan's house in LA.

What a silly, gorgeous way to end it.

We're on a holiday.

Yeah.

Nice stuff, Army.

I'm happy with those.

I'm very happy with it.

And, you know, I want to encourage the listeners to try my dishes before, you know, writing them off completely.

Because I know I've done a bad job describing them there.

but they are nice.

I'm going to give it a go, you know, the next time.

The next time I'm on a boat,

a plane, LA,

I'll definitely give some of those a try.

Or next time you've got a cough.

The next time.

Yeah,

that's a good way to introduce yourself to that dish, actually.

Wait till you've got a cough, try it.

You might like it.

Exactly.

AJ, thank you so much for guest hosting off menu.

You've been fantastic.

You've been very patient with us, AJ.

So the menus were so long.

And thank you for guiding us through them.

And

Joe, what, regardless,

you made us feel like you were interested.

I genuinely was interested.

I still am interested.

I'm going to try some of these dishes.

Some of them I'll swerve, but some of them I'll try.

They sound amazing, exquisite, very decadent.

Yes, very decadent, boys.

And Joe Watt, I think while we're eating our dream menus, we'll be watching Big Brother hosted by yourself.

And also, Address the Nation, of course.

So we'll look forward to watching those later in the year.

Thank you.

Tuck in and enjoy the shows.

Thanks, AJ.

Thanks, AJ.

Thank you.

Wow, James, I'm full, baby.

I'm full up.

I'm so full.

Yeah.

You know, I learned a lot about myself in that episode.

Yeah.

I've changed.

You've changed.

I'm an absolute bougie lord.

Yeah.

And all of my favourite meals sound disgusting.

No, I think everything on there sounds incredible.

And obviously, I do the thing I want to try most now is the watermelon with cough lozenges.

And you can do that.

You can go home and do that.

You can make that yourself.

Yeah, but could you find out from your friend Jonathan in LA

if he gets if he gets phone reception up in the Hollywood Hills what particular lozenge he went for?

Yeah, yeah.

Because if it was an American-only lozenge,

I am touring to the States next year.

That's exciting.

Yes, come and see me on tour in America, and I will pick up a big bag of lozenges for my watermelon.

Oh,

if you go and see one of of Ed's shows, bring some cough lozenges with you and cut and menfold cough sweets and give them to us.

No, no, no.

We'll find out.

We'll find out from Jonathan which ones.

Okay.

Well, I think your menu sounded delicious, Ed.

Thank you.

As did yours.

It's so beautifully described as well.

And thank you to AJ again.

A fantastic way to

do tune in to Big Brother and Dress the Nation.

Yes.

AJ is such a good vibe.

Yeah, absolutely fantastic.

And I should go out for a meal with AJ, shouldn't we, really?

Yeah.

I mean, maybe one of your places by the sound of the reaction that well, we'll go to Mountain.

She seems to like Mountain anyway, so yeah, we'll go to Mountain Mountain.

I've never been.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I'll have a lovely time.

We'll go to Mountain.

We've been sent some food recently.

The Flapjackery sent us some Flapjacks.

Thank you for that.

Yes.

So we talked about them in Dermot's episode.

We're very lucky to have been sent some.

Absolutely delicious.

And Daisy Ridley mentioned This Isn't Sausages, and they've sent us a lot of This Isn't Sausages.

And Benito is a vegetarian, he's a very happy little boy.

Yeah.

And actually, while we're on the subject, thank you, Benito, for another hundred fantastic episodes.

Yes, thank you, Benito.

Editing them and recording them.

We assume they've been well edited.

We don't listen.

We don't listen, but

we don't listen because we don't have to, because we know we're in good hands.

Yeah.

And we were there.

We were there, which actually, you know, usually would mean I would listen because I was worried about if I sound like a Wally.

Yeah, but you know you sound like a Wally.

Roots Coffee sent us some coffee.

Thank you so much.

It's always good to have nice coffee in the studio and in the office.

Yeah.

for our wonderful guests and us and also the people who work here.

Talking to the people who work here, Tokla's Bakery sent us some lovely pastries.

Yes.

Did we get a sniff of those?

No, we didn't, because the horrible little trolls who all work here that Benito chains to their desk and doesn't allow them natural light, they all snaffled the pastries because they needed to get their blood glucose levels up because they're working so hard.

Yeah, that is what happened.

We came in and they went, We're so sorry.

We ate your pastries.

Yeah, well, there we go, Ed.

It's another 300 episodes.

Yeah,

I guess we'll do another 100 more.

Yes, please.

And uh, if we sound tired, it's just because we had a massive meal just now, yeah.

And also, that episode was longer than normal.

That was a long episode, that was so long.

AJ kept the energy up, though, is a professional, yeah.

That's why AJ hosts live television, yeah.

We were tired because on our own podcast, we deliberately made it longer by picking way more things than we needed to, and we're tired and annoyed at that.

Yes, yes, that's why we're very lucky to have a podcast at all.

Yes, because

I mean, you do host TV shows, to be fair to you, but

absolutely not.

For one thing, I've learned from this podcast, day one, I'll be like, I'm out.

I'm not hosting this TV show.

This is exhausting.

But thank you for listening, of course.

Loyal listeners, 300 episodes.

We hope you enjoy the ride of the next 100.

See you later.

And keep things off menu.

You check your feed and your account.

You check the score and the restaurant reviews.

You check your hair and reflective surfaces and the world around you for recession indicators.

So you check all that, but you don't check to see what your ride options are.

In this economy, next time, check Lyft.

Hello, I'm Carrie Add.

I'm Sarah.

And we are the Weirdos Book Club podcast.

We are doing a very special live show as part of the London Podcast Festival.

The date is Thursday, 11th of September.

The time is 7pm, and our special guest is the brilliant Alan Davies.

Tickets from kingsplace.co.uk.

Single ladies is coming to London.

True on Saturday, the 13th of September.

At the London Podcast Festival.

The rumours are true.

Saturday, the 13th of September.

At King's Place.

Oh, that sounds like a date to me, Harriet.