Off Menu with Ed Gamble and James Acaster - Ep 103: Bimini Bon Boulash

Episode Date: May 12, 2021

Release the beast! Bimini Bon Boulash – the breakout star of this year’s ‘Drag Race UK’ – has a table booked this week. And did she mention she’s vegan?New music from Bimini is coming soon.Pre-order Bimini’s book ‘A Drag Queen’s Guide to Life’ here.Follow Bimini on Twitter and Instagram @biminibabesRecorded and edited by Ben Williams for Plosive.Artwork by Paul Gilbey (photography and design) and Amy Browne (illustrations).Follow Off Menu on Twitter and Instagram: @offmenuofficial.And go to our website www.offmenupodcast.co.uk for a list of restaurants recommended on the show.Watch Ed and James's YouTube series 'Just Puddings'. Watch here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello, listeners of the Off Menu podcast. It is Ed Gamble here from the Off Menu podcast. I have a very exciting announcement. I have written my first ever book. I am absolutely over the moon to announce this. I'm very, very proud of it. Of course, what else could I write a book about? But food. My book is all about food. My life in food. How greedy I am. What a greedy little boy I was. What a greedy adult I am. I think it's very funny. I'm very proud of it. The book is called Glutton, the multi-course life of a very greedy boy. And it's coming out this October, but it is available to pre-order now, wherever you pre-order books from. And if you like my signature, I've done some signed copies,

which are exclusively available from Waterstones. But go and pre-order your copy of Glutton, the multi-course life of a very greedy boy now. Please? Welcome to the Off Menu podcast. Just five minutes in bubbly chat creates the perfect soft-boiled conversation. Hmm. No? Er, yeah. All right, you do it, egg one. Welcome to the Off Menu podcast. Cracking stuff. Awful. Really, really bad. Really bad. Look, mine wasn't great. In terms of the intros that we've done in the past, it wasn't great. It sounded like I was trying to be poetic.

I wasn't. I was just trying to do something. But cracking stuff is really bad. It's ironically very bad stuff. Okay. Well, you don't understand it, because... I do. Cracking like an egg. You crack an egg, yeah. Right. Okay. You're halfway there. You crack an egg, and now you say cracking can mean good. Cracking stuff's also a... Yeah. Yeah. No, I know. It's a phrase, yeah.

Think about it again, then, and laugh, because that's funny. No, because it's bad. It's bad stuff. Okay. Well, you're in the wrong place, baby. It's bad. You're in the wrong place. Don't you bubber me. Welcome to the Off Menu podcast. It's Ed Gamble and James A. Kaster, with a little bit of our classic double-lap rep-artee there. James, what's his podcast about? We have a dream.

Oh, we have a dream. Right, yes. It's about Martin Luther King, our podcast. Sorry. We have a dream. I was going to say we have a special guest in a dream restaurant, and then I went to say we have a dream guest. We do have a dream guest. And then I thought to myself, yeah, we do have a dream guest, actually. You should maybe keep that in.

And then, before I get myself my brain short-circuited... Yeah. Look, I don't normally have to think of an intro, and cracking stuff really took it out of me. And I deserved it. I criticised your intro. I deserved to have it blow up in my face like this. Yeah, you did. We have a dream. We have a dream.

A dream guest comes into our dream restaurant and orders their dream meal. Consistent of their favourite ever, start a main course, dessert, side dish and drink. And today's dream is Bimini Barn Boulash. Bimini Barn Boulash. Bimini Barn Boulash is a drag queen, a recording artist, a model as well, signed to a model agency straight out of Drag Race. A force of nature.

A force of nature. James A. Caster, what a quote there for the front of Bimini's book. Bimini's got a book coming out. Very excited indeed to hear... I mean, Bimini's also a vegan, so we should get loads of vegan recommendations here. Every now and again, we have a vegan on the podcast. And, you know, hey, guys, we should get more vegans on, to be fair.

I mean, that's our saying that we're in charge of who's on the podcast. We're telling ourselves to do something that we could be doing. But here's the thing. The great Benito is a vegetarian, and he hates vegans. Yes. And so it's very hard to get vegans past him because he has such a lead us to the vegetarian flag. The amount of times we've had vegans on this podcast

and we've not been able to release the episode because every course they order, Benito comes onto the recording and he goes, have a cube of cheese, you little shit. Yeah, he tries to feed people cheese. Yeah. And milk. He knows the milk.

He's a bad little boy. And we have to apologize countless times. For this episode, we had to lock him in a cupboard. We did. And get rid of him so that he wasn't in the room. Listen, we're excited to have Bimini Bombulash in the dream restaurant. However, if she says a secret ingredient, which we have decided is something that we don't like,

we have to kick her out the dream restaurant. And this week, the secret ingredient is Gimini gon goulash. Gimini gon goulash. If Bimini Bombulash says Gimini gon goulash, Bimini Bombulash is out on her ash. Not bad. Not bad?

Actually, really good. Yeah. I could see a little bit of panic in your eyes before getting to the last line, thinking what I'm going to say. Yeah. And I'm guessing you thought of ash. It was definitely going to be out on an ash. Yeah, now dash.

I should have said dash, really. But you were like, uh-oh, it begins with an A, so I can't really make the full line work. I can't go ash, ash, ash, ash, ash. But then you went out on her ash. Yeah. It's no Eddie, Cheddy, ready for Betty or whatever it is, but it'll do for now.

Listen, that's the high point of your life. Yeah, that's true. Don't try and compare everything to your best moment ever, OK? Ready, Cheddy, you're ready for Betty. Yeah. You're never going to beat that. Oh, man. And that's fine.

That was so long ago as well, and I've achieved nothing since then. Well, you know, there's loads of geniuses like that, Ed, who, you know, early on in their career, have done something that, you know, Joe, what, if it makes you feel any better? Yeah, you've never done anything as good. Since.

But neither has any other podcaster. That's true. No one else in podcaster has said anything as good as Betty, Cheddy, and ready for Betty since you said it. I include myself in that number. Oh, yeah, me too. Bimini's book is called A Drag Queen's Guide to Life, and is available for pre-order now,

and look out for new music coming from Bimini soon. Very exciting. But for now, please join us as we hear the dream menu of... Off menu menu. Off menu menu of... Bimini, Bond, Boulash. We didn't explain what Bimini Gone Goulash is.

Oh, yes. Before we go into this, Goulash is really the secret ingredient, but we couldn't resist having a dish that rhymed with Bimini's name when we thought of Goulash. So then we went for Bimini Gone Goulash, but he doesn't say any Goulash. Do you think, are we stupid?

Are we thick idiots, Jones? Yeah. Sometimes I think we're absolute thick idiots, aren't we? Listen, if anyone has listened to this podcast, and they've never heard the off menu podcast before, and they're a big fan of Bimini's, and they've never listened to her, and then they hear this intro,

they're going to think, well, this will be the only episode of this podcast we have to listen to, because these two are absolutely stupid. They've messed up every single job they had to do in this intro, and they've taken it in turns to mess it up as well. It started badly.

The guy who started it was rightly told off by the other guy, who then tried to prove his point by being worse. Yeah. And then that theme continued for the whole thing. At one point, they said one of the best things that either of them have ever said is Betty Chetty and Betty for Betty.

If that's the highlight of this podcast, I'm not going back and re-listening to the whole thing. And then they led into the podcast, the main body of it, and then they remembered there was something they forgot to do, and then they went back and did it, and now they're completely second-guessing everything

they've said to Betty. And all they tuned in for was to listen to Bimini on a podcast, and it's taking ages to get to Bimini, because they're still talking shit about Gimini gong gulash, which isn't even a thing. Which no one cared about the first time.

Anyway, here we go then, podcast. Podcast. Bimini gong gulash, welcome to the Dream Restaurant. All right, guys. Thank you for having me. Welcome, Bimini gong gulash, to the Dream Restaurant.

