Off Menu with Ed Gamble and James Acaster - Bella Ramsey

Episode Date: August 12, 2026

Actor, Emmy-nominee, ‘The Last of Us’ star and future ‘Celebrity Traitors’ contestant Bella Ramsey is this week’s Off Menu guest. And people who write those quirky things on food packaging; you have a fan. If you’re listening on Apple Podcasts you can now watch this episode too.Bella Ramsey stars in ‘Sunny Dancer’ which is released in cinemas on Friday 14 August. Watch the video version of this episode on the Off Menu YouTube.Off Menu is now on YouTube: @offmenupodcastFollow Off Menu on Instagram and TikTok: @offmenuofficial.And go to our website www.offmenupodcast.co.uk for a list of restaurants recommended on the show.Off Menu is a comedy podcast hosted by Ed Gamble and James Acaster.Produced, recorded and edited by Ben Williams for Plosive.Video production by Ben Williams and Megan McCarthy for Plosive.Artwork by Paul Gilbey (photography and design). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to the off-menu podcast, taking the peanuts of conversation, adding the caramel of friendship, drizzling on top of the nougar of humour, and dipping it in the chocolate of the internet. What you got there, James? A Snickers of a podcast? Yeah. That's a gamble. My name is James Ake-Kast, and together we own a dream restaurant in every single week.

We invite a guest to ask them a favour ever, start a main course, dessert, side dish and drink. Not in that order. And this week, our guest is Bella Ramsey. Bella Ramsey is wonderful, James. They're a fantastic acting talent. So good. The Last of Us. Damon Thrones.

And Sunny Dancer. Sunny Dancer, brand new films starring Bella Ramsey and Friend of the Pod, James Norton. James Norton, Friend of the Pod. Neil Patrick Harris, Future Friend of the Pod. Jessica Gunning, future friend of the pod. Everyone who's not a current friend of the pod is a future friend of the pod. We'll get you.

We'll get you one day. August 14th is in cinema. Yes, that's this Friday if you're listening to this episode when it comes out. Wonderful film that we will talk to Bella about. Indeed. So we won't do any, we won't waffle on about it. You've of course recently worked with Bella as well, but that might not come up because it's a secret. Well, it's not a secret, but it's in the public.

People know. Yes. We have been in the castle together. Yes. But, yes, everything that happened in there is currently a secret. Currently a secret, thank you very much. I'll be in big trouble. Strung up.

I'm worse. You don't know the things they threaten. you with, Ed, when you come out of there? Oh, man. Well, when you come out of there, the first thing you get threatened with is talking to me. Yeah, you've got to go and talk to Ed Gamble. Which is worse than being strong out. I'm like, are you kidding me? That guy. That guy

with his riddles at the top about, because he still does it on the Traitors podcast. He goes, welcome to the Traitors podcast. I've taken the new gar of conversations. What the hell? Not trusting the peanuts of the castle.

But, Bella says, a secret ingredient, which we have deemed to be unacceptable, we will kick them out of the dream restaurant. And this week, the secret ingredient is Bella's pudding. Bella's pudding. And that might scratch the brains of some of you who've listened to many episodes of this.

Bella's pudding was on Richard Herring's dream menu. Yes. It was a pudding he had once that he can't remember what it was, or he can't find it, he can't find the recipe for it. A family friend called Bella made it. So he just knows it is Bella's pudding. Yeah. Very unlikely that Bella Ramsey will choose Bella's pudding.

one because their name but also because like probably they don't know Richard Herrin's family friends unless Bella was Bella. That would be amazing. That would be huge for us and huge for Richard Herring to find out.

I don't think the years and age is necessarily match up so it feels unlikely and I will say Bella will select a dessert as part of their menu but that is not Bella's pudding. Yeah. Bella's pudding is a specific dish. We're not saying that if Bella picks pudding, they get kicked out. Yeah, yeah, we're not saying that. No. So don't go, like, complaining to Bonito. Although, you know, you can if you want to. Oh, yeah. You get signed chopping board if you complain. Yeah. Let's do this.

This is the off menu menu of Bella Ramsey. Welcome Bella to the dream restaurant. Thanks. Welcome Bella Ramsey to the dream restaurant. We've been expecting you for some time. The horns. Yeah, we're throwing up the horns? Yeah. Yeah. These are good horns? Yeah. They're the devil's horns. Are they? I think it's rock and roll, or is that the same thing?

That's where it comes from. Right, right, right, good it. Glad we're learning this. I was raised a little Christian boy. Me too. Yeah, okay, great. So, like, I got a younger brother, and we were both into, like, metal and rocking stuff in school.

And probably when I was 14, he was 12. He threw the horns across the thing. And then I went up to him and really just, like, said, like, away from everyone else, you should know. that's the devil. You should know. And you look to him like that. I think it's quite as intense.

I know we both like the music, but we need to keep away from the devil. Yeah. So don't throw those up because you don't know what you're getting involved in. Yeah, it's probably good that you warned him, to be honest. Yeah, and you just had that experience. I know, yeah.

You didn't know that you'd. No, no, no. You've welcomed the devil into this podcast now. Oh, dear. Yeah. But that's cool. I'm cool with that. I love the devil.

You do? Yeah. Okay, cool. He's sick. You like this. Yeah, yeah. I'm like that and I'm like that. Yeah.

Me and the devil. That's what I do at gigs. Yeah, yeah, there you go. Throw it up like that. See, Ed's T-shirt, System of a Down. I was looking at this, I was thinking, sorry, I don't know what this is. System of a Down, really cool band, really cool, hip-happening band, very new. Super cool.

Yeah. The more you say, the cool, the more cool they sound. They're cool, they're funky. Yeah, we all went to, we all went to see them last week. Nice. At the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Nice. Yeah, it was good.

It certainly wasn't a gathering of millennials all just washing. away with nostalgia. No, no, no, of course not. No, it was very new, exciting music. And your t-shirt is food and drink-based. Yes, it is. That was... On the off-menu podcast. And here you are with a Lipton iced tea t-shirt. It's semi- unintentional. I do like this t-shirt a lot. It's been through a lot. It's had a lot of food and drink down it that I've managed to get out by like bleaching it in the sun. Congratulations. Over and over again. It's looking actually, it's looking quite clean right now. That's pretty cool. Are you a fan of iced tea?

Yeah. Not like a hardcore, consistent fan. That's not why I got the t-shirt. I sort of liked the shirt. Yeah. But I would drink an iced tea, yeah. Have you ever met ice tea, the rapper? No. An actor. No.

I've yet to do so. Have you? No, but every time people bring up ice tea on the podcast, we ask them if they've met iced tea. It has to be asked. And you actually, I think the first one who is associated with ice tea is your t-shirt, but has not met him. Everyone else, weirdly, has always met him.

To be fair, Bella didn't bring up ice tea. You didn't bring it up. I'm not put that on them on them. Or put ice tea on their menu. So I feel like, I feel like, I feel like, Like that's why it hasn't paid off this time. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's not your fault.

Thank you. Yeah. If I have anything that I get food stains on, even if I get the food stain out, I think about the food stain when I'm wearing it, even when it's clean, and it sort of ruins it for me. Oh, really? Yeah.

So you just got these t-shirts on just with the ghosts of the food stains. Yeah, exactly. It's the ghost of the food stains. I'm like, I feel dirty even though it's clean. Really? Yeah. The ghost of the food stains is a great, like, bad name or something. That is good.

Foe the horns up for that. Yeah. Ghosts of the food tits, feel dirty. I feel dirty even when it's clean. It's all working out. I don't know what that says about me, but it definitely, it permanently stains it for me.

Spiritually, you know? Yeah, he's quite spiritual. Yeah. But only when it comes to like curry stains and stuff. Sure, sure, sure, sure. That's my only spirituality, yeah. Yeah, nice. What about Sunny D?

Sunny D, the orange juice. No, sunny dancer, the film. Yeah, really good. Bella has coming out. Oh, yeah. See, as the bait is quite good. That's quite good. That's quite good.

Yeah. Is it about Sunny D, the drink? No, I... No, but I did get everyone... You know what it's about a bit of a chunk. I did get everyone Sunny D stickers at the end. Did you?

Yeah, yeah. Because, yeah, I did do that. But it's not about Sunny D at all. I don't think there's any orange juice in it. No. If Sunny D is orange juice, I'd just like to double check. I think it was purporting to be an orange base juice, but the media would have you believe it was pure sugar.

Yeah, it was like if honest juice caught. bitten by a radioactive spider. Yeah. That happens. That kind of thing. Frequently, I think. I wasn't allowed it when I was a kid.

Oh, really? Because it was so, like, it was really in the tabloids. It was like, don't give you a kid's sunny delight. Gosh. Because they're going to lose their minds. And my friend had it once,

and I smelled it, and it smelled like piss. Really? It smelled like piss. It did smell like piss. Were you allowed it in your house? We were allowed one every couple of months, and when it was gone, it was gone.

