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

Episode Date: July 16, 2025

We’re 300! What a way to start the new series than with a special milestone episode where, once again, the (dining) tables are turned and Ed and James are the guests in the dream restaurant. Have their tastebuds changed over the last 100 episodes? And, this time, we’re thrilled to welcome back AJ Odudu as the special guest genie.A massive thanks to AJ for hosting our big birthday episode, and a huge thank you to all of you for listening to the podcast over the last 300 episodes.AJ Odudu hosts ‘Big Brother’ and ‘Dress the Nation’ later this year.Follow AJ on Instagram @ajoduduOff Menu is a comedy podcast hosted by Ed Gamble and James Acaster.Produced, recorded and edited by Ben Williams for Plosive.Video production by Megan McCarthy for Plosive.Artwork by Paul Gilbey (photography and design).Follow Off Menu on Instagram and TikTok: @offmenuofficialAnd 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.

Oh hi James, have you heard the news? Oh, yeah, go on. You and I are modern boys because the Off Menu podcast is now on YouTube. This is embarrassing. Why is it embarrassing man? You love YouTube. I love watching clips on YouTube, sure. Now people can watch clips of Off Menu on YouTube.

But it's embarrassing man. It's not embarrassing at all. It's really cool. We're on YouTube with the great and good. The coolest people in the world are on YouTube me you Logan Paul. Who's Logan Paul the dad from succession? Act of menu podcast. That's what Benito's calling us now and we're on tik-tok. This is embarrassing man It's not embarrassing man. We're cool. We're like Olivia Rodrigo. And Ed, people have been asking us, badgering us, bothering us, actually. They want to watch the Stephen Graham supercut from the Stephen Graham episodes. They can see all of his reactions to us, everything that he did. Or Benito has bent to their whims and he's going to put it on YouTube.

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dot com slash advertise to get started. Welcome to the first episode of this off menumenu series taking all of the meals all of the ingredients from 299 episodes of the best podcast on planet Earth Mixing them in a pot and seeing what comes out. It's episode 300 of off-menu James Happy birthday to you ed. Happy birthday to you James. exciting. 300 episodes. I mean, mad. Mad. Just mad. Ed and I, when we started this podcast, thought we'd only do 10.

You. And here we are now at 300. Who would have thought it? Who would have thunk it? And we're very excited because as regular listeners may well know, James and I do our dream menus. Yes. And they have changed over the years. And we have

a special guest host in the past for 100, we had Claudia Winkleman for 200, we had Rylan, and we have another fantastic broadcaster to host this episode 300 of Off Menu. The guest genie waiter is AJ Adu Du. AJ Adu Du of course has been on the podcast before. We love AJ Adu Du. Absolutely love AJ. Really excited to have her be the genie waiter. Yes. This evening. This evening? This evening. Yeah. Yeah, I've just decided it's the evening for the, that's the setting for our celebration. Mine's a lunch.

Oh, okay. I prefer a lunch. So AJ's gonna be... You know, I prefer a big boozy lunch. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah our celebration. Mine's a lunch. Okay. I prefer a lunch. So a big boozy lunch. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Well, no spoilers. Is it going to be boozy? Ed's menu? Spoilers. Yeah. Yeah. I like the balls. Very excited. AJ of course is going to be hosting Big Brother once again and Dress the Nation later this year. So be sure to tune into those. And I'm also very excited Ed, because this is the first episode of the new series, which is always exciting, but for the last few series, I believe the first episode has been someone who has gone on to be in these Beatles movies that they're making.

The guest. And now we're the guests on the first episode. Benito furiously tapping away on his little archive to work out whether that's true. I think it's true. I think we've had as the first guest of each series, Harris Dickinson, Paul Mescal and Joseph Quinn. Is that true? They've all been first episodes of series, those Beatles. Now, are you suggesting, James, that that means one of us is going to be in? Both. Both are going to play... Will be in The Beatles film.

I think they've already cast Barry Kiyogan though. They've cast Ringo, but I mean will be in the film. Oh right, okay. But surely it would only make sense if we both played Ringo. Rotating, like one of us played him young and one of us played him old. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I suppose we could play maybe Ringo the car park app. I don't know if that makes an appearance in...

What's the... There's a car park app called Ringo. I'm just trying to find a way we could play a character called Ringo. I mean, we could. I mean, you know... Or maybe we could play when Ringo voices Thomas the Tank. Yeah. We could play just Thomas. Thomas the Tank, yeah.

Together, yeah. We could be like Thomas and Henry and people. Both with our faces squished up at the front of the train. That would be horrifying, wouldn't it? Yeah, it could be like Thomas and Henry and people both with our faces squished up with the train that would be horrifying Yeah, it would be but this is what happens when you open a series of off-menu Yeah, who is ever person we've had open a series in between them He hasn't been in a row are they in the Beatles movie if they are then it's looking good for us Sophie will it I'm not rolling out Sophie willing being in the Beatles film. Yeah, who's she gonna play? Okay I'm not rolling out Sophie Willem being in the Beatles film. Who's she gonna play? Yoko.

Yeah. I'd watch Willem as Yoko. I'd watch that. But you know what I'd listen to? Our 300th episode. Yes. If I was the listener. Yeah.

Who tuned into this. I'm very excited about this, James. We've done our dream menus. There's been a lot of discussion leading up to it on what hacks we're going to apply and what courses we're going to put in there. I just, I'd expect it to be a feast again. Yes. We've got a feast on our hands.

So let's not dilly dally. No, no secret ingredient for us. No secret ingredient for us, please. We're going to get kicked out of our own restaurant. You kidding me? And also we'd know it. Yeah, we'd know. Yeah.

This is episode 300 of Off Menu. Guest, Jeannie Waiter. Jeannie Waiter. By AJ Adudu. Welcome Ed Gamble and James Acaster to the Dream Restaurant with guest host, AJ Adudu. Hello. Yes.

Thanks for having me. Finally. Welcome. A proper host on this show. Yeah. Who gives it some energy at the top. Yeah, that's what it sounds. Well, I give it energy when I come out the lamp. Aggressive energy. AJ coming out the lamp there. Were you in the lamp just now? Yeah, basically. I'm just a big Northern genie. Poof, I'm here. Yeah, yeah. How many, is the Northern genie community a large one or are you going to be the only one? I think it's quite, quite prolific actually. But you have to be in the inner circle to like really know. But you know, I'm letting you into our world, our genie Northern world. Yeah. You also did for people just listening to the podcast, you also did Jeannie Hands as

you said hello there as well. Hello! Yeah, properly like, you really presented. Yeah. Yes. That's coming out of the lamp. Exactly. It's got to be visual as well.

I know that obviously everyone's listening, but you got to pack a punch. Yeah. Come with the hands. Give it some rally. Is that what, when you're hosting Big Brother, for example, are you very aware of your hands? I am actually. I hold a microphone when I'm hosting Big Brother, so gotta have good mic control, gotta have people hear me, do you know what I mean? Sure.

Gotta make sure I'm coming in your ears, and then the other hand can't be too distracting. So it's on my hip. It's also grabbing the mic. That's nice. You also, you can't just have a completely dead hand next to you, right? It can't be limp. Sometimes I watch myself do stand up. I'm holding the microphone and the other hand is just like a completely useless appendage. Just hanging down there. Swinging around, yeah. Flapping about like it's got no feeling in it. Exactly, like an elephant's trunk.

It's like an elephant's trunk, AJ. That's why he sits down for traitors. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He'd just put it, he'd just flop that dead arm on the side of the sofa. That's why I got an iPad for traitors and clothes, because there's nothing on that iPad, but it's just something to hold, isn't it? Just something to hold. Sometimes you need something to hold.

I've got a mic, not everyone has a mic. Yeah. That's it. What address the a mic, not everyone has a mic. That's it. What destination do they give you a mic there? Do you get to? Don't have a microphone there. So then with my hands, I'm very aware not to cross my arms. Don't want to look standoffish.

I want to look very approachable still. Hand on hip or just like, you know, natural hand gestures, but nothing too much. Do you know what I mean? This would be too much. Do you know what I mean? This would be too much. I'd love to do a hand on hip, but I don't feel like I've got hips. No, I noticed that I sometimes... You've got hips, man.

I've got hips for days, but like, not when I'm on stage, but when I'm around the house. Sometimes when I'm sitting down, I just have a hand on my hip and my girlfriend will point it out. I wouldn't have even realised I was doing it. I'll be like, why are you sitting like a little teapot? Why are you doing that? The teapots have it right though. We should all take a leaf out of a teapot's butt.

For respect to the teapots. Take a leaf out of a teapot. Tea leaf. We've worked together two days in a row now AJ. Both days you've had peppermint tea. I have! You love a teapot. I love a teapot!

You do think they've got it right? I love a brew. I don't know what, basically I'm trying to reduce my coffee, up my water. Peppermint is the way forward. Yeah. And it gives you a minty fresh breath as well, it's nice. It's like hot mouthwash. It's the best of all worlds.

Wow, I'm going to get on the peppermint tea training if it's like a hot mouthwash. It's the best of all worlds. Wow, I'm gonna get on the peppermint tea train if it's like a hot mouthwash. What a lovely description. That only sounds good to someone who is like, like you said, you're a very healthy person. So to you, hot mouthwash sounds like, oh, that's the best drink. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It'll clean my mouth at the same time. At the same time. I've made you fresh breath, and that's more important to me than something that tastes nice. But yeah, well good on you. We're very excited to do our menus, AJ. Episode 300. I mean, honestly, congratulations.

Thank you very much. Happy birthday. Thank you. You're 300 years old. Yeah. We've done one a year since we were born. Yeah. If an episode was a year, that's how old you'd be.

That's amazing. How does it feel? It feels, do you know what? When we sit down to do these 100 episode, it does feel great. Yeah, it does. It does feel really cool. And like the rest of the time, I just think what a pathetic life hosting a podcast. But then like when we get to do these episodes, it feels like a nice little

What would be the word? Something that you should be obviously very proud of and I'm so delighted to be doing your your dream menus with you Yes, because the tables have turned the last time I was on here, it was all about me, me, me. And now it's about you, you, you. So I want to kick things off and ask you what you're having when you're walking. Are you having an alcoholic beverage? Are you having still or sparkling water? What are you doing? You know why I love this, AJ? It's because you didn't just go with still or sparkling. You've offered the option of an alcoholic beverage.

So now this doesn't feel like a hack that, yes, I am going to have an alcoholic aperitif. You're doing a hack. It's not a hack because AJ's offered me an alcoholic drink. I just thought, why not? But is this for your water course? Yeah, I guess so. Or is this before our water course? I'm thrown off now.

Uh oh. I'll also let you know, on the last time we did this, James put in multiple extra courses that he'd not okayed with me first, so I had to come up with stuff on the fly because I wanted the same amount of food as him. Gotcha. Last night he texted me saying, I'm not doing as many hacks this time. I'll read out the text actually, because I just, he kept saying...

What time was this text sent, please? It was an alright time actually. Yeah, eight o'clock. Eight o'clock, yeah, it was five past eight. Oh wow, pretty good. Yeah, pretty good memory for me. So he told me previously He's not doing loads of hacks this time. It's gonna be pretty much straightforward format Yeah, and then eight oh five I get this text firstly. Hello Ed, which is always a bad start If James just sends hello edge, you know something annoying Yeah, yes, would you like to's the text that's on it by the way. Yeah. And then I follow it up with the... Hello Ed.

Yeah. You press send. Yes. Would you like to know the hacks I'm employing tomorrow so you don't have to do it on the fly again? Long story short, fish course, cheese course, pre-dessert, pettie four. Those are all extra courses. So then the next two hours of my life at home

was spent scrabbling through my brain trying to work out what to pick. Just trying to work out what fish? What's the catch of the day going to be? So I am going to have an aperitif. Okay. And this is addition to the water course? Yes. Okay, lovely.

Would you like to know what my aperitif is? Yeah, go on. It's a drink called a Manuela from Tapas Bar in Madrid called Taberna La Concha. It's the only place I've ever had this. I don't know. If you look it up online, they seem to be famous for it. It's in a little sort of martini style glass. They do three sprays of gin from a little spray bottle. Oh, right. First of all, it's sounding quite pretentious. It's not pretentious at all. This is like-

We can't just pour our alcohol. We've got to spray it. We're pouring on top, but you just want the flavour of the gin, not necessarily the full whack of gin. Okay, a perfume. A mist. Yeah, a perfume. Three sprays of gin, then vermouth. Okay, love that.

Basically, yeah, pretty much like sweet vermouth all the way up, then a dash of Campari bitters, or a few dashes, served with an olive and orange peel on a cocktail stick in there. Punchy. Me and my wife had this when we went to Madrid to go and see Metallica. And- That's what you had before, Metallica. No, no, that was the day before.