We've been expecting you for some time. That was James as the genie waiter, making his fantastic appearance. Unfortunately, because of some internet issues, we just let the listener know we can't see each other today. We can only hear each other. So you're just going to have to imagine

what James looks like as a genie, because he's properly dressed up for you and everything. Yes. Oh, well, I'm just going to miss it. Yeah, we've got some internet issues going over in northeast London. So it's out of my hands. What are you imagining my genie outfit

to look like, Bimini? I hope you've got some shoes on that have got those little kind of curls up at the end, like a really long toenail. Yes. And it's covered in bejewels and bejazzards. That's what I'm picturing. I'm also picturing something like

lovely, kind of oversized bejazzles, harem pants, topless, but with some covered in chains and jewels. That's exactly what I'm wearing. Yeah. Good. Apart from the bells on the nipples, you got everything.

The little nipple bells are quite prominent. Yes. The eyes of the nipples of the face. Yeah. Exactly. There we go. It's high time someone said it. The eyes are the nipples.

What? Exactly. Exactly. You much of a food fan, Bimini? Yeah. No, I am very much. Too much of a food fan sometimes, but I'm also vegan.

We don't have enough vegans on the podcast, so we're very excited to have you on. It was just like we got to two minutes or something of talking and I hadn't told you I was vegan yet. And it was, I've been like itching. It's been difficult keeping it in. To be fair, I think a lot of vegans worry about that

and they always have to mention that, oh, I'm always banging on about being vegan because they're worried that's what everyone else is thinking. But this is a food podcast, so it would be weird if you didn't mention it. It's part of the manifesto. Yeah. It's part of what we signed up to at the beginning.

I've got to ask you this. Go on. Very important question. You're asked all vegans. Who are the top three best vegans? Oh, obviously me at number one. I think Pamela Anderson can get to close. She can, she just misses out on the title

as the number one vegan. And I think as well, Lewis Hamilton's doing some good stuff with their platform in terms of veganism. So I think Lewis Hamilton can have a bronze medal. Lovely. I had absolutely no idea that Lewis Hamilton was vegan.

I don't know why I associate driving fast with meat eating. He's got Ham in his name. He's got Ham in his name. He's breaking boundaries. He's pushing it. He's pushing it. He's not what you'd expect.

And I think it's really cool. Do you think he could get to the top spot if he changed his name so it didn't have Ham in it anymore? Maybe if it was Lewis V. Hamilton. Lewis V. Hamilton.

Yeah, V. Hamilton. Also, would you like to go and see that musical, Bimini? Would you go and see V. Hamilton? Maybe. I'm not that big on musicals.

The only musical I really like is Hedwig and the Angry Inch. And I think that's quite a cool musical. And obviously Rocky Horror Picture Show, that's a good one. But in terms of musicals, they're not really my cup of tea. Was that hard in Drag Race then

because there's always musical challenges and stuff, aren't there? Yeah, well, we did the musical challenge. And obviously, for anyone that did watch it, you'll know that my talents weren't in the vocals, but it was more the punk energy. Attitude. Yeah, it's the attitude.

And that's important as well when you're a musician. Like, it's not all about having the perfect vocal. You've got to bring the energy. You've got to bring the attitude. What punk's about? That's my attitude to stand-up comedy as well. No, I'm not funny, but I'm quite loud.

Yes. I mean, we had to do a stand-up comedy challenge with an empty room, with no audience. Yeah. So that was difficult. Well, that's like Hedwig's entire head. Hedwig run. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. So we always start with still or sparkling water. Always sparkling. Because I think it just adds that level of glamour to a glass of water that you need at all times. And I actually carry around my own metallic straw. So if the restaurant doesn't have a metal straw,

I can pop it in me sparkling water at all times. I love this. Now, did this straw, is it just a standard, just metal tube? Chrome. Yeah, silver. This one's silver I use at the minute, but I do chop and change between gold or pink. It really just depends on the day.

Now, is that a pink straw or is it like a rose gold straw? Oh, never rose gold. Never rose gold. How dare you do that? Never rose gold. No. Never rose gold. No, I'm not into that like pinky dust.

No. I like dusty pink, but not a rose gold. Not for me, that one. Bimini, I've got news for you. I'm currently talking to you on a rose gold laptop. Do you know what? So am I. I've just realized my new laptop is rose gold.

What a hypocrite. Isn't it nice in this day and age that people can carry around metallic straws for sustainably drinking sparkling water? Whereas if you saw someone in the 70s with a metallic straw, we all knew what that was for. Well, it has multi-users. So I think that's what we need with sustainability. We can't just have one product that does one thing.

You need them to have various reasons for existing now. So you're sparkling water with your own metallic straw that you've bought along yourself as well. Can I have a slice of lime? Oh, absolutely. And ice. Is it always lime over lemon for you, Bimini? It's always lime over lime.

Oh, I said lime. That was a Freudian slip. Always lime over lime. The straw comes out again. It's always lime over lemon for me, I would say. Actually, no, that's a lie. Lemon first thing in the morning, but if I'm at a restaurant,

I like to have lime in my sparkling water, because I feel like it's a bit edgier than a lemon. Yeah. I feel like limes have got a bit cooler, aren't they, limes? A bit more punk. Yeah. A bit more punk. Yeah, they've got an attitude.

I'm intrigued with this lemon in the morning, lime in the evening thing. At what time of day does it switch over from lemon to lime? It depends on what I've been up to, if I'm honest, but I do think I'm one for a fad. So if someone tells me I have to drink a glass of lemon water at room temperature first thing in the morning, I'll do it every single day.

If they tell me it's good for me, that's the kind of person I am, I think. I would say when it starts to get a bit darker, I think when it gets a bit darker, that's when you go for the lime. Yeah, because then, who's to know, you know? It's darker at that point. Is it a lemon?

Is it a lime? People can't call you out. Is it an orange? Is it an orange? Like, what is it? Are you having an apparel spritz, or are you having a sparkling water? Like, who knows at this point?

That's weird, isn't it, about that? Why is it the lemon and the lime that people are so into when it comes to water? Because if someone brought you a glass of water, it has a lemon or lime in it, you're not going to bat an eyelid, right? But if they brought you a big slice of orange in your glass of water, you're going to complain.

You might complain, or you might think they're being really cool or edgy, but I think it really comes down to, like, I'm naturally ginger, and I think people are just offended by orange and, like, that tone and that shade. I think people just have a fixation with it, so I would say it's, I think, justice for orange.

It's prejudice. People don't want the orange in the water because of their own prejudice against gingerhead people. Yeah, quote me on that. Or a carrot. That's why people don't want a big carrot sticking out their water, either. Yeah.

I've got called carrot top loads, so I think that is, I think that is. Although I had a spiced carrot, I know this is off topic, but I had a spiced carrot in Margate this weekend, and it was the best carrot I've ever had in my entire life. I don't think this is off topic. I've loved it.

Not off topic at all. This is bang on topic, Bimini. Take us through the spiced carrot. It also had this kind of, like, yoghurt pesto base, and it was, like, soft in the middle, but a bit hard on the outside, and it was covered in, like, all of different, like, cinnamon and cumin spices,

and it was just cooked to perfection, and we were all just, like, this is the best carrot I've ever had, and it was a whole carrot as well, so it was, like, a big old carrot. They hadn't tried to chop it up or anything. It was just mind-blowing. Honestly, I can't remember the restaurant.

I can't remember where it was. It was on a rooftop in Margate, and they've just opened up the place. It was bloody freezing, but the carrot was gorgeous. Chef's kiss. Sounds great. That's what's good.

It's really good, just, like, vegan cooking happening at the moment, where chefs, like, treat the vegetables, like, whole vegetables almost as if they're meat, and, like, base them and, you know, cook them in amazing spices and stuff, and I myself had a big roast cauliflower the other day, Bimini. I love cauliflower.

It's so versatile. Oh, man. It is good. Cauliflower chicken. You can make vegan cauliflower wings. Buffalo wings. Oh, they are incredible. They're one of my favorite, like, little starter things

to make, but, um, there's... I think that's... I think you're true. Like, I think we've become accustomed to, like, hundreds of years of cooking, very meat-based, especially here in Britain. We're very, like, where it's, like, meat in two veg. I think people are trying. People are being more experimental with carrots,

and I was... I just couldn't believe that the carrot had this injustice its entire life, and it could taste that good. Would you like the spiced carrot that you had on the rooftop as an amuse-bouche for this meal? Yeah. Why not? Because, do you know what?