Wow. But it was great. It tasted so exciting. That's lovely. Sunny Dancer, it all doesn't smell like PSO. No. No. Sunny Dance that I saw the trailer for it in the cinema the other day. Oh yeah, it's cool. So excited to see it. So many brilliant actors in it. It's great cast. Bella Ramsey in the lead.

Oh, yeah. It was fun. We filmed it up in Glasgow, where they do square sausages and potato scones. And I normally say scone, but in this instance, it has to be potato scorn if you're from Glasgow. But no, it was very fun. It's a summer camp. It's a comedy about kids with cancer. Yes. It feels like a juxtaposition, but it somehow works.

And these summer camps exist, right? They do. Young people with diagnosed with cancer can go to this summer camp. All hang out together. Yeah, and just kind of be normal and it not be like a weird thing that people are being weird about. Just being like, well, we all have this thing in common and we don't really have to talk about it. But also, if we did talk about it, they would just get it, you know. Which is nice.

Yeah, the editor of the film, actually, she had, called Caitlin, she had cancer when she was younger and went to these summer camps. And that was sort of where the idea of the film formed with George the director, who, like, worked with her before. So it's pretty cool. That's cool for the editor to, like, have had that experience. Because they are the people who then essentially, like, make the final film at the end. Yeah, exactly.

To have that person's, like, eyes over it right until the end is pretty great. It's really cool, yeah. And we had a camcorder on set every day that was. like filming behind the scenes, footage and stuff. And some of that is in the film, and we'd always do little messages to Caitlin, the editor,

on the camcorder footage. Yeah, it was fun. We try and put in little messages for Benito into this podcast when he's editing it. Nice. He doesn't care. Really?

He made it stone. Like, the guy doesn't fucking give a shit. Oh, Benito. Really hard. James really wants to be friends with Benito, but Benito is not interested. It's what happens. We went to this gig the other night.

James turned up late. he was at the other end of the row to Benito. I don't think they exchanged one word. I kind of nodded to him on the way past on the row. At one point they played a song that he liked and he was singing along to that. But it wasn't at me or anything. I wasn't involved in it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was sung a lot of songs at you. How did you feel about that? Yeah, that's fine. I kind of expected that. But, like, I just kind of kept my eyes on the stage and just thought it was aware that you were singing at me. Yeah.

Did you and the cast get on better than I get on with Benito? Did you all, like, Bond, just like, at a summer camera? I think so, yeah, sounds like it from your description. Yes, we did get on very well, actually. We're all quite similar. We like go out to the pub after work for one drink and then all be tired and go to bed, which was exactly my pace, which was good.

Yeah, it was good. Yeah, we got along very well. Do you have a preference with like when you're like working on something, is it not nice and refreshing to do something with a bunch of people who are like closer to your age than like all the old fuckers you have to do stuff with? normally. Well, you usually know, like, that I was so intimidated coming into sign dancer because I'm not, I usually find people my age harder to relate to just because, well, that was more

when I was younger. I think I was always around adults. And so, like, going on to set full of adults, I was way more comfortable than going on and doing something with, like, a bunch of kids the same age. Because, yeah. And so, but now, I feel like now it's leveling out. Now everyone's getting older and is sort of leveling. It was, like, yeah, it was fine.

It was good. It was actually refreshing. I spent a lot of time with older Canadians, basically, when I was filming the last I was in Canada. And so it was nice to have young British people. But you did get to hang out with James Norton on this. He's old. Yeah, he's younger than you.

Huh? Younger than you. It doesn't look at it. If he's younger than me, then you could have played my dad. Yeah. On it. James is playing my dad and was very upset to be like playing a dad to a teenage child. Sure.

So if you're older than him, then you could. could have been my dad. Yeah. Yeah. Not vibe-wise, though, I don't think. No, I think Norton is probably the right call on that. Yeah. I don't think me or James have dad vibes.

I think we're cousins. Yeah, actually. We've got cousin vibes, right? Yeah, you definitely have cousin rights. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like a fun cousin who you're like, you look forward to seeing them at Christmas maybe. Yeah, yeah, exactly. But after a couple of days, you like, it's a bit much.

I was thinking about how to make fun cousin one word, and I related just like, for cousin. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It doesn't end well. That's not good. Or cousin. Yeah, James Norton has sent you to your room for that kind of language. We'll start with still or sparkling water, Bella Ram.

Do you have a preference? I'll take sparkling, please. Yeah. You were surprised? Yeah. You thought Bella would be still? Well, yeah, I mean, Bella and I have only hung out once that it was in a castle in Inverness, and there wasn't much sparking water.

There wasn't. Now I think about it. Was there not? There wasn't much water at all. No. Wow, we. So, I would have thought, for the celebs, they would have been cracking out the sparkling water coming out the taps.

No, no, no. No. So I guess I shouldn't be surprised really excited to see you have access to it. No, fair. I do, I could go here. When asked normally, I look at the other person, if I'm with someone else or with a group, I like go, go, wait for someone else to like finish it,

because I really don't mind. But I do like sparkling. I think it helps with, I think it's maybe a myth that it helps with digestion, but it seems to help me. I think there's so many myths about sparkling water that so many people have heard, and they can't, like, that it's bad for your teeth, that it's good for digestion, that I mean, all these things. Bad for your teeth, come on, it's water that's carbonated.

It's probably bad for your teeth if you keep it in there and, like, swill it around and stuff. Which I do. Yeah, which you do do, yes. You've got to do it. Let's start a new myth about sparkling water right now. We can start one that we'll see if we can, the listeners can spread it for us. Yeah. And people won't know it came from it.

this podcast. Yeah, okay, great. It makes you more right wing? I don't want to be associated with sparkling water. You have attached your name to it now. Yeah. That's very bad. We can't say that.

So you're now changing your answer to still based on a rumor we've just made up about sparking water. Yeah. Exactly. Improves your eyesight? That's better. Improves your eyesight. We can start that. People think everything improves your eyesight.

Go on. Fricking carrots, but they probably do. Bita carrots. Preet carrots. Freaking carrots. Fully believed that when I was a kid. I like eight carrots and then had like, they went upstairs and it was dark.

And I was like, I can see. Yeah. So carrots meet you see in the dark. I got that one a lot when I was a kid. What was it to put hairs in your chest? Did you get that one? Black coffee.

I mean, black coffee. Most of us meant to put hairs in your chest. Definitely not that. I drink a lot of that. Like, that'll put hairs in your chest. I got a lot.

lot of, but about a specific vegetable. Spinage makes you strong like Popeye, of course. Oh, of course. Yeah, yeah. It doesn't have a bit of protein in it. It's got iron in it, iron, that's what it has. Iron, yeah, so it's the iron, yeah. That's all about the iron. Did you get told that if you eat your crusts in your sandwiches,

makes your hair go curly? No. That's what I got told. That might be the hair of chest thing. Were you not eating your crust? I was, but I still get you, still get told it. People still want to rush in to tell you that stuff. It was mainly in school when the kids who wouldn't eat their crust,

we get told it by the dinner ladies. Yeah. You know. Dinner ladies got nothing bad to do. And they've all got curly hair. They're saying that. Yeah, yeah. It's in hair that.

You can't tell. That's true. We got told that if you put a toothpaste on your face, it gets rid of freckles. Oh. Yeah. That's weird. So me and my friend Tom did it.

It really hurt. Yeah. Like proper, like aqua fresh on your face. It's so painful. We left it on overnight. It's going to burn. Yeah. To get rid of freckles?

Yeah. Did you have freckles that you wanted to get rid of? I didn't really, but he's, he's, he's just. ginger. Oh, yeah. He was a freckly ginger boy and he was like, I want to get rid of these, tube of aqua fresh all over his face to sleep, woke up in the morning, like, fatt! I don't know, did he recover from that ever?

Oh, no, no, no, no, I never saw him again. No, I bet. Probably still freckle too. Yeah, no plaque on his face, though, to be fair to the kid. That's good, isn't it? Yeah. Poplar bread, pop it on board, Bella Ramsey, popen absoror bread. Bread. Nice.

What kind of bread would you... Did you see Bella eat any bread in the castle? No. All of this is not. Now, very suspicious to me. I think he did eat some bread. You would have thought you'd got some bread. There's a stale loaf in the kitchen.

Yeah, throw that on the floor. It would all scramble for it and fight in the corner. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Like mice. Yeah. Do mice eat bread? Yeah, they do now. Yeah, big time.