So what we'll do is we'll go to European city. I'll tell you. Really? We go to a European city for a gig or something, or wrestling. And the night before we'll get there and have like a fancy day where we go to nice restaurants and do a bit of touristy stuff.

And the next day will be full, dirty, griebo, grungy day. That's nice. That's balanced though. Yeah. That is balanced. And the Manuela Taberna La Concha was a real highlight. I think I had about three of them. Oh, nice. So delicious. I bet. Very moreish. Quite strong as well now. A bit strong. I mean, but that's what I think that's what I want for an aperitif. Yeah. I want to be pissed before my ass hits the seat, basically. Yeah. Before any water, before the water goes.

I'm not drinking water until I've had my Vamoose. Yeah. You can't fill yourself up on hydration before that. Complete waste of time. You know, like those funny coffee signs where like, don't talk to me until I've had my coffee. Don't give me water until I'm wasted. Until I need it.

Until you're gasping. That does actually sound really nice to be fair. Have you ever had that? I've not had that. I would like to have that. I'd like to watch someone make that and spray some gin. And they make loads of them as well. So, I mean, it's like, it's a proper tapas bar. So it's quite small.

Everyone stood up. Yeah, cute. But everyone knows that drink there. So they often have like 20 of those glasses lined up ready to go and they're just spraying in. Have you tried to recreate this at home outside of Madrid? I've not, because I enjoyed it and I didn't look up the recipe until last night.

Okay, I was gonna say, this is really good knowledge, Because I enjoyed it and I didn't look up the recipe until last night. Okay This is really good knowledge, you know when what drink is being poured into the glass or sprayed onto it So I will make it at home, but I don't know what the most to buy so it'll probably be a disaster I think I was if I was a bartender at that place. I'll be spraying gin in my mouth I mean that again surely they've just done that. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah, they must have all done it Everyone who works they must have sprayed gin in my mouth every now and again. Surely they've just done that. Yeah. Exactly. They must have all done it. Everyone who works, they must have sprayed gin in their mouth.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Again, like a little breath spray. Yeah. Yeah, kind of. I'm big on oral hygiene. Yes. Yeah, yeah. Adria's here to promote Big Brother, Dress the Nation, and oral hygiene. Well, if you're having a pair of teeth,

I will have, as my pair of teeth, the oyster shell martini from brat Yes from Brat called Brat. Okay. I thought for a second. I thought you said pret It's on the secret menu It's really good real proper French martinis But back to brat. Oyster shell martini, it's one of my favorite drinks anywhere actually. And I'm actually really glad Ed's done the aperitif pack

because I did find a home for it in the menu. I actually think it's gonna fit quite well with other things I've got planned. I've never been sure if it's either gin or vodka actually, the oyster shell martini, because it's so, I've said about it before on the podcast, the amazing thing with it, because they do use like ground up oyster shells in there somewhere. I don't know what, I don't even know how they make it. It means

it tastes dirty and clean at the same time. So it's like got a bit of like a saltiness from like the oyster, but it's just got a really clean taste. And I think I like it better than any martini I've ever had anywhere else. Wow. I do like it so much that I've just realized I don't know the booze in it, which is like that. That is a real sign that I love it because normally if I'm ordering a martini, I'm like

it has to be vodka. I think it is. I think it's vodka. And I do think it is. You can't find it. But now I'm doubting myself because I've just had so many and never asked because they taste so delicious. Oh, I mean, that's it. And also when you go in, you don't need to know. It's the experience, isn't it?

That's the point. Well, usually I do need to know because that's part of the experience. I love it. But with this, like I didn't even realize until just now that I don't know if it's vodka or gin. It is vodka. It's vodka. I'm glad to discover it's vodka because normally I order it and I make sure it's vodka whenever I order other martinis. And I was going to be quite stressed then if I just discovered that my favourite martini is a gin one. Surprise! But I'm glad that it's a vodka one.

We went to Brat recently. They've got two restaurants. We went to them recently and we booked quite late and James was like, it's all right, I go in there quite a lot, I'll sort it out. And they, how's this, it sounds like some good fellows. They sort of just put a new table in for us. Wow. Felt amazing.

Thank you so much to the people at Brett, if you're listening. Yeah. How many martinis have you had there? A lot. I've had a lot. They're like, right, come on, let's get the table out of the basement. Yeah. There's a few things that I regularly order there that they almost, there's one thing

called roast chicken rice, which is a incredible dish. I thought that was going to come up later on your menu. No, it's not on this menu. It's a real nice opportunity to shout it out. It is one of my favorite dishes anywhere. Just amazing, like the roast chicken, the different bits of chicken, like there's a chicken sausage, a chicken drumstick in there, loads the different bits of chicken, like there's a chicken sausage, a chicken drumstick in there, loads of different ways that chicken's been cooked in the rice itself.

Love that. And then you just stir it all together, but you put some salad in as well. So there's a salad comes along that's like got a vinaigrette on it and you put it into the rice and you mix them all together. And normally they come along with a spiel and tell you this is, you know, this is all the different parts of the chicken we've got here and here's the salad. And what you're meant to do is put it in here. And now when they bring it over to me, they just laugh and then walk away. He knows how to do it all.

Helping out other tables around him with the roast chicken rice. He's so used to it. When we went, there was someone there who James was like, he's new. I've not seen him before. And he came over and he didn't do the full spiel and like he left and James was like, he should have said to mix the salad into the rice. Yeah, he did get to me. He's not going to last long.

He's not going to last long here. But I don't want the salad mix thing because I don't want cold salad mixed into a hot thing. Right, because I was going to say it's quite controversial that I think, you know, hot and cold, you know, then it wilts. Then it wilts. Yeah. It makes the salad a little bit soggy, but it works for you, does it James? It works.

The vinegar in there with everything and the salad adds a bit of, the only thing I'd say is that sometimes you get a big salad leaf that's in there with everything else and that can take you by surprise. Yeah. Where you try to put the fork full of it. big salad leaf that's in there with everything else. And that can take you by surprise. Yeah. Yeah. Where you try to put the pork. But this isn't even on either of our menus.

No, but it's good to shout it out. But it's good to share. It's a hall of famer for me. Yeah, now I wanna go. I've never been to Brat. That does sound quite dry though. Is the rice not dry? No, it's really moist.

And cause it's got all the juices from the chicken. All the stock. And it's like, and also it comes in a skillet. So it's kind of still cooking a little bit. So it's all crispy, get some crispy bits in there. And then that's the brat that I go to quite regularly. There's the other brat. They do roast duck rice. Oh my gosh. Now we're talking. So same dish, but with duck and that's amazing as well. So like, wow, wow, wow. Maybe do them on the same day. Do a little, just do a little brat crawl. Yeah., maybe do them on the same day, do a little.

Just do a little brat crawl. Yeah, brat rice crawl. Okay, well they're nice drinks. Great start. Both martini boys. Yeah. Yeah. When Edward's saying that, I know what would go perfect with, I will have a martini and

I can cheers Ed from across the aisle. Yeah, I love a martini. I love a martini. I love a lychee martini. Oh. Oh my gosh. Treat yourself to one please. It's the 300th episode. Genie, please. Here it is. Please have a lychee martini.

Yeah, cheers. What water are we washing all of this down with? I mean, I'm not going to try and hack the water. I've done a pint of Guinness before as the water, but I feel like I've got my aperitif now. I think I'd just like some lovely water. A classic still. Just a classic still. Like we've got here, just a jug of still. It can be tap. I like to have it constantly at the table. You know, talking about hydrating, I'm trying to keep

my hydration up. Yeah. I may as well say you look splendid for it. Exactly. Bless you. Bless you both. Yeah, I like to hydrate my hydration up. Yeah. And may I say you look splendid for it. Exactly. Bless you. Bless you both. Yeah. I like to hydrate. Hey, sue me.

It's good to hydrate. I used to be a cool kid who was like, water sucks, man. But now I love water. Water does a good thing. It's here for a reason. That's a really, what a journey. It really, it really is. I mean, obviously the last time I was on, I was bigging up Blackburn water

because it is absolutely delicious. I was just up north at the weekend actually, and I was guzzling it down. So I- Maybe I'll have that then. Appreciate the shout out to. Just a classic tap water. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's very underrated, especially in certain parts of the country. London tap water, questionable. I'm not gonna lie. Sure. But you'd still do London tap water, questionable, I'm not going to lie. Sure. But you'd still do London tap water. Must it be filtered? Because I like London tap water,

but I feel like maybe then I get some blackburn tap water. Oh yeah, treat yourself. Because then I'll taste the difference, right? You really, really will. You really will. You will Ed. Thanks. Water from up north is better. Yeah, yeah. And no ice, just tap water.

Just as it comes. Rim temp. Why is that? Sensitive teeth? No, not really. I just feel like ice gets in the way. And also it's just the same thing, isn't it? But different. You want one form of water at a time in a glass. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Don't be pretending that they're different things. Yeah. Let's not dilly dally.

I'll say that. If anyone ever brings me ice water again, I'm going to go, let's not dilly dally. Let's not dilly dally. Yeah. I'll say that if anyone ever brings me ice water again, I'm going to go, let's not dilly dally. Not dilly dally. We're two types of water in one glass, please. Come on. Come on. Are you trying to get, what about you, James? I just like it, actually.

I'm very excited about this because I've actually got a water course for the first time. The last two I've hacked them and said like Causton Press, and then I had a kombucha for the last one. I actually had a water that I'm really excited about. I had it at Scoff in Manchester. Again, this is just an opportunity to shout out a whole restaurant. I mean, probably favorite restaurant in the country at the minute. So it's just like such an incredible place. Everything on that menu is brilliant. Tom Barnes is the chef there. But the water that they, well, I had the non-alcoholic pairing last time I was there. And one of them had

this hop infused sparkling water as one of the ingredients in the like little non-alcoholic cocktail. And I really got the flavor of that. And I was like, this is, this, whatever that flavor is, is really great. And they said that's what it is. And then they gave me some cans to take home of just the water. So they're from Track Brewing. Right, so describe this flavor. So it's a hot infused sparkling water. Is it a beer-y sort of taste though? Yeah, so it's like, well, it is, yeah,

just like the hops that they make beer with, but it's like infused in, but it's not like an alcoholic flavor really. Does it taste like weak beer? No, do you know what? My description of it is gonna to make it sound bad. Right. Okay, I'm glad that you created this.

You know that hops smell. If you smell, you can smell hops. I'm saying this because I grew up in Northamptonshire and in Northampton there's a Carlsberg factory and everyone knows what hops smells like. Okay, yes. Okay. But like. Black Banana Threats Brewery as well.

Right. And Edinburgh is very, like if you get off the train in Edinburgh, you are hit by the brewery smell pretty quickly. So I guess it's a bit of a, almost a stale water smell. Like cash. What I would like is that in my drink, because it does have this kind of like, I think that's why I like it so much is because I can't even fully put my finger on it and describe it because I haven't had it anywhere else.

Is it nostalgic for you as well? Maybe, it does remind me of walking past the Carlsberg factory in Northampton and going around trying to do gigs with my band. But like, yeah, that kind of like, it's almost, I don't want to say the word mildewy. Because again, it doesn't sound good. But yeah, and it's sparkling as well. I would never think I'd go for sparkling water. I generally prefer tap water or still water, but it just really worked. This company,

Trap Brewing, never heard of them before. Really excited to get more of this. I mean, I'm basically next time I go to Scarf, I'm going to have some more cans of that. When you sort of them from Trap Brewing. As I'm saying it now, I'm realizing I should do that. When you be a grown up and buy your own stuff from the place that you know it is? They'll send it, yeah, sure. Like a few cans. I've gone out of my way to say who they are. The subtext of this always AJ is send us some stuff. Yeah, yeah, always. Yeah. I mean, I personally can't wait to try scoffing Manchester the next time I'm up north.

You should go there, mate. It's like so many things that on that menu are so good. The tiramisu, the... Also, there's this like, cashew blue cheese course that they did the first time I went. And it's like a sweet cheese, like a bridge over into the desserts, which is my... I really like it when people do that in restaurants, do the like, savory to sweet course. Love that. And I loved it. Said to the head chef, it's my favorite feeling, I love it so much. Next time I went there, it wasn't on the menu.

Ah! And he was like, yeah, we took it off. But then he made me a little special one. Oh my gosh. I need a... Rolling with yous to restaurants must be like rolling with the big dogs. Yeah, I feel like that. Tables are coming out.

Yeah. I was saying that just then. Menus are being adjusted live. This doesn't sound great. Nip to the shop to get ingredients. We do feel like mafioso going in there. Yeah. So good. That's what I was saying. I was like, oh no, we've already said to put a table out in front. And now I'm saying, this is bad.