I feel bad for my lovely mum, who is incredible, but she can't make a carrot. It's always either too hard, or just, like, it's basically raw, and this carrot was, like... It was... There was love in this carrot. It was... I can't stop thinking about it.

I'm watching, uh, Walking Dead at the minute, and there's a scene in that that I saw the other day when one of the characters says to the other one, there's three pots of boiling water. In one of them, I put a carrot. In the other one, I put an egg. In the third one, I put coffee grounds. The carrot went in hard and came out soft.

The egg went in soft and came out hard. The coffee grounds changed the water itself. So what does that mean, James? Not really keeping up with Walking Dead very well. It's confusing. A lot of it is, like, going over my head, but I thought it sounded pretty profound when they said that. I love that you're clearly not watching any of this stuff with zombies.

You're, like, zoning out and looking at your phone and stuff, and the only time you've concentrated is, sort of, quite a bullshit prof about carrots. Well, I'm used to listening about food all the time now. Could've faced this podcast whenever anyone mentions food. Maybe it's... You're not meant to judge something by its cover because you don't know how it's going to turn out.

Maybe that's what that means. That's good. I think so. Like, I think it's quite profound, actually. It felt pretty profound at the time, Bimini. Thank you. Pop it up, it's all bread! Oh. Pop it up, it's all bread! Bimini bombulash!

Let's go with bread. I can tell you know your food. You think about this a lot. What sort of bread are we going with? Do you have a specific type of bread? Do you have bread from a certain place that you love the most? Yeah, so, see, the thing is, right, I think, ultimately, you can try all these different types of bread, and some of them are gorgeous.

Shout out to the expensive sourdough that I've eaten in Dulston. But, I will say, I don't know if you can be a white crusty roll. Yeah. A white crusty roll that crumbles when you eat it. There was a shop that I remember growing up as a kid, and I think this is why I've got this, like, this memory of it, that I used to go every Saturday to my auntie's house, and it was just like a little corner shop,

but they made this, like, fresh bread in the mornings, and we would get, like, these crusty rolls, just with butter as well, like, not even with anything inside, just, like, the crusty roll warm with butter. And it's, I honestly don't think you can beat that. Yeah. I mean, you've convinced me. I've just, I went somewhere else where you were describing that warm crusty roll there. That sounds absolutely amazing.

Yeah, it's like, it's a bit basic, but I do often, as well, if you have a soup and you're popping a white crusty roll with a bit of butter on it in your soup, you can't beat that. I mean, that's just, like, mouth-watering stuff right there. And I think, I think a white crusty roll is underrated. I think probably a lot of people will try and go really fancy with, like, to tell you about the breads, and I have had many a bread in my time,

but I will say, I just don't think you can beat it. What kind of butter are you having on it? Salted? Unsalted? Well, vegan butter, obviously. And also, there's a, there's a, Sainsbury's doing this really banging vegan butter now, and it comes in, like, a slab of butter, and it's hard, like, how butter would be,

and it tastes, and it spreads just like it. It's like the closest, closest I've had to kind of that, like, lurp hack experience that I grew up with. So I think, yeah, it was obviously being the vegan butter. Salted always, because I put salt on everything. Here's an important question. Go on. Do you bake?

I have baked in my time, some really terrible attempts, but, yeah, I have baked. I have a business proposition for you, Bimini. Would you like to open a bakery with me called Bakery Bun Bulash? Bakery Bun Bulash, or Bimini, run by Bimini Bun Bakery. Yeah, I'm up for that. Let's do it. Yeah. I think we'll be a queue out the door.

I think we'd sell a lot of crusty white rolls. Yeah, crusty white rolls. We need to, that needs to be, like, the main, the main source of the, the hype that we build around it, because I think everyone's trying, everyone goes too fancy now. I think we just need to bring back a bit of simplicity. Yeah. I say that while I'm, like, in this white faux fur coat,

and, like, not really simple, but, yeah. I say we only serve the crusty white rolls, because I personally, I don't know what you think about this, I like the places that just do a limited menu. Now, the less stuff on the menu, the better. Yeah, because you know it's good. You know it's good. Yeah, and, like, you can, you can maybe switch it up in a few months time

if you fancy it, but ultimately, people come for the food that they know they're going to love. That's why I go back to some of the restaurants I go to, is because I know that I'm going to get good stuff. I like places that have their, like, main things on a menu, and then maybe sometimes I'll switch a few dishes around, but, like, ultimately, if I'm going back for years, I want to be having the same stuff,

because food brings nostalgia. Exactly. It's like you're saying about the buns. Remind you of your auntie's house and stuff. And these are the buns that you can serve at the Bimini Bun Bakery. I'm thinking shelves of those, and you're wearing the white faux fur coat as well to serve them. Yeah.

So it's white rolls, white walls, white coat. And I'm actually wearing a bra and panty two piece made out of strictly white crusty rolls. Perfect. What would you like James to wear? Because, obviously, he's going to be there helping out. Yep. Is he going to be dressed as the genie,

or does he need something else to fit in more? Well, we'll see. Do you know what? I think, James, I think you dress however the film makes you feel comfortable. If you want to be the genie, you can be the genie. You can be the genie of your own life. I feel like if we're working at the bakery together

and you've got your outfit on that you just described, I'm going to feel a little bit out of place if I'm not wearing the same thing. So if that's the uniform. OK. Well, we'll make you like either a thong out of the white crusty roll or like kind of a borat manchini

but out of white crusty rolls. Like that kind of vibe. Yes. How's a thong going to work made of the white crusty roll? Would it have to be like uncooked dough for the bit of the back? I do love uncooked dough. Yeah.

I do. I feel like, sometimes I feel like uncooked dough is better than the actual product at the end. Is that weird? Well, I get it with cookies. You know, there's a big thing about cookie dough, of course, like raw cookie dough. Yeah.

It hasn't quite stretched a bread yet. Yeah. I feel like I'm quite weird. I quite like making bread when we use like the water and the flour. I quite like just eating that raw. Is that weird? I've not heard of it before.

It's not good for your stomach. It's not good for your stomach. But it's just, I don't know what it is. I could probably survive for a bit on just water and flour. Would you want that as your bread course? No, white crusty roll. Let's go. It's cooked.

It's baked. Yeah. How about this? Before we bring you the bread course, James, as the genie waiter, will bring over the dough that we're about to bake the rolls out of. And you can give the dough a little taste just to make sure it's up to scratch

and then we'll whisk it away and bake it for you. How does that sound? That would be great. And do you know what? There's always off-cuts of dough that gets like put in a ball or thrown away. So I will happily eat that. By all means,

pop into the kitchen and eat out the bin. Yeah. I'm actually starving right now and I'm trying to do this thing, this like crazy thing where you try to cut down on your bread intake and this conversation is not doing me any good. Oh, so this will be a nightmare for you then.

Yeah. Are you hallucinating? I'm not hallucinating yet, but I think if we go further on, I just love it and I eat it too much. There can be days where I just, all I'm eating is bread and I'm like,

I need to eat something else because I've just literally been eating like an entire loaf or like a whole baguette with like nothing else. Like all of my favourite foods are bread based. So we might see the appearance

of more bread based things on the menu as we move forward then. I think so. I was going to try and avoid it, but ultimately like my favourite food is pizza. So that's like, it's hard to avoid when it's bread based. Yeah.

It's funny, it's funny that we're doing this because I remember like last summer when we were in lockdown, the first lockdown, we were all sat in the garden meeting my housemates and we had this conversation

from start to finish about like, because obviously we'd listened to the podcast. So we all went round and was like really talking about, and we were like really getting into it. Like you can't have that as your star. I was like, no way. What was the biggest controversy?