They do now. They do now. They didn't use it, of course. Yeah, might eat chocolate. If you're trying to catch a mouse, you have to put it chocolate not cheese. Really? I know that I grew up with cats who would bring presents. But I actually, none of it.

of that ever worked. You just had to like coax them out and like squeaked to them in their language. And that works. Yeah, it was. Squeak to them in their language. Squeak to them in their language. It worked for me. You could play a mouse in the film. Yeah, I could. I was trying to think if I have ever played a mouse, but I haven't. I played a chicken. I've played a mouse. Have you? I mean, most of James's anecdotes are clearly leading towards him playing a mouse in the film. Everything he's asked up until now is tried, he's tried to build it into. He played a mouse in a film. What film? Cinderella, 2021 version, Camilla Cabo. I'll watch that on my journey home

like John the Mouse John the mouse Is there like a clipped version of you being John the mouse Someone's clipped it up on you Someone's probably done a fan cam on TikTok or something Yeah like first rap edit Me and Romish And Romish

And Robbett was in it as well He played a pervert Yeah Rob Beckett's a pervert in it Classic So three people that you're in that castle with Are in that film Well Two of them play mice

One of them plays a pervert I have done something where I'm in a voice for something with Ramesh. Chicken Run. I think he was one of the, maybe, what are the characters in Chicken Run? He was one of the uncles. He was one of the uncles? Who's a chicken or a bloke? No, no, no, an animal.

A rat? He's a rat. He was a rat. So he's played mice and rats as Ramesh's speciality. What a CV that is. That's incredible. If you need a rodent, you get rummish. Yeah.

A's a list of absolute rodents. Romish ratanathan. Rommas ratanathan. Huh? Rottonafan. Romouse ratanathan. Then that's the other rest. Routanathan.

We did it, everyone. The best pieces of podcast in podcast history. What kind of bread would you like? I'd like all. I'd like either sourdough or feccia or for cash is good. Yeah. With little bits of actual tomato in it and like fresh basil. Nice.

With olive oil and boston. Balsamic Finneger. I think it is better, and I really miss that era, like, which, I mean, this might even be before your time, Bella, but there was a big forcatcher boom when we were, when we were kids. I think I was, I think I was alive for that. Were you? Yeah, I made my own forcatchew once.

You might have caught the tail end of the forcatcher boom. Yeah. But you weren't in the thick of the forcatcher boom, Ella. No way. I can't possibly understand. No, you weren't, you weren't there. This is like turn of the century. But I wasn't born yet.

Yeah, yeah. It was, it was really exciting. Really? John Kearns came on the podcast once comedian John Kearns and talked about the forcatcher you used to get from Sainsby's. In the foil tray. Yeah, about that. And it was next level stuff. It was so good and kind of doesn't exist anymore.

No, I was going to say. It was probably the sort of focatcher that an Italian would get really angry about. Okay, the best guy in there. Yeah, exactly. So not like, you know how good forcatcher is like super airy and light. Yeah. But this was probably had far too much oil soaked into it. But that made it so much better.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. The foil tray, like tear and share Faccha boom, it's probably the... Should bring that back. Yeah. Get rid of... It doesn't matter about sparkling water rumours.

We need to get back like... Yeah. Forcasha. Forcacha. Forccia. Oh, I've never known. You've got to do the hand otherwise it doesn't work.

Exactly. Yeah. Fill that with a lot of things. You know what I don't like. Go on. When people go, when they do that and then say chef's kiss after. It fucking annoys me.

They go, it was chef's kiss. No, fuck off. Either do the thing or say the thing. That's a really good time. Don't do it and then say the thing afterwards. I really annoy me. A lot of people do it. If I see a chef doing this in the kitchen,

I'm not fucking eating that food. No, of course not. Get your hands out your mouth before you touch my bread. Yeah, absolutely. My faccascia. Yeah, my feccia. Yeah. Thank you.

I think I've said this on the pod before, but I am slightly put off by fecatia. Now I've seen loads of videos of people making it because they finger it so much. Yeah, there's a lot of fingering going into it. I made ficasia and did that very thing. Yeah. It is like a... a bit, but I wash my hands, you know, quite well.

Exactly. But you can't trust people. You can't trust people. You can't trust these chefs who are kissing their fingers and then... Sticking them in. Yeah, and then massaging it. Yeah, but that's the same with any handmade bread. It's like a lot and eating involved.

Made bread quite a few times. Yeah? Yeah, quite a lot, actually. It's one of the things I did for a while was make bread. I should do that more. Do you have a specialty? Is it for Catcher? No, but I would like to make it so.

I've just bread, really. I don't have especially just sort of like some flour and some yeast and some salt and just bread of any kind. I love the idea of it. It's really good. Of making bread. Yeah, but making bed. Making bed. I love the idea of making my bed.

I don't do that. But then I'm like, ah, just go buy it. I feel, see, I feel that way about most, like I made croissants once for Christmas. And there was so much effort in like store, but it was just way better and easier. But homemade bread does taste. It has a different sort of taste. to store bought bread. And it's satisfying.

When you're eating it, do you think, I'm made? Yeah. Yeah. Taste better because of it. That's how I feel when I listen back to this podcast. Really? I made that. Yeah.

You've never listened back to this podcast. You've never listened to an episode of it. I love it. Would you like your own homemade bread for this then, for your dream meal? Or would you like it to be bought from a shop? Oh, I'd like it to be sourdough made by someone else. Yes. Anyone specific that you want to make your sour dough? James Norton?

I don't know if he can make a good sourdough. He feels like he might be able to. Do you think? He can turn his hand to a lot of things that guy, I think. Do you think, okay, this is a bit rogue, but there's a script supervisor on the last of us called Chris Rufus, and he would bring in sourdough just to give out. And that was really good. That he made?

That he made. You can have Chris Rufus's sourdough. I love Chris Rufus. Shout out Chris Rufus. Go on Chris Rufus. Your dream starter? My dream starter would be, I actually think I'm going to do like butter and jam on toast. Like for real.

Fantastic. Like really good toast with really good butter and really good jam. And I'm going to just like not be vegan for a day. Uh-huh. I'm not even really vegan anymore. That's sort of a lie. But I have like proper butter and proper jam on toast. It's funny to say I'm just not going to be vegan for this.

I'm not vegan anyway. Yeah, yeah. It was because I was for a long time and now I'm just sort of not anymore. But I actually, can I have one, can I, can I have, can I change, can I alter my answer? Yeah. I'd like one piece of toast with butter and jam. Really good butter and jam. One piece of toast that's just like brisetta with, with, like chopped tomatoes and olive oil and that's cool. I love, I love that we've not moved away from bread. No.

Yeah. You started it. Yeah. It's my fault. But you could have had this as your bread course. Is there a bread course? Well, we just did it. Oh.

We just did pop it on to bread. You got Rufus's bread. Yeah, you got Chris Rufus's bread. Yeah, I'm having double bread. Yeah, double bread. And now we're carrying on with the bread. It was great. Yeah, yeah, double bread.

The toast with the butter and jam. Yeah. Do you want to use Chris Rufus's bread for that as well? Or do you want a different type of bread for that? I... Rufus getting a lot of air time. Yeah, yeah, I'd have the same bread for that. But it needs to be toasted so it's like...

I like a good colour, like golden brown. Yeah. Golden brown, like that. You'll see that as you eat it. Want to hear the crunch when you buy it into it? Well, I mean, with sourdough, you'll definitely get a crunch. Yeah. It's difficult to find that point with sourdough,

where it goes from bread to nice toast, is such a small window before it goes to glass. Sure. Don't you think? I fully agree. It just breaks off in shards. It'll cut your mouth. Do you ever like overtose toast and then just scrape off the bun?

Oh, yeah. Big time. Yeah, yeah. Pop that straight in the butter. Yeah. Leave that for next time. I ordered from a place called Crunch the other day. It was a sandwich place.

Crunch. I just saw it on Deliveroo. I never seen it before. I was very hungover. It was a very bad day after Ed's partner's birthday party. Oh, yeah. Fucking awful night. And the next day I was not in a good way at all.

Went on Deliveroo thinking, like, I need like a burger or something. This is like, this is bad. And then there's this place called Crunch. And it's all that it's really. really pimped up sandwiches. I thought, that looks good. That's like basically like a burger, but like a sandwich.

So I ordered it. I'm really excited about this crunch arriving. A bit into it. No crunch. What the hell? Didn't hear anything. Just like, I had a buffalo chicken sandwich.

Everything delicious. Were there crunchy things in it that should have crunched? Lettuce. The actual thing is toasted. It's like a toasted. So on the picture, it's this toasted sandwich that's like, you know,

everything looked like a burger, but it had like toast instead of the button. Okay, that's a nice idea. I was like, this looks great. Yeah, but no crunch. No crunch. That's like when you go to poundland and everything is not a pound. Yeah.

Yeah. That's how it felt. But absolute shout out the deep fried lasagna bites. What? A crunch on those guys? No, no, not at all, but like, they're a bit crispier. But like little cubes of like multi-layered lasagna, like quite a lot of layers. How do you make that?

All just smashed and, I don't know. I don't know. It was absolutely good. Those were the stars at the show. Sounds rude. I'll be ordering those again. Yeah. If I found myself making deep fried lasagna bites at home, I'd be like, something's gone very wrong. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'll get halfway through that process and go,

I need to have a look at my life here. Yeah. What am I doing? And what will you see? I don't know if I should shudder to think. Whereas making bread, I'd be like, this is so wholesome. Yeah. Deep fried lasagna bites hung over? No. It was a great night. We had a great night.