Yeah. Yeah. Reviewing staff. Knuckles, A-caster's coming. Get the table. Did you get the blue cheese? Oh, fuck. Oh, fuck, he's going to go fucking shit. You heard what he did to the last chef. You think that's not a swore?

Please do not swear. Thank you. Beautiful. Although it is your podcast so you can do what you want. Thank you AJ. We've both got water courses. This is the first. Water courses that's good. I just said water to be fair. I've got water. I've got sparkling water that's infused with hops. I just went that. What's in front of me really? What's that? You got black bone water then? Yeah I got black bone water. You upgraded it to be fair. Yeah I did. Yeah you've made yours fizzy got black bone water. Yeah, you upgraded it, to be fair. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, I did. Broadening your horizons. Yeah, you've made yours fizzy with hops in it, which you're right, it doesn't sound nice, but I'm up for trying that. From track brewing. Right, come on, what are you having for the next bit? Are you having poppadoms? Are you having bread?

Are you having crisps? Do we count crisps as a bread or a poppadoms, are you having bread? Are you having crisps? Do we count crisps as a bread or a poppadom? I think people have in the past hacked this course and had crisps. Some people have even had crisps as their starter. I'm thinking about Rosie Jones, who had a lot of different types of crisps as her starter. But yeah, I think you can, especially with dips for this part of the course. I tell you what, genuinely, I mean, I know that this is your dream menu,

but I've been in Ibiza recently and I went to Casamaca, this amazing restaurant, gorgeous ambience, beautiful meats. And one of the starters, me mate ordered crisps and I was like, come on, we're on a holiday, let's be classy about this. But they were great. These homemade crisps and they were lightly salted and they were just so good with a baba ganoush. Were they quite... Oh, baba ganoush is so good.

I just sped that in my mouth on its own. Baba ganoush is so good. It's so good. Was it thick homemade crisps? They were a combination of the two. They were not chunky, but not thin. They were a combination of the two. They were like not chunky, but not thin. They were the perfect consistency. And also freshly done.

Freshly, so they were warm as well. They were warm. Great, great, great. They do something similar at, we went there James, after we'd interviewed Jeff Goldblum. What a life. What a fucking life. Yeah, Agora.

Do they do it or did we demand it and they did it for us? What a life. What a fucking life. Yeah, Agora. Do they do it or do we demand it and they did it for us? They do like fresh potato chips with and they do incredible dips like a babagonosian stuff. So huge shout out to Agora as well. They've not made my dream menu, but you came very close. Maybe next year. We're doing as many shout outs as we can at this point. Just before Pappadoms or bread, I do have a quick chef's welcome. You motherfucker.

A chef's plumbing welcome? I did a chef's welcome last time, he's got me. Yeah, a chef's welcome, but this is a genuine chef's welcome that exists in that position on the menu at the Hand and Flowers, everyone gets a little sausage roll. You sit down and they bring you this perfectly sized, like homemade, obviously, it's a restaurant, sausage roll. It is absolutely incredible. Okay, nice, nice pastry. Beautiful, like crispy, golden, it flakes, but also it's got that fatty taste to it as well.

I love that. Not too heavy on the sausage roll though. Yeah, I mean it's... Like it's quite, because the sausage roll I love them Yeah, but they can be quite girthy and to have that as a welcome. Yeah, it's not too girthy We don't want it to ruin the appetite. You're a girthy welcome. It's not a girthy welcome. No, no, no, no, no Just the perfect girthy. He's your friend Which is relative which is relative to people yeah To what you'd enjoy. But yeah, it's a beautiful thing.

And it's exciting to sit down and not know you're going to get a sausage roll. And then you get a sausage roll. But do you get a sausage roll every time or did they change that on the menu? I've only been once. Why? When you went, did you get a sausage roll? I actually don't think we did. I went once and it was earlier this year.

It was just a couple of months ago. Okay. Did you get a welcome? It was my partner's birthday. So you weren't concentrating on what was happening? So when we sat down, I think we were given, our lives are going to sound so bad now. I believe in champagne. Oh, it all comes out. Because I texted the chef in advance and let them know.

Oh my God. Oh my God. This can't go out. We can't put this out for Nito. You've changed. You'll be able to track it. How our lives have changed during this podcast. Your partner is not eating pork, right? Yes, she's not. Did you tell them that in advance? Yes. So maybe that was it. That was it. That's why. That's why. So what did you have? They were very nice and gave us a couple of glasses of champagne. Oh champagne! Happy birthday. That was the chef's welcome. It wasn't that one.

It wasn't that one. Yeah, yeah. It was a little drink, which they might do for everyone whose birthday it is to be fair, if you tell them ahead of time. Oh yeah. I don't know that. Oh God. But if I had to do a chef's welcome, I'm going to do a chef's welcome.

And I went to a friend's pub, well actually, Paul Fiegg who came on this podcast, invited me to a get together he was having and we arrived and he's got his own chef. Oh my god. Yeah, so some of us are not doing as well as Paul Fiegg. Yeah, yeah. So Paul Fiegg's doing better than us. Yeah. And I just want you to know I was invited to that too, but I couldn't go. Yeah. Yes, he was invited. Yeah.

And Ben might have even been, no he wasn't. He wasn't invited. Yeah. And Ben might've even been, no, he wasn't. He wasn't invited. Oh, Ben didn't make the cut. Just checking. No, he wasn't. Oh. But when you arrived at that party, you were instantly given a little chef's welcome

from Paul Fee's personal chef. And it was called Steak and Chips, but it was, I would say, it was a cocktail stick and on it was these tiny little like fried potato. Like mini chips, very small. Almost like a potato bravas. Yeah, like a little like the chip. They look like chips, like crispy chips, like little matchsticks in their own right.

And then a bit of like a very thin bit of steak that was like a ribbon that was like in a, in an almost M shape on the cocktail stick, the way it was folded on there. And it was like the perfect mini mouthful of steak and chips. Just a salty, really juicy meat, the crispy salty chips. It was, I was really into it. I was actually quite disappointed. It was just, you get it once on the way in. How could I keep on doing laps at this place? I was, I was on a boat, wasn't it? Yeah. I don't want to mention that bit because like my life's already sounded too bougie. Yes. You was on a bloody yacht, weren't you?

There wasn't a yacht. It was a boat. But make sure in the restaurant recommendations on the website, make sure you write down, you've got to go and get the steak and chips from Paul Figg's personal chef on a boat. Oh no. Oh no. I wasn't even going to do this. And then Ed chose the chef's welcome. And then I just was like, what's the nicest mouthful I've ever had when I've arrived somewhere and it was on the private boat party. Oh no. Oh no. Oh my gosh. That sounds so dreamy.

It was delicious though. It was absolutely one of the best mouthfuls of food I've ever had. Yeah. Especially upon arrival. Yeah. Boys! So dreamy! Oh, it's funny. It was delicious though. It was absolutely one of the best mouthfuls of food I've ever had. Yeah. Especially upon arrival. Sounds like it. Fit for royalty that. Let me tell you. The problem is this podcast has really changed, James. And I'm fine because I've never been

relatable. So no one expects anything less from me. He's come up to your level. Yeah, finally. Welcome. Yeah, here I am. The weather's great up here. Sorry, so we've done the chef's welcome. I do like that I've got that chef's welcome on my menu because that was so good. I mean it sounds amazing but should we get you back onto dry land? Talk about popadoms and bregs. I've still got my sea legs right? Yeah, you mean? Just like myself.

James, do you want to go first? Well, I'm going bread and I always respect it when someone goes bread basket when they come on the pod. And I always think, why don't I do that? Why do I always just... So like, I've got a little bread basket. So I'd like the charred flat bread with whipped bataga, which I think is a butter thing. I don't know. It tastes like butter. From soon in Hackney.

So it's a quite new restaurant. S-U-N-E. Nice. I think it's run by someone who used to work at Noma in Copenhagen and has now got this place. It's really great. The whole restaurant is great. This charred flatbread.

So I can't tell you how much I love stuff that's charred these days. I love it. Burn it. Just love stuff that's charred these days. I love it Burn it just burn it flame grill it Yeah, and it doesn't sound it's something that doesn't sound on the menu You see charred flatbread of it. How good is that gonna be and again, I'm gonna describe it and make it sound bad But it's like you've been making those American style pancakes at home and you've accidentally taken your eye off the pan. Okay. And you burnt the pancakes.

Slightly burnt. They smell like that. When you smell them, they smell like burnt pancakes. Like some sweetness to them. Yeah. And I've always liked that smell, but never liked the taste of burnt pancakes. And these smell as good as they taste. They taste as good as they smell.

Right. But they smell burnt. Yeah. By the way, Pataga is fish roe, you know? Oh, it's fish roe? Yeah, I mean, it's quite close to caviar. Oh my God. Oh my God. It's like gorgeous buttery caviar.

Oh Jesus fucking Christ. I'm even eating caviar, not even aware of it. That's how bougie I am these days. Yeah, I think it's butter. I think it must be butter. I just not even aware of it, that's how bougie I am these days. Yeah, I think it's butter. I think it must be butter, I just slather it on there like it's butter. Must be. Sometimes it falls on the floor.

Get it all over my lap, I don't care. I let my cats eat it. There's a bit of butter. Jesus Christ. Oh my gosh. Whipped caviar that I have on my charred flatbread. It is absolutely delicious. It's so good. Where was that from?

Sorry. Soon in Hackney. Yes. So that's first thing in the bread basket. Next thing in the bread basket. I've shouted out on the podcast before. The daigle. The daigle.

From the Dohert and Leeds. First fist bump. First fist bump. Come on. Because that's my bread course. Yes! Oh! We got the same bread course. Oh my, okay.

We're cooking on gas. We might tell you about this. Yeah, let's go boys. We're so good about it. What do you think the daigle could be? A daigle. Is it like a bagel? Mixed with?

Combined with something daey. So like egg? Donuts! It's a donut bagel. So basically you've got the dough of a donut. Oh nice. Filled with sour cream and chives, like a bagel. Cream cheese sort of. Sorry, cream cheese and chives. And then on the top is everything bagel seasoning and sugar. And and salt they roll it in sugar and salt Yeah, so you get well, it's sweet and savory. Yeah, AJ. It's incredible It sounds in it sounds interesting not gonna lie like usually sweet and savory I reserve for like popcorn. Mm-hmm. Yeah, or you know cheese

Yeah, with a bit of pear and honey. Yeah, but this is what we're doing This is how we're tipping it You would like this, okay, because I'm sort of the same about sweet and savory I don't like it when people have pancakes and maple syrup and bacon I don't like any of that sort of stuff But this is it's it's a mind fuck as well because you it's like bagel donut sweet savory And the first time I had it, the first bite I took, I had full body goosebumps.

Yeah, me too. Oh my God. I remember where I was. I was in my hotel room. Cause I was- I was in my hotel room. Yeah. It was brought to you by a servant.

We had the Dohert set up a new branch within my hotel room. So I could get daggles on tap. No, quite conveniently, the Dohert in Leeds the new branch within my hotel room so I could get daggles on tap. Quite conveniently, the Doha in Leeds is opposite the hotel I was staying in. So I was able to get one straight to my hotel room. I remember biting it and like having to stop everything. I was just having a freeze and taking what was happening to me because I was like, I've

never tasted anything like this before and I couldn't get enough of it. I like, I wolfed it down. I was there for like four days. I probably had about three of them while I was there. And then he started talking about them on this podcast. So I was like, that does sound good. Next time I was in Leeds on tour, I went there maybe noon and I went, do you have any Daigle? They went, no, we sold out because James keeps talking about them. So I had to go back at 10 AM the next day when they opened to get the Daigle. Wow. And it was worth the 24 hour wait, was it?

My god, yeah. Well, I had a chocolate one the day before, just because when you're in there, right? Which are excellent also. Yeah, so much custard in there. But yeah, the Daigle is also my bread course. That is amazing. That sounds so hearty, rich and confusing. It sounds like we shouldn't like it.

They do whip the cream cheese a little bit. So it's like light and fluffy in there. It's not just like thick cream cheese. It's like, it's a beautiful mouthfeel. Yeah, it is. Gosh, what a bread basket. There's one more thing in the bread basket. Okay, wow.

I just remembered how long these episodes go on. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, no, no. Come on. We love to talk about food. By the way, I did have four long these episodes go on. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, no, no. Come on. I'd be loved to talk about food. And by the way, I did have four things in the bread basket and this morning I thought, no, come on. Just writing it in. I'll put it down to three.