Someone said, Poppedoms over bread. I think we were all like, really Poppedoms over bread? Like we were all shocked, but I mean, I would have Poppedoms. I feel like if I was,

if definitely if I was having like an Indian dish or like something maybe with like East Asian or like Southeast Asian, but I think ultimately bread for just everyday use really. It's your fave and you're like in raw. No one's eating raw Poppedoms.

No. Well, could you do that? Actually to be fair, no one besides you was eating raw bread, to be honest. But like still. Did you hear how excited Bimini got even the suggestion of raw Poppedoms?

Straight away. I know. I kind of like, it is pretty good. Yeah, I was like, well, I'll give it a go. So let's move on to your starter. The meal proper begins.

What's your dream starter Bimini? So I'm going to go with a soup, but not any kind of soup because obviously it goes great with the bread. But I will go with leaking potato soup and it is only because it was one of the only things that my mum could cook really, really well.

And do you want it cooked by your mum? I think so, yeah, because she got this like really good texture with it and it was like kind of really like, she like blend it all and it was, it was really kind of creamy and probably really unhealthy. But I remember having it as a kid

and the thing that like, it makes me remember is because my mum would always cook, like when she could, but I remember, I remember started cooking at about 14 because I was like, I want to start cooking for myself

because I don't really like this that much. It's a bit bland. Sorry mum, when you listen to this, I love you, but her leaking potato soup is her stand out and I think she used to live in the Bahamas when she was younger

and all of the locals used to call it heather soup, her name's Heather, so you'd call it heather soup because it was like the only thing that she could cook. So she would like make it for everyone and just have this like abundance of heather soup to everyone and it was just leaking potato soup,

but it's got, it's got memories, it's got nostalgia for me. The thing is, why would you learn how to cook anything else if you do a dish that everyone names after you? Sure. I don't know exactly

and they all thought it was like the most mind-blowing thing that they'd eaten and it was literally just leaking potatoes, but when my mum and dad, when they moved to the Bahamas, when they were younger, I think my mum said

like they literally didn't cook for like the first six months, just like eight hours, which is very luxurious. Yeah. They didn't buy cutlery for six months because they would just go for dinner all the time, I mean, I would love to do that.

I think I'd have a fork for an emergency. Even if I knew I was going to eat out for six months, I'd definitely keep maybe one set just in case. Yeah. I mean, the fork could have come in handy because they did get held at gunpoint once, so they could have had that fork to help them. Get me all your soup.

Yeah. Yeah. That's what it was. They were trying to get the heather soup. They wanted the recipe for the leak and the potato. But then if I, if I was given the option of any of the cutleries to protect myself against someone with a gun,

I'd probably plump for the knife. Yeah. It depends on, not a butter knife, they don't get too much. No. That's true. Think it through. All right, fork then.

Actually, I tell you what, I'd just get a gun and I'd, if I had to eat soup, I'd eat it with the gun. Yeah. And I think gun is technically cutlery anyway. Yeah. That's true.

Yeah. I mean, like we said earlier, sustainability has got to have more than one use now. Exactly. Yeah. Use the barrel as a straw. Yeah. Why not?

Here's my main question about heather soup. Yeah. How much soup was your mother making? Your parents had moved to the Bahamas, and your mother's made so much soup that the locals are calling it heather soup. I think that's amazing. Yeah.

I mean, she's making it for everyone. She must have been having a lot of people over to have heather soup, and then going, you're going to have to eat this with your hands. We haven't got any cutlery. Well, I remember when I was younger, going to my friend's house with my mum,

and I think this is like, so we're from like a Scottish family, and Scottish, Scotland, they like their meat in two veg, so it's also not, yeah, my mum's only used to a certain thing,

but I remember her coming to, we went to my friend's mum's house, and she'd made this, like, tomato and mozzarella salad, and I remember my mum being like, oh, this is lovely, what's in this? And she was like,

mozzarella and tomatoes, who essentially just lost it. My poor mum bled, so she was like, oh, this is amazing, and then she like made it, like, for her, like, next barbecue,

and she was like, oh, she liked my salad, the tomato and mozzarella. I was like, oh, yeah, it's really good. But now, I'm older, I'm like,

oh, it was just tomato and mozzarella, it wasn't anything ground breaking. You got your metal straw, and you drank your water out of it. Are you going to pop that in the soup? The straw? Have you ever had soup for a straw? Do you think I'm an animal?

I would eat the soup with my hands! Of course I wouldn't use the straw! No, I have, no, I will say, I have, it depends on the bowl as well, actually, because that can, sometimes the bowls can be too deep,

you can't really give it a lick, but sometimes when the soup's so good, you've got to lick that bowl. It's the same with food. Me and my boyfriend, I don't, like, I'll lick the bowl, I don't care, I don't think, like,

if it's just, I'm not doing it in a restaurant, maybe, but I would do it at home. I unfortunately do that sort of thing in restaurants all the time, and I'm roundly told off for it by my fiance on every occasion, but I know that by the time

I'm halfway through licking the plate, she can't do anything about it, so I just do it, I just do it again. Well, exactly. And it's a compliment to the chef! The real compliment to the chef is to just lick a message into it.

So I just lick good food, so it says that, and then it goes back, and the chef knows what a compliment is. Yeah, once when I was eating, I was at the breakfast club, and a man was watching me eat quite intensely, and he sat quite close to me,

and looking at me, and he was looking at my food. Was it erotic? No, I don't think it was erotic, I think he was just fascinated by me. Not in a sexual way, I think I just, maybe I was just, you know,

I was eating quite voraciously, and he was staring at me, and he wouldn't stop staring at me, even though I made it quite clear that I knew he was looking at me, so I made an arrow out of the bacon and wrote idiot in beans. What?

Pointing towards him, because he was looking at the plate so much, so I made an arrow out of the bacon and wrote idiot in the beans. I live for that, like, passive-aggressive pettiness, that's so good. Sorry, Ed,

did you line up each individual baked bean so it said idiot, or did you, like, with your finger in the beans? I tried to for a bit, but then some of it was in sauce, so some of it I just had sort of shaped the sauce,

but to be honest, once it got to IDI, I think he knew exactly what was happening. Well, maybe that's why he was staring. It was like, this person's making words out of beans. What are they doing? Yeah.

But the beans, the beans word was a reaction to what he was doing, so, you know, and he didn't look away after that, but, yeah, that's the only time I've written a message in food.

Can I ask you what a question? Yes, please. Do you count how many chews of your food you do? I personally do not, Edward. I have done in the past,

but only immediately after I'm told that I should be chewing my food more, because how many is it supposed to be, Bimini? There's, like, a rule, isn't there? 28. Yeah, it's crazy. I've tried.

It's crazy. I've tried. I'm like, because I'm a very quick eater, and I've got it from my dad, I think. Like, growing up, they call me, like, the human dustbin,

because I would just literally eat, but I would not chew my food, and I think, yeah, sometimes I've had in the past issues with my bowels, and perhaps that's why. Well, in your defence, you were mainly eating soup growing up,

so how many chews you meant to do with that? You know what I mean? Exactly. It's already chewed up for you. Yeah. Is that how your mum made it? I think it's a tricky one.

I do want to eat slower and enjoy my food more, but I actually think I'm eating so quickly because I am enjoying my food. Yeah. Well, I'm definitely like you. I eat really fast.

Yeah. And sometimes I swallow something and think, well, that wasn't ready to be swallowed. Yeah. That cut my throat. Yeah. Oh, dear.

Oh, no. Why would I do that? So excited to get the next bite. I think it's actually the same thing. I should have enjoyed that one that was already in my mouth. Sometimes having to swallow a really big bit of food

where you're like, you shouldn't have to go for three gulps or that's going down. I feel like an anaconda. I know. Yeah. I do need to be more conscious of it, I think.

Well, if you want, Bimini, we can set up a counter in front of you. I've got like a digital kind of like clock that counts just choose for you as you're eating so that you know that you've done enough

choose for every, every course. I think we'll try and go with half of 28 because I have tried to do 28 and it's literally gone by the time I get to 28. So I don't think

I've ever got to 28 before. So I think, yeah, we'll try and meet in the middle of 14. I'll settle for that. Now, we think we already know what your main course is going to be.