Awful night. Absolutely awful. We're all in our goddamn 40s. What are we doing drinking Bakewell tart cocktails? Oh, sounds good. Yeah, they sound good, and they absolutely took people's faces off. You're like 12 years old? We shouldn't be drinking those.

We're like 50s. Yeah, I was fine, though. Old cousins. Thinking like Bakewell tart slushies, like idiots. Morons. How many did you have? Lost count. Yeah.

A lot of people were sick that night. What flavor jam? Raspberry. Swithsy. With seeds? Absolutely. Oh wow. It's like big bits of raspberry.

Yeah. I like jam that tastes like proper like fruity. Nice. I agree with that. I agree with the fruity taste, but surely the seeds are they not getting in your tea? No, it's crunchy. You crunch the seeds. Like you know when you get it right on, it's perfectly on your tooth, you crunch it.

Yeah, I like, I like, so. Also, I might have a, I could put a bit of black pepper on it. Wow. On all of the toast. Massively respect this. And on the brichetta. brisetta. Nice.

Black pepper goes with everything. Yeah. You're right. I haven't thought. Crunch, like it's the same crunch thing.

Like proper peppercorns and like raspberry seeds. I mean, and if people from crunch the sandwich shop are listening. Get some more black pepper and raspberry seeds

and you're freaking get your fucking act together. You're called crunch for Christ's sakes. I got the thousand layer of potatoes. They were nice

but not crunchy. They should be. That's great that you're putting the black pepper on the raspberry jam. I think so. There was a big,

you wouldn't have been alive for this, but a big boom in putting black pepper on strawberries back in our day. Do you remember that? I know about all of these things. I've done this. Yeah, you probably learned about it in school and history lessons.

There was a big, it was balsamic vinegar and black pepper on strawberries. Oh yeah. I've done that. No, you weren't there. Sure, sure, sure, sorry, sorry, I know nothing. I'm an ignorant, Gen C, said.

Yeah, we're just old, man. Yeah. Are you technically millennials? Yeah. Yes. We're definitely millennials. We're in the thick of it, I think. Yeah, yeah.

Classic millennials. Yeah. Just cool guys. Benito's a boomer. Gosh, sorry. Yeah. Main course. Main course is pasta salad that my mum used to make for me

when I used to go to school back in the day. It was like cold pasta with mayonnaise and chopped up bits of cucumber and pepper and black pepper. Lots of black pepper. And that in a Tupperware, with a spork. Yeah. That is my main course. It has to be a sport.

It has to be a sport. I had a red spork that I used to eat this with at school. Oh my gosh. And I used to, like, you'd sometimes make it in the morning. And like, before I even got to school, I was like, I would have to, like, have a bit. It was so good. Like mayonnaise on pasta. No one does that.

Yeah. It's good. That's a nostalgic taste. Oh, so good. Yeah. Freezing cold. Yeah. Straight out the fridge.

Well, it's been in my lunch bowl. all day, but I've had a nice pack in there. Yeah. Yeah. So it's fine. Wow. Yeah, that's my main. And you'd look forward to it. You're sickening your lessons, just dreaming of it.

Yeah, I'd be thinking about it. Yeah. My Bart Simpson lunchbox. Yeah, the Bart Simpson lunchbox. I had several. I did have a Bart Simpson for a while. Yeah. That's my main one. Was he saying anything on the lunchbox?

No, no. He was just there with his cool yellow hair. Hmm. I mean, yellow face. Well, yeah, I mean, the hair is yellow, right? Yeah. But so is his whole body and head. Yeah, I think so.

Yeah. It's unclear. where his head's hair starts. Well, it's part of his skull. You can see on that tattoo. Oh, you see. It has a Bart Simpson's skull as a tattoo. It's all part of his skull.

You see. Okay, cool. Yes. Thanks. No problem. I love this as a main cause. So it's not, there's no like meat or like tuna in it or anything. It's just the veggies and the pasta and the mayonnaise.

Arms are folded. Why are the arms folded? I'm clarifying. The arms are folded because my also other favourite. thing was tuna pasta. There you go. So I could put tuna in it, absolutely. But also, it would be completely fine if I didn't have chint.

It depends on whether I'm being vegan or vegetarian this day or not. Yeah. Well, there's mayonnaise in it. You get good vegan mayonnaise these days. Also, mayonnaise has, even regular mayonnaise has the tiniest amount of egg in it. Again, all these lies, crunch, pound land. Yeah, yeah. Mayonnaise being egg-based.

It's not true. Would you ever trade your lunch with other kids? Absolutely not. No. The kids in my school were having like Marmite and banana sandwiches and like... What? Yeah, no, no, no. I went to a small village primary school. There was like 80 kids there, like the lunch and there was like chocolate sandwich. I could, I could, I could, I would like to have experimented more with the chocolate sandwich.

But no, I really, I was keeping my pasta that was not going anywhere. Well, sounds like you had the best thing there. 100%. Where was this small village where kids are eating banana and Marmite sandwiches? I want to try that then. In the heart of Leicestershire. Wow. Yeah, I don't know where those kids are now.

No. But it was like proper soggy and mankie and it was, yeah. Yeah. Bit grim. I still like to try Marmite and banana though. It's not, I have tried it. It's not that bad. Yeah.

It's really not. Also, you can get Marmite and peanut butter mixed together now in a jar. Yes, you can. That's good stuff. That with banana on toast. Chris Reuters is something. You like that. Yeah, I just really love toast, I think.

I just can't imagine being a pair of, being like, I'm making my lunchbox for my kid, it's Marmite banana sandwiches. What do you think, like nutrition-wise, what's going on there? You've got some B vitamins in there. You've got some slow release carb energy in the banana. I don't know, a slow release, it feels. That's more oats, I think.

Banana just feels like it should be separate in a lunchbox, right? Even though it's the most annoying-shaped thing to pack in a lunchbox. It's true, and it gets, like, battered about, and it brews. It's a good observation we haven't ever hit upon. My last menu is how hard a banana, how awkward a banana is in the lunchbox. Yeah. We had a banana, you can get like a banana Tupperware. It's like a, not even, like a banana holder. Yeah.

But it was really stupid because it only fits like a very specific shape and size of banana. Yeah. Like, what if you have a tiny banana? Like, it's massive. Yeah. It's just not going to fit in the case, is it? Yeah, you need a lot of different size cases. But then your life's out of control.

It really is. If you're doing that. I think so. Also, I think I'd prefer a case for my banana that isn't the same. shape and colour as a banana. Really? Why? Just because it just feels pointless. Do you know what I mean?

You might as well carry the banana. Yeah, you might as well just carry the banana around. Like, I'd prefer like, you know, like a sort of assassin or something to have a little case with the foam perfectly cut out with a banana in there. Yeah. And that makes she'll cool at school. Yeah, that's pretty cool. That's what in Pulp fiction, that's what's in that.

That's what's in the case. Yeah. When it's glowing, it's like, whoa. This is mid-morning banana. Yeah. Yeah, you can't believe it. I used to take pat lunch to school and eat it all in morning break. Good feet.

I, that's great. Yeah. Big sandwich. Big sandwich, banana down there. But I didn't have a lunchbox later on when I was older at school. I used to have it in a plastic bag. And still, it was all gone by lunch. All gone.

Banana, bashed up to fuck in there, just rattling around. No banana kiss. Straight out my locker at 11 a.m. Roll down. Normally a ham and cheese roll, one of those ones with cheese on the top. You remember the soft white rolls with cheese melted on the top? Straight in there. Probably like a cereal bar, a banana.

That's all at 11 a.m. And then going to school lunch and take school dinners and steal school dinners. That's great. You hacked the system there. I hacked the system. Unfortunately, I didn't hack my own health. But you can't have it. Yeah.

Hacked it to hell. Yeah. I like this pasta. It's good. It's nice understanding. or Jake, it sounds like you genuinely loved it, and maybe where your love of Black Pepper started. I think so.

Yeah. There'd have to be a lot of it. It used to be one of my things I'd say to make people, like, I think try and make people laugh or make people think I was slightly strange, which I probably was as a kid, which was like, that I would have black pepper with everything. I also used to tell this, I had this weird lie that I used to tell.

It's like the one specific lie that, for some reason, I thought it was like this huge thing, that I'd said to people that I would, like, sneak downstairs in the middle of the night and get butter out of the fridge and just like eat it, just butter. And I would tell people this story as if it was like the most crazy thing to ever happen. And then I'd put it back in the fridge and I'd put and I'd clean the knife and there'd be no evidence. I'd creep back upstairs and no one would know.

People believe me every time. Yeah, of course it did. It's perfectly believable. It doesn't sound not believable. It's like, why would someone lie about that? I don't know. I didn't kind of lie about anything. I just had this one specific lie that I like, this story that I told people.