Yeah, yeah. And lastly, I would like from Family Mart in Japan, which is just a, a chain of- Just a hop, skip and a jumper there. A chain of soup, of like little convenience stores. I would like the peach pineapple and tangerine sandwich. Mmm. So those are, you can get loads of, Ed's shaking his head but it's... Sugary.

I like it so much. Sweet and soggy. Yeah, so I would eat these breads in the order I've said them in. I would have the charred flatbread. Okay. And then I would have the daigle, the little crossover, and then I would have this sweet, which is basically a cake really. It's white bread. Yeah. And then you basically get like a tinned, a little tin peach in there. Some little tin pineapple and a little tangerine segment. And it's cream like you would, but it's not actually the

cream itself isn't that sweet, I would say, but it's still a bit sweet. That there's all in there and that's the little sandwich you get from the shop and they do loads of savory sandwiches and I worked my way through them when I was there. Yeah. But when I had this one, again I was literally sitting outside of a shop where my girlfriend tried to find some trainers. We just really wanted these trainers and I was like sat just on the floor pretty much and eating this sandwich and was like, is the highlight of my holiday?

Wow. If I'm honest, I would put family mart at the bottom of the convenience stores in Japan apart from, and they're very, very famous for this. They're fried chicken. Okay. Famicic. Yeah. Famicic.

Fami. I would say famicic. Famicic. Famicic. Famicic. Yeah. That is Fammy. I would say fammy chick. Fammy. Fammy chick. Fammy chick. Yeah, that is top tier.

Top tier energy. Extremely good. That bread course, honestly, sounds like a lot of ingredients. Yes, a lot. A lot of ingredients going on. With that bread course, I'm taking the same amount of time most people would take for a meal. Right, because that was a three course bread course. Yeah, a lot of cream in it as well

So much cream. There's a lot of cream there I'm going to the toilet before I start eating anything else. Anything else. But like I'm enjoying that bread course like it's a little meal I do appreciate a bread basket though. I do I do I also appreciate a poppadom basket Yeah, have you had like the poppadom basket like Jim Connor in Mayfair? Yes, with all the different types of poppadoms in there. Yeah, it's good. Yes, because even like a poppadom like breadstick, it's so good.

Yeah, there's so many different types that we're not like, we're not always privy to in the UK. When you get that and it's like a whole bunch of different ones, you can really take your time with one of those. Oh yeah, absolutely. Well, thank take your time with one of those. Oh yeah. Absolutely. Well, thank you for them. I'm full.

I'm full. Yeah. I mean, I'm glad I held back and only had a full donut for my breakfast. I'm absolutely stuffed, but there's still room for a starter. Yeah. So what are we having? I am going to have from the restaurant Mountain, which is the same...

I love Mountain. Well, the chef at Mountain is the same guy who runs Brat. Oh, really? So if you like Mountain, you're going to love Brat as well. I'm going to love Brat. Okay, this is good to know. Tomas Parry. I am having the Spider Crab Omelette from Mountain. Wow. It's delicious.

Which... Excellent. Good. I'm glad you've had it. It's so good. It is incredible, isn't it? How do they get that consistency? It's so perfect every single time. It's amazing. You just cut it open and it's just perfect. And they say you've got to cut it open quite soon

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

They're not stingy with it. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. The spider crab. Have you had that with that bread, with their bread that they do? Yeah. And I can't remember what it's called, but it's like this big dome of bread.

And then you just pop your knife in and then the bread flattens. And then, oh, that with that omelette together, 10, 10 experience. And there's so many great dishes on that menu anyway. Yeah. But every time I go there, straight to the spider crab omelette. Is it quite juicy? It's pretty juicy. A juicy omelette.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's not dry. It's rich as well. Any sauces coming up? No, Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's rich as well. Any sauces coming up? No, you don't need it. It's self-sourcing. It is. It does sound really good. Is it big? It's a decent size, but you're sharing everything anyway. And they order a lot. It's almost got, you know, when you see like,

I can't remember the name of it, in Japan where they did the omelette on top of the rice, omu rice, and then they cut the top of the omelette and it just sort of folds and sort of spills over the top. Like opens. Yeah. It's a slightly less liquidy version of that I'd say. So you don't need any sauce in it really. I wonder how they make it sort of like hollow in the middle as well. I don't know.

It just honestly blows my mind. It doesn't make sense. It's like a folded omelet. Yeah. But then you open it and you're like, oh, that was hollow inside. I'm busy. And what is it? Just a little spider crab waving at you. Yeah. Surprise. Welcome to mountain.

Please don't eat all. Yeah. That was the easiest choice. That's a good start. I want to eat that now. I can't, I can't too late to put it into my menu. Well, you can try it some other time. What do you want for your starter? Well, it's not ideal given the narrative so far. Okay, okay. How many stars has this place got? Come on King James. What are we saying Your Majesty? I wasn't, don't know what, already with this one, when I put it there, I actually wasn't happy about it because I didn't want to put a dish from Noma, which is like seen

as being... Three Michelin star, regularly voted the top restaurant in the world. Yeah. Yeah. I went there earlier this year. How many times have you been there? Three times. Wow.

One free stop. You can always get a table. You can always get a table. You can always get a table. Yeah. These restaurants, hard to get in, but somehow James just... They leave one empty for him all the time. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. This is the one that's attached to the side of my house.

So yeah, when I ate this, I was, oh no. That's going to go on the menu. This is one of the best things I've ever had. Yeah, yeah. I've got to put it on the menu. I've got to have no more on my menu. It's king crab. Crab. It's almost worth a fist bump I think. I think we'll go fist bump. Crab's good war here.

It was like these crab legs Really thick they may as well have been sausages these crab legs. They were so big, big and meaty. Try selling that to a crab The girth Talk about the girth of these crab legs. Served with frozen quince that you then... Quince? Do the poshest thing you could possibly say. Quince.

I'm not happy about it. Can you explain quince to me please? I'm actually not sure what it is. It's a fruit. It looks like a... They'll often serve like a quince based things with cheese, like a quince jelly quite often you'd have with cheese, but it's sort of- This has looked like a little-

Sour and sweet, it's got that. Like the end of a lemon, it looked the way they cut it. Yeah. Okay. And then you squeezed it over- So it's a citrus fruit. Yeah. Right.

So then I squeezed it over the crab legs. Lovely. It was like it had been frozen, taken out, left for a bit, and then you squeeze it over. But it doesn't taste like lemon. They couldn't just use the lemon. No, it's just citrusy I think. Yeah. And sweet. Okay, gotcha. And then to brush over it was a savoury fudge.

So it was this like, it came with a brush, almost like a shaving brush. Okay. Lovely. Your descriptions are so appetising, too. Yeah, you got all the savoury fudge on it and then you spread it on top of this big juicy crab's leg that already had this frozen quince on it. It was just so melt in the mouth, crazy, delicious. I felt very emotional while eating it. It was so nice.

But like I say, I was like, Oh no, I'm now going to have to put number one restaurant in the world on my menu. I'm not going to appear very relatable here. Yeah. It's too late for that man. It's yeah. Yeah, but yeah, to be honest. I mean, you did sort of lose us at the whipped caviar which you took.

Yeah, I mean, that was blindside of me if I'm honest. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And the little steak and chip situation on the yacht. And actually, looking down this menu, I'm not redeeming myself anytime soon. Where would I look at what I've got coming up? My menu's less posh than James's. This is it. This is where we jump the shark. What a day. What a day. But yeah, gotta admit, it's the nicest start I've had.

Yeah. Exactly. I mean, listen, it's your 300th. You know, go all out. Splash out, right? Exactly. What are we having for main? Hack! Oh! Boom! Fish course.

Oh, wait a minute, we've had starter. Before we have the main, we're going fish course. I'd like a fish course. Yeah. Okay. Because you're the one who called the fish course. Yeah, well. You texted me last night about it.

Hack! Catch! I had to pull some fish out my arse for this. Not surprising anyone, we're not going to be moving away from the Michelin Guide. Okay, okay. But, You know what, start as you mean to go on. Yeah. So it's a restaurant in Nottingham called Al Camilla. Okay.

A-L-C-H-E-M-I-L-L-A, I think that's how it's pronounced. And they did an aged gilt head bream. It was just very simple, just like fillet of fish. Now I'm going to annoy myself here because basically it was the best fish I've ever tasted ever in my life. And my memory of it is that it had like a bit of a crispy skin and just really juicy fish, but the flavor was amazing. I'm not going to be able to do a great job of explaining it.

Aside from, I was like, well, fish has just never tasted this good. Okay. But why? Why? Why was it so good? Was it the texture? Was it the crispy skin? Was it the way it fell off the bone?

Was it the aged thing? Maybe it was because it was aged, but like it was definitely it was just the right amount of juicy Mm-hmm. So like it wasn't wasn't too dry wasn't too wet. Okay. It was just those really nice meaty juicy fish I love a crispy fish skin. Yeah, and it was done to perfection and there was also it was it was a tasting It was a good amount of it as well. It was like the main course pretty much. Okay. And also I think, and the people of Nottingham who came to see me that week probably know this, but it was one of the worst weeks of the tour.

And it was like, I'd done four nights in Nottingham and it wasn't going great. They weren't, they weren't really enjoying the show as much as I'd like, but then that's probably on me. So I was like, oh man, not performing the show very well this week and da da da. And then just found this place last minute on the final day for me and my tour manager to go and have a meal. And yeah, it meant that the last show was probably even worse. I was full of food.

But, but especially on the last tour, I really wanted to find as many places to eat around the UK as I could that I could like, if anyone texted me saying, where should I go and eat in this place? I could say this place is great. Like in Nottingham, I'd have somewhere to signpost them to. And I'd recommend everyone go to Alchimilla. It was so delicious. All these little bites at the beginning were insane that they just brought out that weren't

even like the main dishes. So like, yeah, the whole meal was great. But that fish is like, it was one of those ones where I just said out loud, like a boring person, this is the best fish I've ever had to my friend. And he had to listen to that. But it was, did he also enjoy it? He enjoyed it a lot. Yeah.

Yeah. He really liked it. Although he was tour manager as well as my friend. So he was also thinking, we've got to get to the venue. He really liked it. Although he was tour manager as well as my friend. So he was also thinking we've got to get to the thing. He's clock watching. Yeah. Yeah. We've got to do this. This and this and how many more courses are coming out now? So I don't know. Your face rolling around. Yeah. So go speak on his behalf, but I think he enjoyed it. Yeah. Yeah. Sounds exquisite. It was exquisite. And I'm just going to have to lead into that now. I'm looking at what's coming and I'm not going to. Yeah, you're bougie now. At no point am I going to look any less bougie.

Yeah. Well, I'm down to earth. So for my fish course, I'd like oysters charan-tay's. Wow. Wow. Down to earth. Wow. I thought you were going to take us to a chip-in. He's going to have a battered cod just to balance things out. I did think about that when I was panicked sorting my fish course last night. I was like, what about fish and chips? Because obviously, you know, one of the best ways to have fish is battered. But I decided on Oyster Chanté, which I believe is popular in the Bordeaux region of France. I had it in, never had it before, never heard of it.

Then I had it in Rick Stein's restaurant, seafood restaurant in Padstow in Cornwall. Oh my word, which one was this? Because I just went to... To Padstow. To Padstow. But I went to the Chipy. Oh nice. And that...

Well he basically runs that town. It's like, he's like the godfather. It's like so good. I mean that battered. Ben just laughed. He imagined it in his head. The cod father. I guarantee that's why he laughed. It is isn't it? Yeah, yeah, yeah. He laughed to himself. When Ed said, Mcstein is like the godfather. Yeah.

Ben just did a little laugh to himself. I knew he'd imagined the cod father in his head. Yeah, cod father. And that is what he did. It's a very popular name for some fish and chip restaurant, to be fair. Yeah, yeah. So what it- No, but that, that, the chip eating pad star.

Oh my gosh, the Rick Stein fish and chip on the sea. Beautiful. He knows what he's doing, that guy. Oh, everything battered. I had this massive platter there, actually. And they had all of the catch of the day, that little fish bites. But honestly, the batter.

Wow. Next level. It's so good. The little fish bites. But honestly, the batter. Wow. Next level. It's so good. The guy knows fish. The guy knows fish. You know, I went on to cook him with the stars. Jack Stein, Rick Stein's son. Yes.

And he's amazing. So I met him that night actually, that I had the oyster charantets. Did you? Oh, how nice is it? What a nice guy. Yeah, lovely, lovely man. He taught me how to make this amazing fish berried.

Oh yeah. Yeah. What's a berried? I thought you were going to say burrito. It's almost like a French soup. Oh. So there was like loads of different fish in there. Nice.