You've told us your favourite food, but we don't know the details. Are we, are we looking at trip to pizza town? So I wasn't going to, I was going to go with an Asian inspired dish,

but my heart of hearts is saying pizza. And my, so my boyfriend is Italian. That's one of the reasons I'm with him. He's going to say

he's great at it. He's going to say he's great at it. He's going to say he's great at it. He's going to say he's great at it. He's going to say

he's great at Italian food. One of the many reasons that that does help pasta is, pasta is something that I love to have as well. A lot of carbs. My diet is very carb heavy.

I do realise that. But Stefano, he makes great Italian food. We always go for purezza, which is a restaurant in Camden. They've got one in Brighton as well.

Don't know if you've heard of it. It's all vegan pizza. And it is the best pizza you will ever eat. I'm not even, I'm not even like being vegan and bias here. It won awards.

It beat the dairy and meat awards for like pizza of the year, like three years in a row. It's so good. And they make all of their own vegan cheeses

in-house. It's all nut-based. Not all nut-based. Some of it's different. And they do like hemp bases. And like, they're really experimental with it.

And it's really, really banging. They do this one in particular called Parmigiano Party, which is kind of pork. It's like vegan pork stuff. And it is just so good. It's like literally what we'll get at the entire

every time we go there. The Parmigiano Party. And the thing is that Stefano being Italian and vegan, I think like his family were more shocked that he was vegan

than he was gay. When he came out. Like they were, they were like, what? He didn't hit them with that double whammy at the same time, did he?

Not at the same time. No, I think the gay was a bit before and then it was a vegan. But the vegan was the one that they had to get most accustomed to. Oh God.

Have you taken his family to Purexer? Do you think they could handle that? I think they could handle it. They haven't been to Purexer. No. I've taken my, my family to Purexer

and my mum, like my granddad didn't come. I remember, I remember giving my granddad a vegan burger. He's like 81 and Scottish, like old, he's old school.

And I remember giving him this vegan burger and he ate it and he was like, that was lovely. It was really tasty. And I was like, oh, that was vegan.

It was like, oh yeah, I could tell that. He's just saying that. But yeah, my mum loved to Purexer. Like my mum loved the pizza and she was like, she couldn't believe it was all vegan.

Can't even ever heard of this place. I really want to go there now. They also do dough balls as well. I was going to say, because I know you love your dough. What are their dough balls like? Raw. The dough balls,

they have this, well no, but they are cooked, but they also have this vegan cheese that oozes out of it. It's melted. Like they're vegan cheese. They should like bottle that stuff up

and sell that in supermarkets because it's the best, I don't want to swear, but people go quite nasty on vegan cheeses, whereas this stuff is like, otherworldly. It's literally like,

all made in, it's just so tasty. But we go to Purexer probably once a month, when it was open. We were going that often. They knew us by name there. And they also do a dessert,

which we've never had, just purely because we always have too much bread. But it's an Oreo pizza dessert, which is more bread. And we always get to the point where we outbread ourselves. So we can't have it.

Sold. Whenever I see that on a menu, a pizza place, where they do a dessert pizza as well, I think who is getting to that point where they order a dessert pizza? And obviously it's James A. Kaster, but... Yeah.

And I'm hoping that an Oreo dessert pizza is a base, then loads of Oreos, then another base on top, like a big Oreo. Well, yeah, I've not had it yet, so I can't confirm or deny.

But I'm sure it's banging. I was assuming it was like a black base, like somehow they got the crumb into the dough, and then spread the sort of creamy Oreo stuff on top. I'd love it. Oh, fold it over like a calzone.

I don't think... It's calzone, yeah, calzone. Yeah. Were you questioning the pronunciation there, Bimini, whether it's calzone or calzone? No, I wasn't, because I'm... My boyfriend's Italian,

and I say everything, like, with the most London accent. So I'll be like... Bambino, or like... Parmigiano party, like, I'm sure that's got... That says it in a different Italian way.

Or like, yeah, just like, it's always... Like, Stefano as well. It's always like Stefano. I suppose family wouldn't say like that, but like, it's just the London twang. I'm not coming for your pronunciation, don't worry.

He's got... He's very good at it, like, he's lived here for... Since 2011. And I must say, his grammar sometimes is probably better than mine,

and it's his second language. And I'm like, he pulls me up on stuff, and I'm like, excuse me. But... I'm not going to pull you up in your Italian, because I don't know it.

But no, he's very smart, and I respect that. But like, yeah, he doesn't try and do my accent. You glance over at the specials board whenever you go into this pizza place. I think that's the most that I'll look at specials boards.

I'm quite excited when going to pizza places about the specials board. I'd say anywhere else, I'm mainly ordering off the menu. Whenever I go to a pizza place, I'm probably most likely to go for a special. That's interesting. No, they do have

cool special cocktails and special pizzas, like pizza the month, which we will get sometimes, actually. We'll get them on the specials board. A lot of the times as well, because it is a pizza place. They do do other stuff other than pizza,

like pasta and some things, which I love as well, but I do think if you go into a pizza place, get a bloody pizza. Gotta get the pizza. Anyone who orders pasta at a pizza place winds me up so much. I'm not joking.

I get so wound up. Sometimes you'd say to people, this is a great pizza place. You've got to come in and have a pizza there, and you bring them, and then they look at the menu and go, I always have a spaghetti bolognese.

And I think, well, it's a nice friendship while it lasted. It's so rude. It feels like a massive sub-tweet on me, James, from when we went to Roberta's in New York, and I got the Caccio Pepe. Well, we all got that because Todd Barry had chosen it

on his dream menu, and we all wanted to have it. No, but we went the first time. I got pasta. I didn't get a pizza. I got pasta. Yes. Well, sadly, Ed,

I can't sever my relationship with you. We do a podcast together. I had to just grin and bear it whenever you make a bad choice at a restaurant. It's just an act of defiance that we could just do without. Yeah. What can I say?

Bimini, you think you're punk, right? You go into the pizza restaurant, and you're ordering a pizza like the rest of chumps. I'm in there fucking the system and ordering a pasta. Get a Caccio Pepe. Look, a true punk rocker. Caccio Pepe.

Flip the double bird and walk out. You know what? Fair enough. I'm pretty sure, Bimini. It's master window. On that day, Ed got a Caccio Pepe and a pizza. I'm pretty sure you didn't just get... I mean, I'm not saying...

I'm not saying people like my good friend Ed Gamble, who gets a pasta as his side dish about order. I'm saying it's more the people who only get a pasta. But especially if it's a spaghetti bolognese, I'll get really wound up about it. I mean, really, we should move on to the side, but I'm really getting into this pizza chat.

Bimini, have you ever had pasta on a pizza before? No, I haven't, actually. But when I make pasta, I put potato in pasta, which some people find quite controversial, but I think that's a trick that people are missing. Honestly, like, pasta with potato. Anything with pesto base, it's just carbon carb. It's just brilliant.

What sort of potatoes are you putting in? Are you, like, chopping up boiled potatoes, roast potatoes? What's going in there? Maris Piper. We'll get Maris Piper, cut them up, boil them with the pasta, but you boil the potatoes first for a bit and then add the pasta.

Make sure it's in a big pan, plenty of water so the pasta doesn't get stressed because Stefano says that is a thing and he is Italian, so I respect that. And then you make your sauce and your base, whatever it is, and it's just great. People now have pasta with potato, and I'm pretty sure we invented it.

Maybe we didn't. I would say the thing that's really going to stress a bit of pasta out is if it's bubbling away in the pot and then a potato comes in for a swim. Well, no, because the potato's already in there, so actually the pasta is stressing out the potato. It's really true. Because the potato needs longer time than the pasta,

but you do need a big pan because I've cooked many a pasta in my time where the pan has been too small and Stefano gets very angry at me for stressing out the pasta. Stressing out the pasta. Yeah. How would Stefano feel about this?