Did you think that, how did you think that made you appear? to them? I don't know. Like, cool? Was that like... I think it was cool. I think it was to be cool. Yeah.

Guess what idea? I go and eat butter in the middle of the night. You don't know anything about it. And I'd also, like, I think was, what reminded me of that was the black pepper thing

because I'd also say to people that I'd like put black pepper on everything. Yeah. And then make a point of putting it on everything. And then whenever, if I'd said that to someone, if I was done with that person, I'd like just put black pepper on things

that black pepper made no sense on because to prove my point. Yeah. So do you think, so did you actually want to put black pepper on it Or were you doing it because you're the black pepper student? Yeah, I think that most likely. But I do think that...

You've convinced yourself into it. Yeah. I do love black pepper. Yeah. And I don't love like... You know, sometimes you go to it and it's like mixed peppercorns. It's not good. It tastes weird.

Those red ones. Yeah. The green ones. Yeah. No, no, no, no. Sometimes they put nutmeg in it. It's a violent flavour nutmeg. It sure is.

You don't need much nutmeg to really make an impact. No, I don't want that on my jam and butter on toast. I only want black pepper. apple ones. Yeah. I like a bit of nutmeg, but I'm not having that on toast. Nah.

It's an impact cameo nutmeg. Yeah, yeah. To return to pop fiction, it's Christopher Walken. Sure. You don't need much, but it leaves a lasting taste. Yeah, yeah.

Good old Walkin. Yeah. We had him in here? Not yet. No. I mean, sorry, in the spirit of lying, yes, we have. And he ate those of butter.

Did he? Did you tell any lies at your school, James? No. I saved all. all my lies for Inverness. We had a kid at our school who lied all the time, and we only found out after like a year or so.

Really? He was like a new kid, came like probably when we were like 14, 15. So he's trying to make, he's trying to make an impression, just started talking out his ass. But like things that he definitely couldn't back up. He said he'd been to every country in the world

apart from Luxembourg, which is a crazy lie to tell. Such an easy country to visit if you've done all the other countries. He said that his house, he had a garage that was full of like shrunken down versions of supercars. Wow. And that is, and then someone obviously went to his house and like, no, it's just the normal house. Gosh, I wonder where he is now.

Maybe in Luxembourg. I did actually look it up the other day. He's a very successful businessman. Is he? Yeah, yeah. That makes sense. Yeah. Lied his way to the top.

Now he's got the big versions of the supercars probably. Yeah. Wow. I'd also tell people, like, during the, you know, the golden times, Do you remember it being called golden time? Was it called golden time when you guys were alive? When we were alive? No, no, golden time was like the time on a Friday where you'd like get to play.

Oh, that was fun. Oh, great. But during golden time, I used to like tell people also, I don't know. Maybe this is where the acting began. Yeah. Because I used to see if I could convince people that I was Canadian as well, that I was half Canadian. But I'd say that like I spoke Canadian. And I'd be like make up words being like, yeah, then.

I'd look at the things around me and make them a bit funky and make up this Canadian language. And one time a kid says to me, I think they speak English in Canada and I went not the part of candor I'm from. People believe me again every time. But then I felt bad if people actually believed it and I'd have to tell them like, by the way,

I'm actually not half Canadian. And I think they were always very confused as to, and same with the butter light. I'd always tell people eventually. And I think they, I think that's how I lost friends because they'd be very confused as to why I would, why that was an,

important things. But it's such a funny, it's a funny lie to tell, and obviously people believed it, but it's also really funny that then that really weighed heavy on you. Yeah, oh, absolutely. I've got to let you know. I don't eat butter. I was a classroom assistant at school for a while when I was like in my mid-20s, and there was a kid there who was Canadian, and I found out, huh? So you think. Well, he wasn't. Why being me? Whoa. So that's what I found out later on, is that someone had to tell me, you know, he's not. Canadian. He's just obsessed with Canada. He's learned everything about it. And his parents

took him to a speech and language therapist who was Canadian. And she said his Canadian accent was more authentic than hers was. Wow. And she just couldn't believe how good his accent. Wow. And how authentic it sounded. Gosh. Yeah, but it was months before I learned that he wasn't connected. That's amazing.

He knew everything about Canada. And like, he really loved to talk about Canada. So I'd always just ask him, like, favorite hockey teams and all of this stuff. Just knew everything about everything. But yeah. I mean, this is Canadian. The Canadian Tourist Board should start promoting Canada by saying loads of English kids pretend to be from here.

Yeah, probably. I think that's the best advert for Canada I've ever heard. Yeah, probably. He also, I was doing stand-up at the time, and he googled me. He googled all the staff online, trying to find out stuff about them. And he came in next morning and was like, you're a comedian. And I had a split-sing decision to make, went, no, I'm not.

And he was like, churning on his phone, he was like, that's you. And I was like, that's not me. And he knew it was me. So much worse at lying than he is. The best of the time he kept it up every day going in, that is you. That's not me.

That's your name. I don't know what you're talking about. Then I go, talking about you being from Canada, go, okay, fine, I'll leave it. I'll leave it. The dream side dish, Bella. My dream side dish is crispy rice with avocado.

Great. Talk us through this. When did you first have this? Well, I think I only had it once. I had crispy, because you can get like crispy rice with tuna. But at the time, I wasn't eating tuna. I wasn't eating fish. And so I could never have the tuna.

So I'd just have the like crispy rice and it was delicious. And then once they did it with avocado in one random place. It's not consistently on every like, like, menu. No, no, no. Is it like a, like sushi side? So like the, like, it's like a little square. Yeah. Of rice that's like deep fried.

And so it's like, I've got soft and like squidgy in the middle. Crispy rice. is this in Canada as well? Yeah, it's all over the show. Vancouver? I think I had something similar in Vancouver once. I had some good sushi in Vancouver. Yeah.

From place coming but its name, but it was really good and it felt very spoiled. Yeah. And wouldn't surprise me if this is there. Is that where, is Vancouver where you film? It is, yeah. So you spent a lot of time in Vancouver. Lots of time in Vancouver.

They do good sushi indeed. And lots of other things. They have good mountains. Get a good mountain water probably from Canada. The mountains are crazy in Vancouver. You've been in the middle of the city and then just look over and there's incredible mountains. Yeah, you're looking at like giant high rises and then you've got like the ocean and then you've got mountains. You've been to rain or shine in Vancouver?

Sure have. Great ice cream place. It's really good. They do pop-ups on the beach often. Did they? I didn't know that. That's exciting. I didn't go there, but there's one specific ice cream.

Kind of ties into what we were talking about earlier. The blueberry balsamic. With black pepper on it? No, but I bet that would work. And I wouldn't be surprised if Rainel Shine do a black pepper ice cream. Oh, I'm sure they do. Yeah, that bluebie balsamic. You can get it with hot fudge sauce.

They kind of push that. Wow. And that's good, but I actually prefer it on it. So I think it's such a unique scoop. Sounds good on its own. I think the fun... You like unique scoop. Yeah, I really like unique scoop.

Because I can tell James really enjoyed saying it. Yeah. Yeah. It shows that I'm like... I probably know what I'm on about with ice cream. It's part of my kind of culture. Yeah. Because people you don't know much about ice cream,

don't know that it comes in scoops. No, no, no, no. And that a scoop could be unique as to have. Yeah. Yeah. What was the flavoring? Blueberry balsamic. It's such a good, such a good scoop.

You've got to go and get it. I mean, they've got a lot of good scoops there. Rain or Shine is one of the all-time great ice cream places. It's really good. They also are really good Chinese restaurant in Vancouver called Mott 32, which then they do cashew chili, crispy tofu. Mm. Tofu, that's another rogue thing.

I say tofu, apparently it's tofu. Yeah, I've never heard someone say tofu, but like... I think it's a Midlands thing. I order tofu in restaurants, say, look at me like, what do you mean toffee? I'm goodlands. You say tofu? Yeah. Get a grip.

You're the only person from Kettering to ever say tofu, though, aren't you? Yeah, no one else in Ketman's ever said. Yeah. Yeah, they've never said. It hasn't reached Ketman. No. Sorry, Ketman, if you're listening. You know I'm only playing.

I had great Korean fried chicken in Vangman. Vancouver actually in a really nice little bar. It was before I went on stage about an hour before and I wanted to try lots of different types of the crew because they had loads of different coatings. So I ordered like three portions and they were like 24 wings of thing. Wow, were you very full. Yeah, it's just me and one other person. We absolutely decimated. You smash it, yeah. Yeah, smashed it, yeah. Not the gig. The gig was awful. Because you were so full. Yeah, I basically had to crawl on stage and yeah, just eating 24 garlic parmesan fried chicken wings. But Ed's audience know what they're getting into.

They know that when they buy a ticket to Ed Gamble, they're rolling the dice that he might be full. Yeah. Especially if it's not in London, you know? Especially if I'm out and about because I've got to go and try all the places. Of course. So I travel for work. The work is always dreadful because I've eaten too much food.