You'd love it. It's right up your street. Yeah. Yeah. You'd love it. Really fancy. Yeah. Lovely. Imagine all of. Really fancy. Yeah. Lovely. That imagine all of your favorite features in in basically a caviar bowl. Savory fudge man. Yeah. I use it to my ears that when they said that when I heard the phrase savory fudge I was like, hey, Castor, things

have worked out well. This is what you always dreamt of as a kid. This is the dream. Anyway, sorry, hijacks your course. No worries. So I never heard of this before, but it just played into just my dreams. It's like savory fudge. Oysters, very simple, just shucked, ready to go, raw, plain oysters.

On the side, three spicy sausages. So like Charrita or Merguez style sausages. So those bright red, super spicy sausages. Beautiful. Charrito or Merguez style sausages. So those bright red super spicy sausages. And you just have them together. And what I was doing was oyster in the mouth, keep the oyster in the mouth, bite the sausage. So they're in there together and just enjoy that. And you get the fatty spicy sausage

and then the salinity of the oyster cutting through that fat. It is such a delicious combination. And the ideal sauce, because it still feels light, but it's decadent as well. Yeah, I like that. Very decadent. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Oh my gosh, that sounds so delicious. And I went with my gang of mates who have a little club. Actually reprobates these guys. Oh yeah. Yeah, way to hear about this reprobates. We're not reprobates, we're very polite. It's me, my friend, Freddie Bulmer, who works for the Wine Society,

Pierre Novelli, the comedian, Phil Wang, the comedian, and Ollie Smith, the television wine expert. And we go on little trips around the place. We go to restaurants and we call ahead and we say, do you mind us bringing our own wine? What? And we turn up with, I'd say,

between five of us, 10 bottles of wine. Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. You mean to tell me that you guys can just tip up to a restaurant, pull out tables, you know, have meals that aren't on the menu, served up, and in addition to that, make everything a BYOB. To be fair, we pay corkage at most places. Oh, we pay corkage. Oh, sorry. You've got to pay corkage. most places. Oh, we pay corkage? Oh, sorry.

You've got to pay corkage. You can do that in any restaurant. You can take your own stuff. You just have to pay corkage. Wow. He's paying corkage. Also, I mean, don't mind paying corkage. You guys, what a life.

I'll be honest with you, most of the time the restaurant's right off the corkage. Yeah, you have some corkage written off anyway, gratis. Every time he's out with those reprobates, at some point in the evening I'll get a selfie from him, just him and all of them just looking absolutely fucked. Just sitting in a really nice restaurant, just all of them, none of their eyes are completely open, just completely like, thinking that they're looking cool. Exactly, don't know whether they paid corkage or not. Who cares?

I just throw the card at someone when I get in there yeah that's four people in there remind me you've got that at the end I trust you'll wave the Corkage my brain! Gosh that sounds amazing though we're very polite diners oysters are very hit and miss aren't they for some people? some people don't love it I personally love oysters so I can love oysters. Yeah. So I can't wait to try that. Yeah.

I think, and it's something you could do at home. But we've rolled into our main course. Yeah. So what are we having? Well, we've had mention of this restaurant already today. Oh yeah. It's our friends at Scoff. Oh yeah.

Lovely. Manchester restaurant, Michelin star. Only recently. It's the only reason it wasn't even when we went there. When I went there we did have a mission star. It was just a really nice place. Yeah, just a nice place that the guy, the head chef of Long Clume started through Michelin stars. It is the duck main course from scoff. I'm gonna read it's the dry, dry aged slades down duck. It's this beautiful bit of duck, just the most perfectly cooked duck you can imagine. Like pink, it's got that deep dry age flavor to it as well. The sauce is what is perfect. The shiny, beautiful, like decadent sauce, which has got tapioca

balls in it, which gives it a little bit of texture and little flicks of fig leaf as well, which sort of lifts the whole thing. Just an amazing sauce. You know, when you have a sauce at a restaurant, you're like, I don't know how you've made this or how long you've spent making this, but you feel like it's gone through so many reductions. They've added so much stuff. It's been reduced again. They've put it through one of those big conical sieve things. They've spent days making it. They've strained it. They've reduced it. They've stirred it. They've boiled it. They've done it all. Yeah.

It's been horrible for them. And that's what I like to taste. The pain and effort. The pain and the effort. But here's the killer with this. It comes with another bit of bread. Oh my gosh. This tiny little wholemeal perfect loaf, and you tear open the loaf, and inside is the leg of the duck that's been confit down. What?

So you've got confit duck leg meat inside the bread. And then you're mopping up the sauce, and there's bits of duck falling out of the bread into the sauce, you're scooping it all up, and it's the perfect size because it's part of a tasting menu. It's not like you're going to be dead after you eat that. Yeah. It's delicious. And if you are me or James, they'll bring a bit more duck as well. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Anyone is going to scoff. You just have to work in a disguise. So you look like even me or it. So depending on who you look more like, you want to start from there. Just lean in. Try to go in a disguise and then at key points go, excuse me, where's my extra portion? But yeah, I just thought that was a, and rarely on tasting menus do I enjoy the main meat selection. Sure, this is where we are in our lives now. Guys, don't you agree with me?

Text in if you agree. Yeah. But I just think it's phenomenal. And what a restaurant and I'm glad I got to give that a shout out. Yeah. That sounds so good. Yes. I'm also excited to shout out this place.

Well, I'm having my main. Um, it's the... Yeah. It's Gregg's isn't it? I've quickly changed it. It's Matt McDonaldson. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, yeah.

Am I going to have the Beef Wellington from Ron Gastrobar? Hang on, is this third year in a row? Yes. Third time in a row? Wow. I haven't found a better main course. You're taking the court over it? The Beef Wellington at Ron Gastrobar remains.

In Amsterdam. In Amsterdam remains the finest main course I've ever had. I had it again after the second, so I've had it twice now. I had it again after the second tasting menu. My girlfriend took me there for my birthday. I was nervous about it. Why? Because I was like, I've really run my mouth off about this, you know?

Okay. And how good it is. So you worry that the memory of it is better than the actual thing. Yeah. And I knew that people had been there because of the podcast as well to try it. I was like, what if they've been there and they've had it and been like, this is rubbish. Yeah. The pressure's on. If anything, it was even better than my memory. Actually, I've had it three times.

The first time I went twice in one week. I'll tell you what, I recommended this dish to De Niro. Did he have it on his menu in the end? It was one of the many things. Actually, do you know what? I should have the end? It was one of the many things. Actually, do you know what? I should have just said, I'll have whatever's good. Why didn't we do that for this menu, Ed? We should have just said, we'll have whatever's good. Because that is no way to treat the format.

Oh, nice. Yes, I did pitch this to De Niro, but he changed it for Wagyu beef in the Wellington. But he still was gonna have it from one gastro bar. Okay, I've had the beef Wellington in Estelle Manor. Have you been there? No. Oh my gosh.

Delicious. It's in Oxfordshire and beautiful, beautiful ambiance, beautiful vibes. But sometimes, you know, when you go to these, but you'll know when you go to these posh places sometimes they focus a lot on the dining experience and then sometimes the food's lacking. Yeah. Whereas this, you get a 360 experience. It's like, you're in a gorgeous manor house, you've got beautiful service, like everything's decadent, old, lovely.

Yeah. And then the Beef Wellington raved about, talked about that, paired with a gorgeous little pinot noir. Stunning! And the beef Wellington, honestly, the meat was thick, but like so like succulent and pink and just, oh, just so good. And the pastry on the outside, next level, like so good, you know, golden, but stays together. Hate it when it crumbles off the edges. Don't like that at all.

A beautiful gravy to go with it. Do you know what I mean? What about that? That little rim in between. Just full of flavour. Just so, so good. But not, never too much. So was yours comparable to that?

Yeah, you just described Ron Gastrobar. I need to go. That's where I need to go. I'm gigging in Amsterdam towards the end of the year. So first thing I'm doing is booking Ron Gastrobar. Yeah. I can't wait. One thing I did do, I had to warn our good friend Bob De Niro about the Ron Gastrobar. Because I was like, look, I had it. It's amazing

every time I've had it, but I sent a friend there and they put loads of black truffle on it, which wasn't there when I was there. And then they put like a smear of like sauce on it. It didn't look very appetizing. He said it still tasted delicious, but they seem to have changed it. Then when Ben went, he sent me a photo of it and it was back to how I had it. So then I had to text my friend to be like, I think they were punking you. They weren't punking him. He's really famous. He is me a photo of it and it was back to how I had it So then I had to text my friend to be like I think they were punking you. They weren't punking him He's really famous. He is quite a famous guy. I guess. Let's absolutely Give this guy the truffles. Oh, yeah, they're not breaking out the truffles for you This guy's living a better life than we are in restaurants. It's hard to even imagine that. Yeah

I mean that dizzy and high that you guys are I just can't even imagine Yeah. I mean, dizzy and high as you guys are, I just can't even imagine. Anyone. Yeah, but someone is... Someone's getting truffle. Getting truffle without even asking, because they're on Stranger Things. Side dish? You first?

Can we squeeze anything in? Oh yeah, I'm dead by this point. Yeah. Yeah, sure, dead. But yeah, so I've got two side dishes. We've let people do that. It feels like you should pick one. What do you reckon AJ? You're the host.

It does feel naughty, but I think we're feasting aren't we? Let's just binge. When you hear what they are. I'll have two as well then. Yeah. When you hear what they are, it's like more, yeah. So because one is just the lime pickle slaw from Mildred's. Of course.

Yeah. So that's like a fine, that's quite a light sight to some slaw. Yeah. And the lime pickles, I mean, it's exactly what it sounds like. They've stirred lime pickle into some coleslaw. It's next level is outstanding. I can't stop thinking about it. Um, okay.

And I'm very disturbed at the minute cause it has temporarily, I hope, disappeared from the takeaway menu on the app. And I'm like, where the fuck is it? Because like that and the artichoke Caesar salad has gone as well, which is my other favorite thing from the menu. And I'm panicking at this stage. Yeah, it's awful when they do this to us. Do you know what I mean?

They get us hooked on these delicious things. And then they go, oh yeah, we've changed the menu completely. It's like, well, you need to bring it back. They used to have a thing with artichokes and charred bread and this whipped creamy garlic sauce. And I used to have that all the time and they got rid of it. Yeah, this is what I'm going through. Like I've only just discovered this lime pickle slaw.

I think I've only had it three times. This is the most accessible thing on your menu for listeners and it's about a small train in London. Yes. So you just have to catch the train or fly in. Every man James A. Castle Pinsler. Lime pickle slaw from Mildred's. And then I guess the headliner for my side dishes are the Kentucky Fried Mussels from

Ox Club in Leeds. Oh, nice. So we're back in Leeds. Oh, nice. They're back in Leeds again. Yeah. Nice. But like Ox Club, one of my favorite restaurants in the country. I think it's incredible. Again, just keep sending people there because it's so good.

And I mean, that was definitely one where the gig I did in Leeds that night was so bad because I went in just, I was like, I'm going to get one little thing. And then they were, we really do recommend you have the Kentucky fried mussels. They're really good as a starter. Had them, they're exactly what they sound like. Perfectly cooked mussels with this amazing like Kentucky seasoning on them, the Southern fried seasoning on them. Eating them with a toothpick.

Ed always does this gesture when he's making fun of me for how I always talk about food. But you always mind, he always mind like he'll have a bag of something. He's walking down the street, just throw them in his mouth. Like a cartoon character. That's definitely what I was doing with the Kentucky fried mussels. I was throwing them all in, exclaiming after every single Kentucky fried mussel, how good it was. Yeah.

Every time I've recommended to a friend and they've gone, I was like, if they're on the menu, you got to get them. But the menu changes quite often. Yeah. They haven't been on there. So i'm hoping shouting them out means that they'll get back on the menu because sometimes i like to bully a restaurant okay yeah and to put my favorite things permanently on the menu oh yeah yeah because they can't just you know reserve these dishes for you when you walk in yeah they need just trying to bully restaurants that's not yeah i'm just trying to bully them into putting it on the menu permanently.

Bring it back, bring it back. Yeah, that whole meal was amazing. I had this amazing duck breast and then they had a baked Alaska. And then I was absolutely full and no one in Leeds laughed that night. They do a different baked Alaska, don't they? They change the baked Alaska. Baked Alaska is different every time you go. It is a great restaurant.

I've had the muscles. I can back James on this. They are fantastic. Yeah. Really good. Okay. I do have a couple of choices for side here. So I will just say both of them. This is something I tried to make recently. So I want it when I've made it, but I've got it exactly right.