I got an arancini the other day, a big old arancini ball, and I got a... How big? It was about a cricket ball size. Okay. And there's loads of different ones, and I asked the spaghetti carbonara one, and I bit into it, and it just was

a rolled up spaghetti carbonara covered in breadcrumbs, so I bit into it, and it just, like, blossomed, and it was just all spaghetti carbonara inside. Like, long strands of spaghetti? Just a full spaghetti carbonara in a ball. It was delicious. Oh, my God.

Well, I bet that sounds delicious, but that doesn't sound like what you wanted. Well, it was what I didn't know I wanted. Okay. Well, that school was good. Sometimes the universe answers us in many ways, and maybe that was what the universe was giving you that day.

Yeah, I think so. I don't know if Stefano would approve of it, though. I'll ask Stefano. I think sometimes people do try to be experimental with the Italian cuisine, and I do think it's so successful and so delicious for a reason that you don't have to try

to make it something that it isn't. Like, the supermarket Iceland would famously do a chicken tikka lasagna. God, no. No. No. I just think sometimes you've just got to leave it. I think that's the line, isn't it?

Just leave it, Iceland. We come to your side dish. Let's go with Cajun. Oh, my God. I'm about to contradict myself again, but Cajun lasagna. Cajun salted fries. That's not too bad.

That's not too far, is it? That's not too light. No. Cajun, chicken tikka lasagna. That's just like Cajun salted fries. So good, but cooked to perfection, really crunchy. Tell me, Bimini, because the involvement of Cajun spicing in fries

now makes me think, what shape are these fries? Are we curling them up? I'm trying to think if I want anything else on them. I want them to be quite bitty. Got to be crispy. I think they've got to be... Do you know what they are?

They're just a bit smaller than your average chip shop chip, but they're cooked crunchier. There's actually a chip shop, because I was just in Margot, so this is just fresh in my memory. They have a chip shop there, which was really tasty,

and they've got it right. But that kind of level of chip that's cooked soft in the middle, but really crispy on the outside, not burnt, no. It's not charred. You want it to be just cooked just before charring.

Charring. Charring. Is it charring? I would say charring, personally. But you can say charring. Yeah, because charring's lovely. Charring sounds nicer, actually. Yeah, okay, let's change that in the dictionary.

That, just before it's not burnt, and then it's covered in, yeah, Cajun, Cajun Assaulted, and just super delicious. And I do think you do need a side of Garlic Vegan Mayo just to dip in.

Or Sriracha as well, to add a bit more spice, because I do like spice. We'll give you two dips. Okay, that's lovely. Thank you. I would say Vegan Garlic Mayo

is one of the things that is absolutely indistinguishable from non-vegan. Yeah. If you get a vegan Garlic Mayo, it's exactly the same as a non-vegan Garlic Mayo. It's absolutely delicious.

Well, Mayo's really stepped it up over the last couple of years. I went vegan in 2015, and there was fuck all, really, to eat. So that's what I guess the love of bread came from. But it's evolved over the years, which I'm very grateful for.

And we now have our own section in supermarkets. Progression is happening. People are noticing us. There's a bit more respect, not a lot, but a bit of progression with the Mayo.

I'm here for that. Yeah. There is one person who can tell the difference between Vegan Garlic Mayo and Normal Garlic Mayo, though. And that is your grandfather. Oh, yeah, absolutely.

Only if you told him afterwards, though. Only if you told him afterwards. Exactly. This is the thing. I don't... It's not like spiking my family. I don't spike them. But one of my pet peeves

about cooking or making food for people that are non-vegans that are my friends, that they say the phrase, this is good for vegan. And I'm like, no, it's just good. That's not good for vegan. It's just good food.

It really grinds my gears, that one. That'd be a good TV show just called Good for Vegan. And someone hosts it and people don't know if the food is vegan or not. They have to eat it and say what they think

and make the guess. You've just come up with Channel 4's new reality competition show. Yeah. Yeah. I think you'd be a good host for it, Bimini. Yeah, you'd be great at that, Bimini. Well, let's do it.

I think you need to pitch it because that's actually a really good idea. And I feel like people are going to listen to this podcast and then jump in it. So I think you need to get in there quickly. Yeah, there's a few ideas we've come up with on this podcast, actually, that I think we need to get in there quickly

and do this. And Benito stops us from doing it. And then I know other people are going to make a lot of money from it. What other ideas are there, James, that we've come up with on this podcast? Well, we've come up with loads of ideas, haven't we? Yeah.

I'm just trying to think now. Going laying on a conveyor belt and going for the glaze curtain at a donut shop. Yeah. Is that something that you'd be interested in, Bimini? If we make a show where we lay down celebrities on a conveyor belt and put them through a glaze curtain at a donut shop, if it was vegan glaze?

If it was vegan glaze, and also I got creative control over the outfit. Yes. And also, as it goes back round, somehow I'm in a new look every time it goes round. But it just keeps going. Like, it's just a different look. It's like an actual concept.

It's like an art show. It's like a fashion show. It's like a Mugler fashion show, but actually in a glazed kitchen. Brilliant. There we go. Art fashion food. You have actually just refined that idea to something good.

Thank you, Bimini. Your drink. What is your dream drink for this meal? I am going to go with a chilli salted margarita. A picante? Would we call it a picante? Have you had it called that before? I have not,

but I have had it called margarita with chilli and salt all around that rim. But we can call it picante. No, yours describes it way better. Yours is a tomato mozzarella salad style thing. I know exactly what it is now. I've just had it called picante before with a half a chilli stuck in the top of it as well.

Oh, OK. OK. That could be cool. I think it's got to be frozen, though. Yes. The margarita's frozen. Oh, OK. Yeah.

Now we're talking. This is my mum to frozen margaritas recently. She never had them before. Made sure she ordered one. Changed her life. Was she hyper? She was just saying how delicious it was all the time. I kept on remarking on how delicious it was.

They are really good as a cocktail. It's a really great blend of lime. Yeah. See? Lime. There you go. The edginess of the lime. The tequila.

Tequila being like that, like the only alcoholic drink that's an upper, which I think is important sometimes if you don't want to go down with spiral with gin, which I've done many times. So I think margarita is the way forward. Talk about your journey to this particular type of margarita. What other margaritas did you visit along the way

that weren't quite as good, but that led you to this point? So me and my housemates, we do love a margarita. It reminds me of our summer, kind of the lockdown last year when we were locked down together. We had a garden.

We moved house recently. We don't have a garden as much anymore, but we had this lovely garden. It was really sunny and we would have like margaritas in the evenings. And it reminds me of that time. And I think we experimented quite a lot. I would say some margaritas were terrible

and offensive to the entire culture that it comes from. But other margaritas were spot on and banging. Sometimes we've done it where we've been having drinks and the ladle comes out. So this is another multi-use purpose. We don't have shot glasses. We use a ladle.

So we'll do shots of tequila out of a ladle. My housemate, when she gets the ladle out, you know it's about to get real. That's when it's about to go down. But before the ladle comes out, we're usually a bit more kind of PC or a bit more reserved. So we'll just have the lovely margaritas.

But I'm always up for experimenting. As long as it's vegan, if someone says to me, try this, I'll never say no. Can you remember the first time you had this particular margarita with the chili? Probably was only a cup about a year or so ago. I think I was introduced with the chili.

And actually, I think the reason I got on to margaritas, because before that, I was always a gin and tonic drinker. The reason I got on to margaritas is because I'm a big fan of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. And they all drink margaritas on there. And they look so glam. And they're always just getting really wasted. And I remember being like,

oh, they all drink margaritas. I want to start drinking margaritas. And then I got on to margaritas and was like, no one do they drink margaritas. It's brilliant. And from then on, I am a margarita stan account. Obviously, on the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, they all drink margaritas

and then absolutely scream horrible things at each other. Is that something that you look forward to of an evening? We don't scream at each other. But even when I was filming the Drag Race reality show, I didn't scream at anyone. But they do do that. And it's very entertaining to watch. I haven't seen the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.