Yeah, yeah. Sounds like you're making the most of it. Again, like hacking the system. Yeah, exactly. Totally hacking the system. Again, not to my own benefit in any way. Have you ever eaten too close to shooting a season? and you can feel it?

All the time. All the time. All the time. I bought this crafty service on Lassovers in particular. It's like, I can't tell you how good at this. It's unbelievable. It's dangerous. It's dangerously good.

And it's like it's the whole day. You don't have to wait for lunch or wait for breakfast. It's like a constant stream of like incredible food. And so, yeah, all the time. I'm consistently full. It's terrible. Yeah. There's this guy on Ghostbust.

who did this like amazing like ghostbusters not the original one not that old there's this guy who did this like strawberry yogurt with granola and like loads of bananas and stuff like that

doesn't sound great the way that he did it this guy there was something that he put in it was so addictive ectoplasm oh man it might I hate actoplasms

it might have been exoplasm I tell you what And now, you've properly put this in my mind now, Bella. You said that strawberry granola thing. Yeah. My first thought was,

a bit of black pepper would go lovely on that. Yeah, I agree. Yeah, I think it would. Really. Maybe that was the secret ingredient I didn't know about it. Yeah, yeah, I probably was.

BP. Oh, BP. It was so good. I'd think about it all day because you wouldn't do it straight away, weirdly. That's weird. To wait until the afternoon,

because I think it's like, that's when his shift's like. Oh, sure, sure. I'd be like, it's the yoghut man here yet. I just want to eat that yogurt. Yeah, I like an overnight overnight, out and a yogurt like thing.

They did banana boats on pastvas which was basically just like a whole bit of banana a whole bit of banana not beaten up and not encased. It's been in a case.

Like cut down the middle with like so much peanut butter and berries and granola on a little cardboard tray. Wow. So good. But again, afternoon.

It would only come out in the afternoon. Pascal wolfing that down? I don't know if he liked a banana boat. He went, what did he eat? He ate a lot of carrot sticks. Be careful because we will, you know, we've had it on the podcast before

where people have come on, told us what co-stars have had, and then we fact-checked it when that co-star eventually does come on the podcast, and then they've been exposed as a liar, and we know you've got previous of your butter talk. He had to eat a lot of carrot sticks because he had to spot the scary mushroom men in the dark.

It has been a long time since I've seen him eat food on set, so that might be incorrect. But he really, you get like bags of very, vegetables he would eat a lot. I bet he's got those in the Mando helmet. Probably. But he's just crunching carrots sticks in that helmet all the time and get away with it. Like a nose bag.

Yeah, we'll see him, yeah. Why he looks so dishevelled every time he takes the helmet off. This has been sweatly eating carrots sticks in there. Would you ever do a role like that where like for the whole thing people can't see your face? But like you're in every scene. You're having to still act in the scene. but people can't see it's you? I don't think so.

You wouldn't do it? I don't think I'd be hired for such a thing. What? I think that, because I don't know. I just, no, I think I rely on my face to do the acting. I don't know. Fun challenge though. Fun challenge.

Yeah, but what, so it's just your voice and your movement? Maybe it would be cool. Well, that's, I mean, that's why it's actually quite good to come on this. You can listen to this when you get home, just your voice. And you can go, maybe I could do that. Yeah. I don't know I'm going to listen to this back. Huh?

I think I've spoken too much about Brian. to listen back. I think I'm going to leave here and just like trust that I've left everything on the floor, you know? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Left everything in the off-mainten studio. Yeah, there's nothing you can do. I don't need to, I don't need to read this.

That's what we like to hear from our guests. I hear that you clearly watch a listening back every time. Listen back multiple times for every episode just to like really get a feel for it. Yeah. I'd like to play Mando one day. I think if I did something with a mask on, yeah, doing acting.

I'd be tempted to like do like serious scenes but like with like cross eyes and stuff do like silly stuff under the mask. You'd have to do something like that to end soon. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That was, that was me during COVID wearing masks. I would just be consistent, like, I swore so much during COVID. Because I would, because I realized how much I was suppressing all the time.

And then suddenly I was like saying everything that I'd normally say out loud because no one could see my mouth. Yeah. Walking down the street, just like saying whatever the hell I wanted. They could hear you though, right? Bella. Bella, you've got to know they can hear you.

I don't know. I think that mask was protection for me. I took a bit too far. I really liked that part. The mask part. I loved it and hated it. I loved it for the literal mask that it provided. I loved it.

The element of it I enjoyed. and obviously a horrible time for so many people. The masks, all of that stuff, I love there being rules, and I love following the rules, and I love noticing when other people weren't following the rules and getting really angry about it. That's what I liked. Were you like looking at your window, checking

that your neighbours are only going on like one walk a day? Big time, yeah, yeah. I was phoning the police. I'm sure they loved hearing from you. I'm a COVID-Caron. Ed's a COVID-Carran. Not all people know that about it. Ed, the COVID-Garrie.

Yeah, that's me. What do you do now when you're in? sometimes like going to a cafe, coffee shop, whatever. And I'm queuing up and like, when I'm waiting for my coffee and I'm just like, idly look down and realise they've still got the things on the floor from COVID times. Yeah, yeah. As a COVID Karen, do you sometimes want to follow that still? It's on the floor.

I definitely want to, yeah, but I now can't get annoyed that other people aren't. But yeah. Can't snitch anymore. Yeah. Can't polite your two meter stick. Yeah. Also, like, I don't, it puts me off a place if they've still got all the COVID stickers. Yeah.

Because I'm like, if that's your attention to do it. detail, what are you doing to the food, you know? Probably doing this. Yeah. That's stopped in COVID, didn't it? I'm glad that's back, chef's kiss. That's why people started saying it out loud. Yeah, it's true.

And then they forgot, when we came out of the pandemic, they forgot that you don't have to say it out loud anymore. You can just do the mind. Yeah. So you now are understanding. So maybe you'll be less pissed off now. Yeah, I will. Look, there's still a lot of residual trauma from the pandemic.

And if that is one of the things that's still hanging over, is that people say chefs kiss out loud, I'll let it go. Okay. I miss elbows as well. That's the other thing I miss. Yeah. Yeah. You can't really initiate that now with people.

Yeah. Got to do the elbow bump. Yeah. That would be crazy now if you try to initiate the elbow bump. Yeah. Thank you. That's good. That feels good, actually.

Yeah. Much better. Much better than a hand, right? I agree. Less sweaty. Yeah. There's a lot that I miss, actually. Your dream drink, Bella.

fresh orange juice, freshly squeezed. And this is also, I'm doing this menu is like pretending that I don't have stomach issues. So like I can eat whatever I like and drink whatever I like without getting a brutal stomach cake. It's like maybe like a litre of fresh orange juice, freshly squeezed. And that would give you, that would give you stomach problems? Absolutely. Yeah. Probably.

Everything does. If you got sent to a summer camp with other people with stomach issues, would you enjoy that? I'd love it, yeah. What a summer camp that would be there? Yeah, would be like, they'd need probably like, the half of the summer camp would be toilets. Yeah. And queues.

Yeah. But they'd have to have enough that there wasn't queues. That would have to be one of the... Everyone would need their own personal private toilet. Yeah, and like a free, Rennie dispenser. Yeah. I love that. Yeah, you'd love a Rennie dispenser.

And have, she own personal private toilet? Yeah. No, I'm not allowed to use it. My partner's... Not for me. I'll go and queue at the shops. Freshly squeezed orange juice. Do you want one of those machines that you get in some...

Yeah, sometimes you go in some places and they've got the Wallace and Gormick machine. Send it sends the orange on a journey. Yeah. Oh, it's like chichish-ish bang, where the egg... Yeah. The egg meat.

I loved that. Freaking invention. Do you ever watch the orange go around? You know it's going to be part of your juice? No. That's my orange. Should do that next time. Yeah.

They send it on too much. of a journey. It's just, it's fun for the orange, really. Yeah. It's good to give it a final little bit of fun before it's brutally squeezed and ingested by human enjoyment and consumption. Yeah. I love watching the orange go around. That's your orange. Yeah. That's my orange, I say. Sure. Would you ever bring your own orange along to the shop and ask them, can you juice this please? I don't think so.

I don't know. It might be good. You said your one that you know is good. You know, it's an orange. Your special orange that you've like grown on a tree. Yeah. Juice this for me. Yeah. There are more and more places popping up, like takeaway places where you can, you take something in and they cook it for you. Really?

Or like I get a lot on Instagram. I'll get like this like food truck where they, someone brings like them a bag of crisps and they put a load of crap on top of it. That's cool. Yeah. That's really cool. So you'd be like, here's my Doritos chili heat wave or whatever and they put like meat and cheese sauce on it and stuff.