I didn't quite get the balance right at the flavor. So I want to do this again. It's a barbecue miso butter, hispy cabbage. So hispy cabbage do this again, is a barbecue miso butter, Hispy cabbage. So Hispy cabbage, really simple, split in half, and then miso and butter mixed together, put it on the cut side, get it onto the barbecue, down, like really, really grill it until you've proper charred it. Then set up the other side of the barbecue for indirect heat. So basically just sticking it on that side, shutting the lid for like 15 minutes, 20 minutes, and then constantly basting with the butter

you've got left over. And it's soft and delicious and sort of almost meaty, but it was just too salty when I did it. I think I used salted butter, which I think was a mistake. Gotta go unsalted butter, not as much miso, and then a bit of some sesame seeds over the top, right at the end. But I love burnt vegetables.

It's basically- You two like burnt things. Love burnt things. As a mate I'll say, Ed is doing some superb food descriptions today. I'm all over the place. I'm saying stuff is mildewy and- I'm trying to make it sound appetizing.

It's like a burnt pancake. Ed, this is mouthwatering stuff. That was mouthwatering stuff. You can taste the barbe, you can taste the smoke. Especially if you get it shut the lid and get all the smoke rolling around it while you're cooking it. Absolutely fantastic, but I want to nail it. And then my other side dish is salt and pepper chips.

Right. Delicious. Where do you have them from? Everywhere I get them from, they're good. I've never had bad salt and pepper chips, but from Chinese restaurants, really. Basically, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. That is amazing.

And I like anything salt and pepper. I love the salt and pepper chicken wings. I love all of that, but salt and pepper chips, for me, that's the best. How do they do it so good? It's that seasoning. I mean, I guess it's like MSG and sugar and salt and garlic and chili and sometimes there's like the spring onions in there that have been fried a little bit, but they're at the bottom. So they're almost steaming in there as well. And you'll get like onion and spring onion and chili just collecting at the

bottom and I'm having that on a big spoon. Just having it. Yeah. It's so mouthwatering stuff. Salt and pepper chips and a glass of Riesling. That could be my whole meal. Oh yeah. Bad luck.

You got about a billion things. Yeah. I'm glad that you mentioned that drink because we are coming on to our drinks course. You're right. So what are we washing all of this loveliness down with? I'm not having a Riesling. I had a Riesling last time. I'm having a Rose actually. How right. But don't get ideas in your head about what kind of Rose this is. This is not, and I've

been known to partake in an Echo Falls. Not an Echo Falls. You're not that relatable. The news agent is from Vapes only. He couldn't even take that as a joke. I don't want people thinking I... It was furious as soon as you said it. I buy dusty bottles of Echo Falls from the news agent is from Vapes only. You couldn't even take that as a joke. I don't want people thinking I...

It was furious as soon as you said it. Nothing to go for. I buy dusty bottles of Echo Falls from the news agent. I do not do that. Whispering angel, I've been known to... Sure, I've been a whispering angel. Yes, I've been known for the angel to lean into my ear on occasion. The whispering angel at a Patti Smith concert, thank you. It is...

Got three tickets because I need the drummer. Patty Smith concert. Thank you. It is, it is the Lopez de Heredia, Vina Tondonia, Rosado Grand Reserva. That's what it is. But he has fewers he's got to look up how that's spelled. It's a Rioja Rose, a Lopez de Heredia, Vina Tondonia, Rosado Grand Reserva. They make fantastic Rioja, white and red, but the Rose, which I believe they've stopped making, so the latest you can get vintage-wise, I think it's like 2012,

so now coming hard, it's hard to come by. It's the color you wouldn't know it was a Rose. It's not pale, it's got a real deep, deep pink color. Otherwise known as red. No, not that deep. Not that deep. Benito, get me a picture of the glass of it. You've got to finish spelling it.

It's going to take him an hour. It's orange. There you go. So orangey, reddy. It's like whiskey. This is a bottle of whiskey, actually. It does, yeah. It's got a full flavor.

It's not quite a lot at the time with rosé. If it gets hot, I'm like, I really crave a rosé because I just want to get that super cold. And then you're almost necking it. It's just like water. You the time with rose. If it gets hot, I'm like, I really crave a rose because I just want to get that super cold. And then you're almost necking it. It's just like water. You can barely taste it. Exactly. But this has got a flavor. You take time over this.

It's hay, it's strawberries. It still tastes summery, but it's still warming. It's just got body and it's exciting. Wow. That does sound so good. I'm just trying to think about how to describe my drink and all I can think of is nice. Yeah.

And I would urge our listeners to go and get some. Okay. About 120 quid a bottle. Apart from me, who's going to get it sent for free now. Yeah, yeah, he's going to get it sent. No, I don't think so. A crate of them. Yeah.

And they'll put your doorstep. No, I've had it very, very rarely because it is hard to come by. It is expensive, but this is the dream. This is the dream menu. This is the dream menu. Can you get it by the glass or it's a bottle situation? It's mainly a bottle situation. Once we're getting into the three digits for a bottle,

it's a bottle or nothing really, isn't it? Unless you're going somewhere that's using the Coravan system where they can extract a glass without taking the cork out. Yeah, that's nuts. Well, that sounds nice. It's delicious. I can't wait to have it again one time in the future. Okay. Gotta be crisp and cold. Coldish. I mean, we're getting into the area now, AJ, of where I start speaking.

I realize how boring I'm being, but also I do need to finish the thoughts. Yeah. I mean, I asked. Personally, if it's white wine or rose, you really should be getting it out of the fridge 20 minutes before you drink it. Because you're missing, if you're having it ice cold, you're missing out on all of the flavors. If it's a nice bottle of wine, it's out of the fridge 20 minutes before. Right. Champagne, fine, colder. With red, some reds benefit from 20 minutes in the fridge before you drink them. Because of course we all say wine was meant to be drunk at room temperature, but what we're not taking into account is room temperature has

changed over the years. So yes, when wine was being stored in a stone cellar and people were drinking it in castles, room temperature was perfect. But now we have central heating HX. Room temperature, no thank you. I'll have fridge temperature. Room temperature? No thank you. I'll have fridge temperature. There you go. Sort finished. Sorry everyone. Thank you. Thank you. It's actually annoyingly helpful. It was actually very helpful. And now I've envisioned myself having a nice glass of Pinot Noir in like a castle.

Yeah. At castle temperature. Get yourself on the traitors. They're drinking loads of peanut. I'll put a word in for you AJ. Cheers love. For my drink, we're going to a restaurant called Behind in Hackney. I think Behind opened during the pandemic.

Okay. Didn't stop it from getting a Michelin star pretty quickly. Oh wow. It's a seafood restaurant. Okay. And at one point, and so I'm going non-alcoholic for this as well. It's so delicious. A cardamom and coriander lassi.

Right. I don't know what this means. So lassi like, you know, like, I mean, a lot of people say like lassi, like mango lassi or whatever. Okay. Yes. I do know what that means. So it's like, yeah.

So we've, we've just doing the thing where you're saying something for your whole life, then you're told it's something different and now he's acting like he's always got it right. Yeah, right. Well, no, I'm just trying... Yeah, a lot of people say lassie, but I say lassie. Christian Gary Murphy corrected us on the podcast. Yeah. And so, especially when I'm on the format, I'm on the thing that I got corrected on.

Yeah, sure, but we still say poppadoms, don't we? Oh, I... It was just super refreshing. It's really light as well. I, and I always wanted more and more of it. So I think that's why it's on, it's on my menu. It's cause like I had a four decent glugs of it and it was gone. Yeah.

And then like, I just wanted to keep drinking it. I've wanted, I've wanted to keep drinking it ever since. Is it like a nice thick contest consistency though? Like almost like yogurt. It's not too, it's not, it's not, it's not like, no, it's not like you got like a nice thick consistency though? Like almost like yogurt-y? It's thick but it's not too, it's not like a- Milk shake-y? No, it's not like you got like a thing of yogurt there. No.

Like more of a lighter milkshake, not like- A smoothie. A juice. Maybe. Why? No, no, no. In between a juice and a smoothie? In between, like smoothie, cause this is if it was yogurt, but it's not yogurt.

Oh, no. I mean it is yogurt but it's not yogurt. Another one making my mouth water. Jesus. I'm not doing this. I apologize to all the restaurants that I've shouted out because I made it all sound disgusting. The most delicious things I've ever had. It's a probiotic in your fridge. It's a big Yakult you had, wasn't it? Actually, that's more like it.

in your fridge. It's a big Yakult you had, wasn't it? Actually, that's more like it. Yeah. But it was really refreshing. It's a very good palate cleanser as well. And it went with all that seafood. I've got quite a lot of seafood on my menu, even though I went for the, you know. You added a fish course.

Because I added a fish course and I had the crab, I had the mussels, unknowingly I had whipped caviar. Caviar, yeah. So like, you know, that adds to it. Yeah, it's quite a nautical theme as well. Given the fact that like you've had some of this on an actual bowl. Oh yeah, Jesus. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, so that'll help.

So yeah, that lassi is absolutely delicious and that's what I would like and it bridges me nicely from all those mains into the next hack that I'd like to do A hack before the desert. Yeah, come on then. I absolutely Love I love the hacks by the way. Thank you. Yeah, I do. I love the hacks I want it's like a bonus in it. Mmm Around I'm able to do both of these hacks, the cheese course and the pre-dessert kind of in one, because I had them in the same place last week. So before last week, there was no hack here. I was going to go straight to the dessert and be a good little boy.

But then I went to Osteria Giorgione de Massa in Venice. Wow. Who did you go with? George Clooney? Probably did. Ben absolutely loves that. Wow. Who did you go with? George Clooney? I probably did. Ben absolutely loves that. I went with my girlfriend, but we met our friends there who lived there and they were

like, this place is amazing. Got to go. The whole meal was delicious. And then for dessert, they were like, we should order all the desserts because they were all brilliant. And now here's what I'm worried about is that I've not done very well at describing food. Yeah. Until up until this point. Straight in there. Yeah. Yeah. And looking at what looking at what I'm about to describe, I don't think I'm going to do these justice. Okay. Listen, there's still a piece of shit on an old log. I know it sounds bad. But you can really taste all the shit when you're eating it. So my cheese course is blue cheese ice cream from this place.

How are you feeling about that, AJ? Right, you've lost me. You've lost me. I love blue cheese. I love ice cream. But together sounds criminal, actually. Trust me Trust me. I'm calling the police. Looks like a scoop of that yellow vanilla ice cream Yeah, we get the vanilla ice cream from shops. It's yellow. Yeah, looks like that really generous Yeah, looks very cheese like

Would it convince you AJ if I told you that the cheese flavor is incredibly strong? Because it really is. It is so strong of blue cheese. Is it one of the things, the sort of things you eat it and your brain's like going wild going out? Why is this happening in my mouth? What I'm looking at? Yeah. I couldn't stop eating it.? What I'm looking at? Yeah.

I couldn't stop eating it. It was so good. No, no, no. You might say no. No, but trust me, if you like cheese and you like ice cream, you'd be surprised how much you'd like it. Right. It was both these things.

I'm shouting out. I immediately ordered them again. I had them both again immediately. Do you know what I'm going to say here? I think you're one of those people who's like, who's loving that trend of ice cream and salt and olive oil. Yes, correct. Oh, I love that. That was on my menu last time.

Which I do not like. I nearly did it again. Wow, no. You see, I've tried it and I really tried to like it because I was like, everyone loves this. Come on AJ, you know, broaden that palette of yours. It's just not for me. Oh, you would hate this I'm coming with ice cream like this. Do you know what's ice cream ever done to you to deserve this? Well, actually and I know this because I studied it for my mastermind round One of the original flavors of ice cream was cheese. Yeah

It's so you know. And then it pretty much got abolished. Yeah, that's true. And transformed to vanilla and chocolate and strawberry. The thing is, James loves ice cream. Because that's better. No? He loves ice cream, but it's got to the point now, you know, when you like hear about like

porn addicts, where they've, they've been through all the standard stuff. It doesn't do anything for them anymore. So it needs to get more and more extreme. Yeah. To the point where everyone else disgusted at you. Yeah, this is like hardcore. Yeah. This is beyond hardcore ice cream.

Yeah, this is triple X rated. Yeah, I'm in big trouble if people find out I've been eating this. Yeah. So I've had that, but then this is like, my head was spinning because there was that, but also there was grappa panna cotta that we had. Wow.

And the grappa, I would say, had been free poured in there by someone who did not give a shit. Is this your pre-dessert now, by the way? Pre-dessert. So, blue cheese ice cream is my cheese course that bridges from the mains to the desserts. And then my pre-dessert is the grappa panna cotta also from the same place. These are on the same table at the same time. I was going back and forth going these are two of the best desserts I've ever had.