Do they have a ladle? Do they do drink out of the ladle? No, they're all rich. They're all really rich. So they don't have ladles. They have actual shot glasses. But they are missing a trick because the thing with a ladle,

you've seen how deep a ladle can be. You don't know how big that shot is going to be. You just neck it back and then you're either passed out or you've got a bit more go in you. But the ladle's deceiving. This dream meal, would you like us to serve head the soup

with the ladle for your starter and then bring it out at the end of the meal to do shots out of? Absolutely. But I need my housemate Ella to come out with me and she has to give me the ladle because it is her ritual to get the ladle out. Great.

Every time someone mentions a ladle, I just always think of the episode of Friends where they say, see your ladle. Do you remember that? I don't remember that. I'm afraid I don't. Have a side of friends.

Have a side of friends where there's a guest character who's quite funny. I can't remember what they're called. And Phoebe says, oh, you know, if that person came in and wanted a ladle, they'd say, see your ladle. And it was a really stuck with me forever.

I've never stuck with me forever. I can't hear the word ladle without thinking, see your ladle. Well, I guess that's... I guess that's... You could say that's where your comedy stems from, that joke. Yeah.

Phoebe from Friends. Phoebe's saying what joke another person would possibly make. That is my entire comedy persona. And now it's starting to make sense why you end all of your sets with see your ladle, everyone? Yeah, see your ladle.

never gets anything. Then I walk out, go back into the dressing room, head in my hand, so we're bombed again. I can't believe it. Look, I've kind of been putting off the dessert a bit and trying to like bring up other subjects because earlier you said that sometimes you go to the pizza place and you don't have dessert. And that that may be quite trepidatious. And I'm feeling quite trepidatious right now. Oh my goodness. I never said that. No, I never said that. You twisted my words. I said, I don't have the Oreo pizza dessert because I've had too much bread, but I certainly have room for dessert every time I eat. You're relieved, aren't you, James? Oh, let's do this then, Bimini. The dream dessert. I would say I love savory, savory most, but I do have a sweet tooth. There's always

a bit of room for dessert. Well, as long as there's room, I'm happy. But what I say, Bimini, is if you don't want to have a dessert at this dream meal, you don't have to. You can pick something savory in place of the dessert. So don't worry about that. Devil on your shoulder. I'm going to go with the dessert. It's something sweet because we've been very heavy on the bread and the the savory. And I do love savory, but we've had a lot of really banging savory food. So I do have room for a dessert. And I will say that the particular dessert that I am going to go with is it's a toss up drum roll, please. It is either a strawberry cheesecake or a sticky toffee pudding. One of those two served with a dollop of ice cream for the strawberry cheesecake or vegan custard

for the sticky toffee pudding. Warm for the sticky toffee pudding. Cold for the cheesecake. I'm happy to go double dessert here, but I guess we should probably try and make you choose. Let's talk about both and then me and James can decide whether we're going to make you choose one of them if you clearly are in favour of one of them more or whether we go double dessert. They both represent me. They both represent both sides to my personality. I've got the sweet bit of kind of pink, kind of very like like sexy side or I've got the sticky toffee, a bit more gritty, a bit more punky side. I just feel like they both represent me and I would it would be a shame to choose, but I feel like if you were to put me to choose, I would have to probably say

sticky toffee pudding. Now, I was with you with the sort of the two sides of your personality. I was like, I like where Bimini is going with this. The sort of sexy strawberry cheesecake side. I was with you there is when you described sticky toffee pudding as punk that I got slightly lost. How is sticky toffee pudding punk? Well, I feel like sticky toffee pudding. I just think it just it just doesn't really it doesn't really know what it's up to, but it defies it's sticky. Yes, but it's sweet as well. And it's it's it's is it a pudding? Yeah, I don't know. Does it know if it's a pudding? It is a pudding. Okay, well, okay, maybe I was just I was clutching it's metallic straws there, but I think it's I think it's punk. Oh, I absolutely loved I loved hearing

you tie yourself up in knots there. Just going, is it a pudding? And then everyone clearly just going, Yeah, no, it is a pudding. We all know it's a pudding. It's famously one of the most famous sticky toffee pudding. I was like, I'm out of my depth now. I'm out of my depth now. I'm not going to bullshit you like, you know what you're talking about. I think you get sticky toffee pudding at a school dinner, don't you? And stuff like that. That's punk. Is it having dinner at school? Yeah, I think any pudding that you get in a school dinner is punk. I think so. But I would see sticky toffee pudding more as like very sort of very traditional sort of almost Victorian British dessert that you'd eat in like a gentleman's club or something. Steampunks. If

it's Victorian. Steampunks. Okay, steamed and it's a steamed pudding. Yeah, and it's steamed. So there you go. I would say that I've been to many a gentleman's club and I've never eaten a steamed pudding. I didn't mean necessarily that. I don't know what my joke would do. What sort of gentleman's club are we both talking about? Well, maybe a lot more classy because I won't know. I mean, I'm all for it. Like a lot of my performance styles are heavily inspired by kind of the stripper and burlesque scene. So I love a gentleman's club. I'm all for that. I'm pro pro that very much so. Oh, see, I was imagining like the sort of dark wood like traditional gentleman's club. You'd see like old politicians in there or something. I'm now picturing like a Hugh Hefner's kind of

gentleman's club where there's all the politicians cheating on their wives with playboy bunnies. Yeah. And what are they eating? Sticky toffee pudding. Sticky toffee pudding. Yeah. With chili margaritas. What a night. So your entire menu, menu bimini is served at the Playboy Mansion now. Your dream restaurant meal becomes Playboy Mansion's menu. Well, I just feel like this is a full circle moment for me because Pamela Anderson is someone who I've heavily looked to for inspiration because she's someone that has been very overtly feminine and proud of that femininity, but also uses her platform to advocate for social injustices. And she was in the Playboy Mansion. Now I'm in the Playboy Mansion doing the same thing. Me and Pamela Anderson full circle

moment. Here we go. Brought her back to Pamela. Amazing. And that is why Lewis Hamilton is at number one because I'm not on a racetrack eating my dinner. I'm at the Playboy Mansion having a lot more fun. Pamela Anderson is the original babe. Yep. She was a 90s bombshell. I love Pamela. In my life, the first person that other kids at school told me was sexy. Yeah, same. And I was a babe was Pamela Anderson. So for my whole life, just because, you know, I was born in 1985. So the age I was when the other kids in my class started talking about people being sexy and people being babes. Pamela Anderson was one that everyone's talking about. So for the rest of my life, whenever anyone mentions babes, I'll always think original babe Pamela Anderson.

OG babe, totally. And because of barbed wire, the film that she was in and the catchphrase of that film was don't call me babe. Yeah. Don't call me babe. So if anything, you should stop now because she did ask you to stop calling her babe in that film, James. Oh, no. Oh, no. Also, I think for me, similar, similar experience, but maybe different is that I knew I was gay because I wanted to be Pamela Anderson. I didn't fancy Pamela Anderson. So I remember thinking, okay, well, these feelings are maybe not normal. And then I grew up and became a drag artist and used Pamela as a lot of sources of inspiration. So there we go full circle again. I think that would have been more fun than my experience. My experience was just all the other kids telling me that

Pamela Anderson was a babe and was sexy. And then I just agreed with them all because I didn't really know what was going on. That was it. And when they released that, do you remember they released the Virgin Cola Pammy bottles that were supposed to be in the shape of Pamela Anderson? And I went out and bought one of those. And I thought the bottle was sexy. And that's how I realised I was straight and disgusting. I love that. But I mean, I wonder if that would, I wonder if that would fly today. Oh, I don't, I'm not sure it would. I feel like the bottles wouldn't be modeled after curvaceous women anymore. No, absolutely mad. Then you bought one as well, your little perv. Yeah, me and my friend went to the petrol station to buy one because we'd heard

they were releasing bottles in the shape of Pamela Anderson. I think we were hoping for like actual tits on the bottle rather than just the shape of it. But absolutely disgusting little boys. Well, I think the fact that you fancied a bottle is quite, is quite the, maybe it links, maybe Freud would go crazy over this. Yes. You said that's how you knew you were straight, but let's be very clear. You fancied a bottle. That's just admitted the theory that sexuality is fluid. Yes. I love it. Absolutely. Probably the best joke that's ever been done on the podcast. Absolutely love it. Absolutely phenomenal, truly.