That's excellent. Yeah. But that with oranges basically. Yeah. Nice. Yeah. I mean, you still have to pay for the squeezing

full price for it, yeah, I guess you're just paying for the squeezing then you can't do that at home. Yeah, but not in that machine. You can't send the orange on a journey and also they're paying overheads and, you know. It's not legal to own those machines yet. Probably not. And the oranges probably taste better.

The oranges taste better if the oranges have had like a good life before. Definitely. Journey and a bit of fun before. Massage and stuff. Yeah, exactly. You have a juice oranges at home? Have you always juice at home?

Sure, do. What's your set up? What's your juicing set up? Well, at home home, where I no longer live, there's like a old, from an, I don't know, I think my dad found this thing that,

it's a manual squeezer. It's like a big contraption where you like pull the handle down. And it goes like, yeah, that's good. Just being a bit excited there. That's good. All the manual like squeezer things

and it collects in the little rim around the outside and you pour it into the. That's very labor intensive. It is, but it's, It tastes better because of it. Yeah. How many oranges are you doing, though, for one glass? If we're going to do a litre, I'm going to need a lot of oranges.

Yeah. We need a whole tree. Yeah. You know, I once planted an apple seed when I was a kid, and it's now an apple tree. Wow. With actual apples on it. Don't believe this just yet. Carry on.

This actually really smacks of a school line, isn't it? So, so quick. Wow. It's actually true. I'm actually quite a bad liar. Yeah. I can act, I can't lie. Like, I'll just laugh, and I'll eventually have to tell you that it's a light.

Yeah. But the apple thing is. But the apple thing is. I've heard this song and dance before in a castle. Yeah. I mean, yeah. You know me well. Where's the apple tree out?

Home, home. Nice. Wow, so you put it in your garden? Well, I planted in a pot to start with. And then it grew into a thing, and then I planted it. Or maybe I did just plant it straight. I think I might have planted it straight in the ground, you know. I can't remember it.

I was seven or something. Wow. And this year for the first time It's got actual apples on Hold on you planted one seed Yeah You didn't plant a load of apple seeds And one tree grew

You planted a single seed And that is now an apple tree I ate an apple Got down to the core Yeah Extracted the seed Put it in the ground Pray to the lords

Yeah The lords Multiple lords Yeah Prayed for the rain Prayed for the sun The apple tree grew Yeah

So that's how much faith I have In Cid You know seeds I love doing that It's called like germinating a broad bean you know, seeing you grow.

I think I was going through that phase of my life and it was like, what will happen if I plant an apple seed and now there's an apple tree? We all remember the germinating broad bean phases of our life. And the creche. Sunflower, yeah. Cress and broad beans. I love germinating those broad beans.

And you'd have to do it in different environments to see what, like, worked best. Do you try and get a sunflower on Blue Peter? No. Yeah, they loved it. If you planted a sunflower in your garden, if you've got a real tool, take a photo of it, send it into Blue Peter.

They do a little roundup of everyone's sunflower. flowers in the country. This one's really big. Did you do that? I didn't even bother. I couldn't get you that big. I planted it, grew it. I was like, yeah, it wasn't worth it.

Big enough. No point sending it in. Like, Connie Huck's going to be like, look at this one, it's all right, and then cut to another kid who's made a massive sunflower. I'm going to look like an idiot on TV. I'm not doing that. No. You've always been yourself, haven't you?

Yeah. Yeah. What's the point? What's the point? We look like an idiot. Yeah, exactly. We've got a cheer pet at home. Have you?

Yeah. What? Chia pet. Cheap. I don't even know what that is. Oh, that's the Pinocchio's dad. That went straight over my head. It doesn't even really work as a joke.

It doesn't work that well. Geppetto. Geppetto is Pinocchio's father. The cheer pet is like, I think ours is like supposed to look like a llama or something. Or I can't remember exactly what. A capoeira maybe. It's something like that. Capoeira is a dance.

Capabara. Capabara. It's just like a little model of an animal, but then you put cheer seeds on it, you stick cheer seeds on it, and then it grows, the chia grows, and it looks like it's wool or fair or something. And you eat it?

No, you can't eat it. What? You just look at it. But it did go. Better off planting caress. Yeah. Yeah, but look, that sounds like it stinks.

James will not be surprised to hear it. I didn't buy the cheer pet. It was my wife that bought the cheer pet. Sure. She loves the cheer pet. It got all big and it looked great. And then it started dying. All the cheer started dying.

And then I had to deal with it because she got too sad. It's always the way, isn't it? So I had to strip off all the dead cheer and put it in the bin and then wash up the cheer pet. But then you can put more cheer on it, but we haven't done that yet because I think the whole...

Residual trauma. Yeah, the cycle of trauma is not good to enter into it again. That's what happens when you get a pet of any kind. It's like the risk of that, you're like, I'm going to love you so much and you're going to die soon. No, not mine. James's, James's won't. Immortal cheer pets.

James got five cats. Have you? Five cats and they're all going to live forever. Yeah. Your dream dessert My dream dessert is Coffee ice cream On coffee cake

With a sort of espresso Like affigata With coffee ice cream on coffee cake With chocolate covered coffee beans On top And this is also Assuming that I don't have to sleep That night

Ever Ever again Yeah Yeah Yeah because Yeah that just sounds so good to me I love coffee flavour You've never had it before

I've had all of those things Separately But never together I don't know why no one's done it yet. I mean, it sounds perfect, it sounds ideal. I know. Yeah. I like the addition of the chocolate-covered coffee beans as well.

Get them caffeine inero. That was my instruction to those. You get little like cigarette boxes of chocolate-covered coffee beans. There was somewhere between a cigarette box and a matchstick box. It was like the size of between. Were they tins? No, no, no. There was paper.

And they were blue. Yeah. And you get, oh, that was so good. Chocolate covered coffee beans. I love a chocolate covered coffee beans. Me too. And that's crunch. And that's crunch.

Like that it's not exactly. The crunch should put them in their sandwiches. I eat them thinking that they're not caffeinated. And then I get a bit wild. I've once had like a real cafe. I think I'm quite sensitive to caffeine. And I've once had coffee cake that's been so caffeinated that I've made it myself. It was so rich in coffee that I like felt, really felt it.

Got a buzz of it. Yeah. In Italy, they do these pocket coffee things. You ever had them? No. It's chocolate. When inside it's like liquid, sugary. coffee.

Oh, wow. Gloop. It's amazing. Like a chocolate bar, like little blocks of chocolate. It's like a tiny little, it's like a chocolate thing, like a celebration's size.

Yes. With, yeah, with like liquid, sugary coffee inside. It's so good. Oh, nice.

Have you, speaking of chocolate now? Yeah. Have you had the new M&S chalk range? No. Listen to this man. He knows what he's talking about.

You've got to, you've got to go in there and try this. So like, they're basically doing their own version of Tony's Chocalone. It's a big, thick, chunky bars of chocolate, a bit wonkified.

And one of them is like this blonde chocolate. So it's like a caramac, but chunky. And it's full of pistachios, corn flakes, and shortbread. My gosh. I think it's my favourite chocolate bar. That sounds unbelievable. I think about it all the time. I had it once.

I bought it for. from a train station on the overground in London. And it was quite late. And this guy got on who was probably, I don't know, over 10 years older than me, but like a Bess type, clearly on something. But having a good time. He sat down next to me.

And he was running his mouth off a bit at people as they walked past. And like a lady walked past at one point. It was pretty old. And he said something to her. And she stopped and told him that he needs Jesus. and then she flired him with a flyer for her church. And then he said, Jesus, you're looking at him. And then pointed at himself.

And then she, like, they had a bit of a back and forth. Yeah. She wouldn't have liked that. She wouldn't like that. And she walked away and he's like, da, da, da, da. And he's like leaning forwards on his legs like that. Just look at everyone. And I was eating this chocolate bar.

So I just broke off some squares and I offered it to him wordlessly. And instead of taking him out my hand, He just, with his mouth, just ate out of my hand. He just turned round and just like, like it was a thing that we do all the time, like we were together. That's true love. And there was his guy's opposite who had already clocked me and knew who I was, who absolutely loved it.

I couldn't believe that they had seen it. That's brilliant. It is the most, if you saw you and you're like, I know who that is, and then saw that happen and be like, that's the perfect experience of James Aicaster. Yeah, that's brilliant. Wordlessly feeding a drunk man. Pistachio chocolate.

I wish I could have seen that. It'd be mad. What if he is Jesus? Because we don't know. Yeah. That lady's going to be so pissed off. I know if he is. Yeah.

Flying Jesus for his own show, basically. Yeah, yeah. And then not believing him. He says you're looking at me. She's like, as if. Yeah, see you later. You're not Jesus, mate. You're a druggy.

Yeah. I'd speak to druggies. Goodbye. Oh. Sounds like you, little Christian boy with the devil horns again. Be like, don't do that. You're inviting the devil.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I was trying to help him. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. If he is, you've done really well. I've landed on my feet. You fed Jesus' chocolate.