I can't believe I'm eating them at once. Two more immediately please. And I ordered them again. The grappa in this is the most boozy thing I've ever tasted. Again, when I put it in my mouth, I was like that is way too much. That is incredibly that is ridiculous. Also that's one of the tastiest things I've ever had. And I was like, that is way too much. That is incredibly, that is ridiculous. Also, that's one of the tastiest things I've ever had. And I'm going straight back in for another one.

I cannot emphasize enough how much this is more grappa than panna cotta. Like it was still a solid panna cotta, but it just tasted like pure grappa. It was mad and I loved it so much. And that having two things on the table at once That were 10 out of 10s and then being able to order them again immediately because I didn't want it to end Wow felt great And I knew I've got it. I've got to get them into this menu now. I've got to do the hacks You know what? I love that for you. I love it for you. You know, you enjoyed it. You love that I'm saying the word you a lot

Really like that and I do love that for you. Do you think the boozyness of the second, of the panna cotta, you know, influenced the taste of that very cheesy ice cream? No way. No way. Because I think I started with the ice cream actually and then was going back. But like maybe it did. And that's why I want them on the same menu as well. Yeah. You need them together. You experience them together. You want them together again. So even though they're separate courses, I would like them on the table at the same time so I can relive that. For you, emphasis on you, for, a match made in heaven. A match made in heaven. I was in heaven and I love heaven. I panicked here, AJ.

Okay. Because I didn't know we were doing a cheese course or a pre-dessert. Okay. I was pretty happy with what I had so far. I was struggling over a couple of the main ones anyway. Mmm. So cheese course, I mean, I should be the one who knows what I want for my cheese course. But you're going to have a cheese string.

Was that the panic? It wasn't the panic, it was baby bell. I always knew I was having baby bell. But I think I do want blue cheese, but in a more traditional format, aka blue cheese. But Stilton, you know when you get Stilton in a jar, in like a ceramic jar? For some reason I prefer that to slices. It feels like a cut above, that's why. It feels like a cut above, and you can spoon it out of there. Yeah.

And I want a spoon, and I want a big jar of Stilton, and I want to eat it like a yoghurt. What? That's not traditional. That's not traditional, that's the twist. But also, for when I'm a little bit overcome with the blue cheese taste, I want a plate of cold and crisp pear slices. Delicious. That, that, we're back. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You lost me for a second. And now we're back. And I want to, you know, occasionally in between great gobfuls of blue cheese, I'll take a little nibble of the pear slice just to bring my mouth back to life. Exactly. And then I'm backing with the spoon. And now you're back appreciating that cheese. Yeah. You know, you never thought of just spreading it on a cracker?

No. Or just spreading the cheese onto the pear. Now and again. Why must the spoon be so heavily involved? Now and again, I will spread the cheese onto a pear slice to mix it up a little bit. Okay, right, right. But that'll probably make me think, I'm gonna go back to my previous method of spooning this blue cheese into my mouth and freshening my palate up with a cold pear slice.

It's so good. This is dangerous though. Guys, I can't believe you've been such a good neck. Well, we don't actually do this. This is the dream. Wow. Just like a ball of cheese. This is Christmas.

We'll do that at Christmas. Yeah. So nice. Oh, pre-dessert. So I didn't know what to do for this. Obviously I've eaten many nice pre-desserts in my life. Judging Great British Menu, we get pre-desserts as part of it, but I sort of set myself a rule for not picking anything from Great British Menu,

because I want people to be able to go out and have the things. But also it's like then you're picking a favourite, like one of your friends. Exactly, and I've already judged, you know. Yeah, yeah, it's not fair. Now, when I went to Japan last year, the whole point of the trip to Japan, as James knows, is sure you go out and have some nice food, you see some great sites, but then at about 10pm you head to a 7-Eleven or a Lawson's or a Family Mart and you just fill the bag full of stuff. Every night, filling

like cans of whiskey soda, iced coffee for the next morning, so many snacks. And the thing I got every single night in Japan, I had to remind myself of the name of the company and I did that by searching the picture of it that I sent to James when I was in Japan, I had to remind myself of the name of the company. And I did that by searching the picture of it that I sent to James when I was in Japan is a bag of dark chocolate covered frozen banana slices. Yes. Oh, that sounds so good. They're from a company called Tropical Maria. Are they frozen? Are they?

Yeah. So they come out of the, well, room temperature, interesting you say about room temperature. They come out of the freezer section, so they are frozen. But I think they're quite ripe, so you get that proper banana flavor. So you eat them frozen. They're like little ice cream treats. They're edge doing the mind that I do. Yeah, just throwing them in.

How big are they? Like, how good is this for people with sensitive teeth? Not, not good. Do you like to like really chew? No. Cause they're more chewy than hard. I mean, they're not like those like hard bananas, you know, like banana chips or anything.

They're nice and chewy. Cause I think they leave them to ripen for a decent amount of time. So it's quite intense banana flavor and also a little bit softer. And even though, you know, cause you get them out of the freezer, you buy them, take them back.

They're thawing a little bit on the way back. So they've got a softness to them. But honestly, AJ, I was going through bags of these things. Oh, my word. How much in a bag is it? Is this like a one kg sack? No, God, imagine. I just need to know.

It's more of like a sensible portion for one person. Like a little crisp packet. Yeah, maybe like 10 or 11 little banana slices in there. Oh nice, it's a 30 grammer. Yeah, and it's only a pre-dessert, we don't want to go crazy. Oh! Yeah, yeah, yeah. We don't want to go crazy.

What about dessert? Are we ready for that? Yes. Always. So, we talked about cheese at Christmas. I mentioned cheese at Christmas. Yeah. Huh? But cheese isn't just for... I said I'd still have it at Christmas. Yes, but at Christmas. Yeah. I said, I'd still to no have it Christmas.

Yes, but what are you about to do now? Yeah. I'm about to go Christmas. Oh my, you're dropping the sea bomb. I'm dropping the sea bomb. Well, well, well. Christmas pudding. Christmas pudding.

But I'm eating it the day after it was the main dessert. So, Boxing Day traditionally. It does taste good. Depending on whenever this dream meal's happening, the Christmas pudding was served the day before and this is leftovers. And I'm warming it up by pan frying it in butter. And then I'm adding, when it's really, really warm,

and I've pan fried it in salted butter, putting it in a bowl and I'm adding brandy butter, single cream and cart door ice cream. Yeah. That sounds good. That single cream and cart door ice cream. Yeah, that sounds good. That sounds good. Vanilla ice cream? The day after as well. Vanilla cart door ice cream.

Yeah. The day after as well, because everything just hits different the day after. Yeah. And it's just essentially, because I'm putting so much stuff on top, it just turns into a big bowl of thick Christmas soup. Yeah. That time between Christmas and New Year, it's all just Christmas pudding and then I'm tipping custard and brandy cream over at the same time.

Like it's cereal, right? Yeah. Mashing it all up. Just walking around like it's some special milkshake I got from McDonald's. It's like a McFlurry, but Christmasy. Oh my gosh. Yeah. It is like a McFlurry from Christmas. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Yes, like a festive ice cream. So that's what I'm doing. That sounds so good. Allow the C-bomb for that. Thank you.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was risky. I'm going to pair it with a quick drink, if I may. Oh, well, do you know what? Go on. If I may drop another C-bomb, Chateau Iquem. If I may drop another sea bum, Chateau Iquem. The greatest dessert wine in the world, considered by many to be. I've had it a few occasions. This is pricey stuff.

I'm not buying bottles of this. This is a present. This is a gift. This is a gift from someone who's pretty flush, I'd say. But it is just the most gorgeous sweet wine. And it's got all those flavors you want in there from the sweet wine, the sort of orange peel, the slightly honeyed but just, and almost floral. So it's light and it's got that dessert wine, a mouth feel as well of being a little bit thicker. If I were to push the bar out and treat myself to a glass or a bottle of this, what am I pairing it with?

Pudding again. Not the Christmas pudding. No, see it's hard to pair it. That's too sweet. Yeah, no, I know what you mean because I heard someone say the other day that the pudding should never be sweeter than the dessert wine. So the dessert wine should always be the sweetest thing. I mean, you can have it with cheese, but maybe a lighter dessert. Okay.

Maybe like, and this is just off the top of my head, wine nuts don't get angry with me. Maybe like a tartanta. A tartanta. Okay. A creme brulee? A creme brulee, perhaps, yeah. But honestly, I would just, it's a dream meal. I'm not paying for it. So I'd say, bring me Chateau Iquem from loads of different vintages and I'm putting straws in them and I'm drinking it like a yop. Just guzzle guzzle. Yeah, I'm guzzling it down. Wow.

So that's my drink pairing. Cheers to you. Cheers to you AJ. James! Well, look. Top that. Not a million miles away from what Ed just said. Are we in fist bump territory?

Maybe half fist bump territory. I'm going to, I've mentioned it on the podcast before, and this is a successful bullying that I did to a restaurant where they had it as a special and I bullied them into putting it on permanently. It's from a restaurant called Core, C-O-R, in Bristol, and they do this tiramisu that instead of using sponge fingers, they use panettone and it tastes like Christmas pudding tiramisu. It's not quite a fist bump, I don't think. There's not quite a fist bump, but it's Christmas pudding.

The flavor of Christmas pudding is there, believe you me. Yeah, yeah. Hints of Christmas. They've got a great orange and nutmeg on it as well. It's very festive. It's incredible. Again, it was one of those ones where as soon as it went in my mouth, time stood still and I saw the world differently and I was glad

that I'd been born at all. I got to experience such a thing. It does taste exactly like someone has taken the best elements of tiramisu, best elements of Christmas pudding and they throw them together. Like a little brat, I was like, they've got to have that on the menu permanently, blah, blah, blah. Because my tour manager had gone the day after I'd had it, because I'd gone on about it so much. And it went there. Not on the menu.

And they said, oh, that was just for yesterday. So I came on the podcast, run my mouth off enough. And then same tour manager was back in Bristol with someone else, because he sometimes. Because of the people. Because of the people. Because of the people. Unbelievable. And he went back and they remembered him and they went, oh, you're glad to hear it's now on the menu because he bullied us.

That's correct. Success. Really glad with my bully in there. Yeah. So yeah, that's, I mean, that won't surprise anyone who regularly listens to his podcast because I went on about it so much the first time. And shout out to my mum. She tried to recreate it for Christmas and Joe, what mum for a first go it was great.

And dad knew it wasn't awful. You were texting me saying how bad it was. I was not doing that mum, he's lying about that. He's making that up. You know that he's a stirrer. And dad said it's how he wants to be pursued from now on. So dad clearly preferred it to the regular. You said it was all split.

Didn't say it was all split. Mom, I didn't say it. You said it was like cottage cheese on toast. I didn't say it was like cottage cheese on toast. Mom, please make it a gift for Christmas. Well, these desserts aren't just for Christmas. They're for all year round. Yeah, I agree.

And I hadn't planned to pair it with anything and I probably won't. I'll leave it at that, I think. Fair enough. That's nice. Well, thanks for that, boys. That sounds absolutely delicious. Petty fourth, if I may. Oh, I'm so sorry.

So sorry. How dare you, Adrienne. It's like I've wrapped it up. Oh, I tried to skip the main course. Yeah. The fish course almost got vetoed. And now this. Yeah, so petty force.

Where are my manners? How could you forget the petty force? Oh my God. Yeah, I can't believe. So sorry. The petty force. Let me tell you, if you were working at a restaurant, you'd be fired pretty quickly if you did that to us.

Yes. We'll get you fired. Now, again, I mean, I'm almost going out of my way now to get a further roasting because this is not going to say again, you're going to hear this and go, that doesn't sound nice. Yeah, it is. It's incredibly nice. I couldn't stop eating it. I went to my friend Jonathan's house in LA and he was cooking people in LA.

It was unnecessary to add LA. It's just after the running. Yeah. Why did I do that? Yeah. My friend Jonathan's house in LA. Yeah. Idiot. Absolute idiot. I did that for the listener. I'm not, I'm not going to retake it. I deserve it. I got a friend who lives in LA And went for dinner and For desserts, this is from a cookbook called the family meal by and now you'll probably know this person Ferran Adria, yeah Spanish chef watermelon cubed Drizzled with lemon syrup and this is where I might lose you dusted with ground up powdered menthol cough drops. Cough drops?

Menthol cough drops. So they got a bunch of cough drops, smashed them up with a rolling pin to smithereens, and then dusted them over the top of this cubed up watermelon and lemon syrup. You've changed man. This is experimental to say the least. Can you get the drops from Boots? Oh yeah. Wow. It's wherever you buy menfold cough drops from smash them up. So very easy to make this Did your mom try make this for Christmas as well? No, I can't convince her to do it. She she probably end up pouring cowpall over a honeydew mom

ignore this man By the way, that sounds nice. Yeah, it does actually Sorry, don't people might try doing that. Yeah, yeah. If anyone listening wants to try pouring cow pull on a honeydew and let us know how it tastes, please do, because it does sound good. No context, love menu.