I'm going to read you your order back now, Bimini. You tell me how you feel about it. Water. Sparkling with ice and lime and your own metallic straw. Gorgeous. Amuse-bouche. We're giving you that spice carrot from Margate as the amuse-bouche. Pop it on your bread. White crusty roll, warm with Sainsbury's salted vegan butter and a little bite of the uncooked dough. Oh, yeah. Starter. Heather Soup. League of Potato Soup. Cooked by your mum. Heather Soup. My mum's going to be very proud of that, her one dish. Main. Parmigiana party pizza from Perezza. Go on, yes.

Side dish. Cajun salted fries with vegan garlic mayo and sriracha dip as well. Drink. Chili salted frozen margarita and dessert. We landed on the punk rock of desserts. Sticky toffee pudding with a hot custard. Amazing. There we go. That sounds like a bang up meal if I don't say so myself. It does sound good. And then just at the end, we can see your friend Ella storming into the restaurant. Sorry, the playboy mansion holding a ladle above her head. And she has to come up at me with aggression and I also don't know how much tequila is going to be in that ladle. Yeah, yeah.

Thank you very much, Bimini, for coming to the Dream Restaurant. Thank you for having me. That's been lovely. There we go, James. The off-menu menu of Bimini Bon Bulash. Delicious. Beautifully described dishes. Great recommendations of places to go to. Yeah. A laugh. What more could you ask for from an episode of off-menu? Very little. Oh, maybe a professional intro. Oh, come on, mate. Why are you still on that? Because I know we're about to do an outro and I just wanted us to have that in mind and up our game. No, because you've already made it not professional because you've just,

you've just pulled me up again. If we were being professional, we would have just gotten with it. Ah. Didn't mention Gimini Bon Bulash. No, Bimini Bon Bulash did not mention Gimini Bon Bulash, which was lucky because we were very much enjoying her company. Yes. Pre-order Bimini's book, A Drag Queen's Guide to Life, and look out for new music coming from Bimini very, very soon. Can't wait. Can't wait to hear the new tunes. Thank you so much, Bimini, for coming in the Dream Restaurant. Also, we need to say thank you to some people who have sent us food lately, Ed.

Yes. I mean, since episode 100, it's been a veritable onslaught of delicious foods, James. It has because episode 100 was us doing our dream meals and the people who we mentioned are mighty generous folks. Simon Rogan and the lads. Simon Rogan and the lads brigade sent us some Berkswell puddings, which was my dream side dish. And let me tell you, when you get sent your dream side dish to make it home, you get a bit worried. You think, I've said this was my dream side. I've gone on the podcast. On record.

On record. I've said it. Maybe it will turn out it's not my dream side and I'll eat it and go, oh, actually, I don't like this as much. Oh, man, I've been in heaven, Ed. Oh, man, me too. Just absolutely delicious. I was saying to you, I had my first hangover of the year the other day. I didn't drink for the first three months of the year. April, tiptoeing back into drinking again, having a nice time, first proper getting drunk at the end of April. And that hangover, I ate six Berkswell puddings and I was like, hangovers are great, actually. Yeah.

And I've really wasted the first three months of this year. Well, I wasn't hungover and I ate four, so God knows what's going to happen if I have a hangover. Yeah. It's going to be absolutely awful. The Berkswell puddings are just some of the most delicious things I've ever eaten. Oh, so thanks to Simon Rogan and Tom Barnes and Ollie Marlowe, all at Simon Rogan at home. Thank you. Ed got sent a wheel of the cheese. The Berkswell lads sent me a wheel of the cheese, James, and I'm talking a huge wheel.

Not like you couldn't put it on a car, but you could put it on a child's trike, the front wheel of a child's trike. If you wanted that child to grow up to be a horrible cheese and biscuits, loving freak. Well, thank you to the Berkswell. We don't think you're freaks, actually. We think you're great. So thanks for sending that, which means I'm always going to have cheese to go on my Berkswell puddings. Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum. Also, James, I don't know if you remember, one of my dream dishes was the Berber and Kew cauliflower. Yeah, I do remember. The whole roast cauliflower with tahini and rose petals and pine nuts and all sorts of things

like that. And they sent me one. They sent me one. They do a meal kit of it, and it comes with hummus as well and pitas. And I had an absolute party by myself. Ed's favorite kind of party. Self party. Yeah, not a Parmigiano party. No. An Ed's self party. Also, I shouted out some poppadoms from Namaste Catmandu, and they're giving me free food for life. A wonderful curry house in Edinburgh. And some other news. James is moving to Edinburgh. Oh, sorry. Yeah, I'm going to be moving to Edinburgh very quickly and never buying food again. I can't wait. Thank you to the good people at Fallow who sent us some amazing burger kits, including these things called corn ribs, where you chop up corn on the cob and deep fry it and

then put this incredible kombu seasoning on the top. Let me tell you, they sent extra kombu seasoning. James has made corn ribs four times by himself since then. Yep, I keep on buying corn on the cobs, cutting them into quarters and making corn ribs at home. I love it. And a big squeeze of lime on every single corn rib. Bimini would love it in the evening. And all's well sent us their gin and bacon meal kit, which was fantastic. There was this pork collar in there, this slow cooked pork collar bacon jam that was just so good. And of course, I loved the gin and tonic dessert. The gin and tonic cheesecake. But thank you very much for all that delicious food. I have genuinely never eaten so much. Yep, delicious. Thank you so much. And Ed,

the mayor say, after all that food I ate, I was pretty chatty and ready for Betty. Have I used that right? We should also say that Bimini was a bit annoyed at the end, because she was going to say, see you ladle. She'd been planning it for like the whole time since James said, see you ladle. And then Benito ended the recording. So yeah, from inside his little cupboard locked in there, little vegetarian cupboard, eating his yogurt. And he just stopped it. Sure, he managed to get his revenge somehow, little spiteful vegetarian, not like in vegans, stopped it really early. But Bimini would have said, see you ladle. And it would have been the perfect end to the episode. It would have been the perfect end to the episode. So sorry, Bimini and sorry, listeners. Anyway, bye.

Hi, I'm Gina Martin, a campaigner and writer. And I'm Stevie Martin. I'm a comedian and writer, and also we're sisters. We are sisters. And we're doing our new podcast, Mike Delete Later. It's a podcast about social media about going back, looking at your embarrassing ones, things you like, things you don't like. And we're talking to all different types of people. So many different types of people. We've got writers, we've got comedians. Maybe we'll get a politician. Maybe we'll get a dog. Maybe I'll talk to a plant, deal with it. Who knows. It's like a little snapshot into people's social media lives. Yeah. And hopefully it will make you think more about how you use social media and how you feel about it. So do subscribe on all of the platforms

that you usually get your podcasts on and visit at Mike Delete Later pod on Instagram because we're going to be putting up really fun videos and the things that you didn't see in the podcast episode. Oh, exciting. Thanks, dudes. Hello, it's me, Amy Gladhill. You might remember me from the best ever episode of Off Menu, where I spoke to my mum and asked her about seaweed on mashed potato and our relationship's never been the same since. And I am joined by me, Ian Smith. I would probably go bread. I'm not going to spoil it in case. Get him on, James and Ed. But we're here sneaking into your podcast experience to tell you about a new podcast that we're doing. It's called Northern News. It's

about all the new stories that we've missed out from the North because, look, we're two Northerners. Sure. But we've been living in London for a long time. The new stories are funny. Quite a lot of them crimes. It's all kicking off. And that's a new podcast called Northern News. We'd love you to listen to. Maybe we'll get my mum on. Get Glyll's mum on every episode. That's Northern News. When's it out, Ian? It's already out now, Amy. Is it? Yeah, get listening. There's probably a backlog. You've left it so late.