Like, if he is, because it's like those who feed me and, like, give me shelter or, like, enter the kingdom of heaven. Yeah, I think it's those who thou give me the Eminus Chokray. Yeah. We'll sit at the right hand of my father or something, isn't it? Is that Luke or John? I think, yeah, I think that's, I think it's in both. It's Michael Spencer.

Yeah, I can't remember which one. I did give them the rest as I was leaving. Did you? Yeah, because with that, I've got to be careful. It's like I'm getting it every time I'm at most train stations and then looking for a way to offload it because I can't eat the whole thing every time. Sure.

But I'm just thinking about it so much these days that I just need to get some in me at some point. We've got one in the cupboard at home for when you come over. Great. Brilliant. I went through that phase with Tony Stracholoni, that almond sea salt. I was going through doing music sessions with my friends

and literally going through a bar in four. Four hours. It felt so unwell. Yeah. We've all had days where we do a whole tonies. It's so good. This coffee dessert, I don't want to gloss over this, because it does sound fantastic. Thanks. Do you have a favourite place to get coffee? No, I don't. I'll take, I'll go anywhere.

And yes, but I do like the proper, good, independent coffee shops. And my favourite oat milk that they do is the minor figures. Oh, yeah. I like really so milk. Oh, it's so good. A little character on the front. Yeah. I also like the Oatley, like, jokes on the side of the cartons.

Always, I always read cartons of everything. So, like, for people who are making cartons, like, I just want to reassure that. Like, people do read them. Like, I read all of the packaging on everything ever. And you know, like, sometimes on the bottom of things, it will say, like, hello, nice to see you. Like, why are you looking at my butt and stuff on, like, bottoms of, like, packages. Like, I see all that shit. See, I didn't know that.

It's so good. You have to, like, really look at packaging. There's so many little hidden things. there. Naked bars? You ever had naked bars? They always put little fun things. Did they? Naked bar? Yeah. I'm just warm from down. No, no, no. You need to pay more attention

to packaging. People really... What packaging says, hello, you're looking at my butt on the bottom? Something I don't remember. I don't remember. It's been so long. I love speaking directly to the people who write the packaging, just to reassure that someone's reading it. Yeah. Because it always says on the side of the oatmeal cartons, it's like, I've seen things before people,

like, you're probably not reading this, but you don't care. I do. the back of the Oatley cartes, it says, it says the boring side. I'm like, it's not boring to me. I'm really, I'm really invested in. So, like, there's sad messages from the people who write are being like, no one's fucking reading. Sometimes. Sometimes,

because they can, like, do whatever they want, you know? Like, they're making packaging, thinking that no one's reading it, and I am. I'm sure I'm not there anyone, but coffee, there's nowhere specifically that I like to take coffee, no, anywhere. If anyone writes the packaging for, like, oat milk and stuff, and they're listening now, they should put

a message to you directly on. Bella, hello. I thought it would probably make my life. Hello Bella, I would, I don't think I'd, that would be so exciting to me. If I read a package and there was a little message that said, I would absolutely. Well, on a package of butter saying, hello Bella, why did you lie about me? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That would make my, it would make my life. Yeah. Or black pepper would be the dream, right, on some black pepper? Or imagine it like engraved into the peppercorns. A little secret message. I would do that for someone. If it was someone I really loved and they really love black peop, I would engrave the peppercorns for them. Wow.

Wow. Be up for a long time, but that would be, I mean, that person would never leave you. No. Or they'd immediately leave you. Or immediately, yeah, yeah. It's one or the other. Yeah. I'll take my chance. Yeah.

It depends how long I think you'd, you'd been involved with them. True. As to when to pick to do the peppercorn. Yeah, true. I don't know if I could put black pepper on this coffee, this coffee dessert. No, I think it's so like coffee heavy that that's what you want to lean into. If I saw that on a menu, I would just be like, I want to have the most coffee-y thing ever. Yeah, exactly.

So let's just lean into that and just have loads of coffee. Yeah. Maybe if they bought along like a pepper grinder, but it was just full of more coffee. Coffee. That would be fun. Yeah, that's too. Yeah, that's too. Yeah, that's too.

Say one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, never, because I was the poor guy. Please, say when? My goddamn. Shout out to faculty coffee in. Bermanen where I went yesterday. It's just the freshest one in my head. Nice.

Really great coffee and they did. When I was about to leave, the guy said, look, you've got to try this almond croissant bread pudding that we do. He knew the pod. Yeah. I was like, great. I was on my way to see Joe Lysit. As you do.

Hadn't seen him since the castle either. Nice to see you alive and well, Joe. But like, I bought it to Joe because Joan lives around there but hadn't tried this. bread pudding and we both lost our minds over it. The almond quasson bread pudding at faculty. Really, really good. Sounds really 10 out of 10. Yeah, like, like, disgraceful. Absolutely disgraceful. Yeah, but that sounds so stupid. I know people like, I've always used like,

things like, like, dirty and filthy for like nice food. Yeah. I've never heard anyone use disgraceful. Disgraceful. Although you've never sat down for dessert with Diane A. Kester. What, for good stuff? She says disgraceful. No, just stuff that we're enjoying. Yeah. Stuff that her kids and pick up her husband are eating. Oh, but she means it in a bad way.

So it's disgraceful. Yeah. She enjoys saying it's disgraceful. And we've now adopted it as a good thing, but if it's disgraceful. You should get her on the pod. We should. Mom, if you're listening, I'll promise to never call you Diane again, though. Oh, she doesn't like that.

Oh, she doesn't like being called Diane. She's done. She's die. She's die. She's dying. But, yeah, you know, one day, who knows? knows. Maybe get Diagastal on the pod, but I think she'd have a few bones to poop with me. I've shouted out a few times. Ed's been very rude to a number of times on the podcast.

I've been honest. Wow. Yeah. So, you know. She's fantastic woman. But a lot of her recipes are wrong. Oh dear. Di, I have no feel. I don't know you. I have no feelings towards you. And so I'll reserve my judgment until we meet.

That's very nice. Smart. No diplomats. She'll love that. I hope so. She knows Benito because they grew up in the same generation. I'm going to read you your menu back now, see how you feel about it. Okay. You would like, still, the sparkling water, sparkling. Or still, if sparkling makes you more right wing.

Yeah. You would like sourdome made by Chris Rufus. Yes. You would like toast with butter and raspberry jam with seeds and black pepper, and you'd like brachetta with black pepper as well. Main course, your mum's pasta salad, mayonnaise, cucumber, black pepper in Tupper with a spork. Side dish, crispy rice with avocado.

drink one litre of freshly squeezed orange juice and for dessert you would like coffee ice cream on coffee cake with an espresso shot and chocolate-covered coffee beans. Yeah, 10 out of 10. That is pretty great. I'm pleased with that. I might do that. I might do this today.

Yeah? All of this. What, make it yourself or try and find it? No, no, make it myself. Amazing. I really want to see how that dessert turns out. Huge stomach rumble from Bella there. Oh, yeah.

Yeah. It's usually how this podcast is. Yes. Thank you so much for coming to the dream restaurant, Bella. Thanks for having me. Bye-bye. Thanks for being lovely waiters. There we are, James.

A wonderful menu. Really tasty menu, actually. The nostalgia was great, but also the invention. Yes. You know, the old and the new. Yeah. In there. I got a very specific feeling during that episode.

that only get when we have a guest on who's much younger than us, when we're just like being idiots. Yeah. And they're way more sort of grown up than us. Yeah. It's a bit embarrassing. Yeah, it's sort of pride as well, I think. Proud that we're young at heart.

Yeah, and stupid guys. Yeah. I don't know if I felt proud of that. Good to see Bella in this context, though. Yeah. Previously me and Bella just been in quite a high pressure. Intense situation. So quite nice to be here where only one of us has to make decisions and, you know, maybe Bella was feeling the stress.

I don't want to talk on their behalf. I think that I was much more relaxed than the last time I saw Bella. But maybe Bella was sitting there going, I can't believe I have to choose what my dream side dishes. This is really stressful. I know. I think they enjoyed the process. I don't know what it's like for people coming on this podcast. You don't. No idea. I can't imagine.

Go and see Sunny Dance. It is out on the 14th of August, as in this Friday, if you're listening to the this or watching this when it comes out, because of course, if you're watching it, the YouTube episode comes out on the same day as the audio episode now. Thank you, Bella, for coming on and not choosing Bella's pudding as well. So, commiserations to Richard Herring. You still don't know what Bella's pudding is. We've not got you any closer to that, but we'll endeavor to get more Bellas on the podcast

to try and find out. Is there a Bella in Feynman, Sam? Or is that just the name of the... I think you're right. That's just the name of the... We'll get Bella from Fireman Sam on. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Definitely.

Yeah. I'm on tour. Ed Gamble, Fresh Hell. Starts in January, 27. Tickets on sale now, Edgamble.com.com.com. Wonderful stuff. Thank you very much for watching and listening.

Goodbye. Goodbye.