But yeah, my mum, I have mentioned this to my mum and she refuses to make it because she thinks it doesn't sound nice. Yeah, yeah. But it was so nice. Again, I've chosen another thing where I can't describe the taste because I've never tasted it anywhere else. And when I was tasting it, like a lot of things on this menu, my eyes just turned into spirals that were going round and round

and I wasn't thinking anything about how it tastes. I was just like on this other plane being like, well, I'm in space right now. This is crazy. And now when I try and explain how delicious it tasted, it's very difficult. But it is also, I guess it tasted exactly how it sounds. So if that doesn't sound good to you, you might not like it. What was the texture?

You know, these hard drops. It was just like a watermelon. Because it was so powdered. Crunchy. So it was like, they were powdered to the point where it was like sprinkling sugar on it. So it was like, it's like, you weren't like getting these like lumps of like cough drops you were having a crunch through. Right. They were dusted all over the watermelon and the lemon syrup was spread nice and evenly as well. So it was just like, you were just like, like that, throwing the

watermelon in your mouth. And it just had this kind of, first of all, you just get the hit, the watermelon with the sweetness of the, of the lemon syrup. And then this wave of like menthol cough drops. Wow. Would just go through your head, go through your airways. It was something else man. It was so good. Well, you know, anything is worth a try isn't it? I'm glad that you explained the texture though, because I was envisioning sort of like watermelon

with like chunks of lockets on them. Yeah, no, no, no. It just sounded quite aggressive. No, no, no, no, no, no. Sounded quite aggressive. No, no, no, no, no, no, do not do that. And I'm pretty sure actually the, the cough drops. What's the name of the place? Well, the family meal was the cookbook. It was it from a cookbook? Yes, at my friend Jonathan's house. Oh, so Jonathan did it at his house. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Cool. It's made at his house. Yeah. In LA. Got petty fools? Yeah. Madelaineines from the French house. Oh yes. What's this?

Beautiful, beautiful madeleines, freshly baked. I mean, I don't normally like spongy, cakey things, but there's something about madeleines. The smell when they come out of the oven, this crispy on the outside, soft and steaming in the middle. Absolutely delicious. And I think I've shouted out the madeleines from St. John before. They're still great, but we went to the French house for my birthday and got the madeleines at the end and it is joyous.

Yeah, they were really good. Yeah. Lovely way to end a meal. Yeah. Right. And I will have a Papi Van Winkle 15 year bourbon, please, as well. Yeah, just throw that in there. Just casual. It was on a previous menu I did, the Papi Van Winkle 15 year bourbon place as well. Yeah, just throw that in there. Just casual. It was on a previous menu I did, the Puppi Van Winkle.

Still haven't been able to have it. I had it once way before I chose it before. It's so expensive. I'm going nowhere near it. You know, the recommended retail price of these bottles is like 160 quid. But once the shops get their hands on them, they're so highly allocated that they're selling them for two and a half grand AJ. Oh my god. I'm going nowhere near that because nothing is worth two and a half grand and I'm including cars

And I'm just a down-to-earth guy. Yeah, just a down-to-earth guy. They sound so good. I'm glad we've got some cakey numbers in there as well. Because you know, like my favourite dessert still is like custard and cake. It's very underrated. But you know, that texture, unbeatable. Those flavours. Nothing else scratches that itch. No, it doesn't. Comfort. You'd love those, Madeline. You'd love them. Yeah, so I want to try that. I want to try, I want to try a lot of the menu.

I'm feeling clear from the cheesy ice cream. I have a feeling that if you had to eat a dream menu out of mine, then you'd eat Ed's dream menu. I would, I would. Yes. You know, you've got some bangers in there though. Yeah, you do. You know, your bread course alone was exceptional.

The bread course includes my bread course, and two other delicious sounding breads. Yeah, that's true. Well, thank you for that boys. I'm now going to read your menu back to you. Fasten your seatbelts because we've had an absolute feast here. I'm going to have to loosen my seatbelt. Yeah, yeah, loosen it, loosen it.

You're a pair of teeth. Ed, you're having Manuela from Taberna La Concha. Beautiful, delicious drink. James, you're having an Oyster Shell Martini from Brat. Chin chin to you both. We're going to wash it down with some water, but not just any water. Ed, Blackburn Tap water. Exquisite choice as a Blackburn native myself. And James, you're having the hops infused sparkling water from a scarf. Track Brewing in Manchester. Track Brewing. Sounds interesting. Thank you. Worth a try. Worth a try. Chefs welcome. Might be the first time you've said that.

Now, you were both used to being welcomed by the chef. And of course, you're both having a chef's welcome. as a result. Ed, you're having a cheeky little sausage roll from the hand and flowers. And James, you're having steak and chips on a cocktail stick from Paul Fagg's personal chef. On a boat. On a boat! Oh, get out. Jesus.

Listen. It's all right for some, isn't it? It really is all right for some. This is how the other half lives. I'm just experiencing it. Yeah. Jesus. Listen. It's alright for some, isn't it? It really is alright for some. This is how the other half lives. Yeah. I'm just experiencing it. I've come out of the lamp to just experience this.

Yeah. Thank you. Popadoms or bread? You both went, bread please. Ed, you've gone for a daigle. Yes, please. From the door hut. Yes.

And James, you're having a red basket. Yeah. You're having a smorgasbord, charred flatbreads in there, a daigle from the door huts in there, and then there's peach pineapple and a tangerine sandwich from the family mart. It sounds sweet, a little bit soggy, but you said it's good, so that's in the basket. Hahaha. Starter. Big on starters, both of us here. Ed, you're having a spider crab omelette from Mountain. I can highly recommend.

James, you're having king crab legs with frozen quince and brushed with savory fudge from Norma. You really are a man of the people You know, we're going on to the fish now I'm following on with a man of the people, you know persona Yeah, you've got going on here James. You're having the age guilt head Bream from Alchemia. Yes. Okay. I just wanted to make sure that I pronounced that right. Al Camilla. That's what we're going with. Ed, you're having oysters. Yeah. Oysters. Chacantes. With spicy sausages from Rickstein's seafood restaurant. Delicious boys. Delicious. Now

we're moving on to the main now. We're not missing that. even though we've had all of this food. Ed, you're having the dry-aged, slayed down duck with a wholemeal loaf filled with comfy duck from Scoth. Yes, please. And James, you're having a beef Wellington. Yeah. Again, for the third year running from Ron Gastrobar. Cheeky little sides now. Yes. Ed, you're gonna have some barbecue miso butter,

hispy cabbage and salt and pepper chips from any Chinese. And James, you're gonna take the lime pickle slaw from Mildred's and you're also gonna chuck in some Kentucky fried mussels from Ox Club. Yeah. You're just gonna chuck them into your gob. Yeah, I am. Chuck, chuck, chuck. One after the other.

Yeah. Drink, Ed, you're gonna have the Lopez de Herida Vina Tondonia Gran Reserva Rose Wine. Yes! Thank you, AJ, and sorry for that. What a gorgeous pronunciation for my dulcet tones. James, you're going to have the cardamom and coriander lassi from behind. Yes, please. In Hackney!

And we're going to get some cheese, a big cheese course now. Ed, you're going to have a big jar of Stilton eaten like a yogurt with a plate of cold crisp pear slices. And James, you're going to indulge in blue cheese ice cream from Osteria Giogorne di Massa in Venice. Yes, please. We're going to have a pre-dessert. Of course we are. Obviously. We're gonna have a pre-dessert, obviously. Ed, bag of tropical Maria, dark chocolate covered frozen banana slices.

It sounds exquisite. James, you're gonna have the grappa panna cotta from Osteria Giorgina di Massi. Sounds boozy and pricey. Thank you. Actually, it wasn't that pricey that place. I just had to put that out. Shut up. You do have to fly to Venice. You don't have to fly to Venice. But you do have to fly to Venice. Probably get a boat to the restaurant.

Thank you Paul. See you next time. Dessert now. Leftover Christmas pudding is all yours Ed. We've pan fried it in salted, with brandy butter, single cream and vanilla Carte d'Or ice cream. And a glass of Chateau de Chem. James, Christmas pudding tiramisu from Cors. Yes. Nice, simple and finally you're both finishing things off with a petit four. Ed, you're having madeleines from the French house and a Papa Van Winkle 15-year bourbon. Yes, thank you. Two and a half grand bottle, sure.

Why not? And James, you're having cubed watermelon drizzled with lemon syrup, dusted with powdered menthol cough drops. What a horrible way to end it. Oh, delicious. Incredible way to end it. Oh, no. Incredible way to end it. That, Pete, for James, is from Jonathan's house in LA. What a sunny, gorgeous way to end it.

We're on a holiday. Nice stuff, I mean. I'm happy with those. I'm very happy with it. And you know, I want to encourage the listeners to try my dishes before, you know, writing them off completely. Because I know I've done a bad job describing them there, but they are nice. I'm going to give it a go.

You know, the next time, the next time I'm on the boat, a plane, LA, I'll definitely give some of those a try. Or next time you got a cough. Yeah, that's a good way to introduce yourself to that dish actually. Wait till you've got a cough, try it. You might like it. Exactly. AJ, thank you so much for guest hosting off menu, you've been fantastic.

Thank you. You've been very patient with us AJ, the menus were so long and thank you for guiding us through them. And you know what, regardless you you made us feel like you were interested. I genuinely was interested I still am interested I'm going to try some of these dishes some of them I'll swerve but some of them I'll try they sound amazing exquisite very decadent. Yes very decadent boys and Joe what I think while we're eating our dream menus we'll be watching Big Brother hosted by yourself

and also Dress the Nation, of course. So we'll look forward to watching those later in the year. Thank you, tuck in and enjoy the shows. Thanks, AJ. Thanks, AJ. Thank you. MUSIC Wow, James, I'm full, baby.

I'm full up. I'm so full. Yeah. You know, I learned a lot about myself in that episode Yeah, I've changed you've changed. I'm an absolute bouge lord. Yeah, and all of my favorite meals sounds disgusting No, I think everything on there sounds incredible and obviously I do the thing I want to try most now Yeah, is the watermelon with cough lozenges. And you can do that.

You can go home and do that. You can make that yourself. Yeah. But is it, could you find out from your friend Jonathan in LA, if he gets, if he gets phone reception up in the Hollywood Hills, what particular lozenge he went for? Yeah. Because if it's an American only lozenge, I am touring to the States next year. That's exciting Yes, come and see me on on tour in America and I will pick up a big bag of lozenges for my water

Well, if you go go see one of Ed's shows bring some cough lozenges with you and come in the menfold cough sweets and give them to No, no, no, we'll find out you'll find out from Jonathan which ones. Okay. Well, I think your menu's had a delicious head. Thank you. As did yours. It's so beautifully described as well. Thank you to AJ again. A fantastic waiter. Yeah, so good.

Do tune in to Big Brother and Dress the Nation. Yes, AJ is such a good vibe. Yeah, absolutely fantastic. We should go out for a meal with AJ, shouldn't we really? Yeah. I mean, maybe one of your places by the sound of the reaction that... Well, we'll go to Mountain. She seems to like Mountain anyway, so yeah, we'll go to Mountain. I've never been.

Yeah, yeah. So I'll have a lovely time. We'll go to Mountain. We've been sent some food recently. The flapjackery sent us some flapjacks. Thank you for that. Yes. So we talked about them in Dermot's episode.

Yes. We're very lucky to have been sent some. Absolutely delicious. And Daisy Ridley mentioned this isn't sausages and they've sent us a lot of this isn't sausages. And Benito's a vegetarian. He's a very happy little boy. And actually, while we're on the subject, thank you Benito for another 100 fantastic episodes.

Yes, thank you Benito. Editing them and recording them. We assume they've been well edited. We don't listen. We don't listen, but we don't listen because we don't have to because we know we're in good hands. Yeah, and we were there. We were there, which actually, you know, usually would mean I would listen because we don't have to because we know we're in good hands. Yeah and we were there. We were there which actually you know usually would mean I would listen because I was worried

about if I sound like a Wally. Yeah but you know you sound like a Wally. Roots Coffee sent us some coffee thank you so much it's always good to have nice coffee in the studio and in the office for our wonderful guests and us and also the people who work here talking to the people who work here. Toclos Bakery sent us some lovely pastries Yes, did we get a sniff of those? No, we didn't because the horrible little trolls who will work here that we need so changed their desk and doesn't allow them natural light

They all snaffled the pastries because they need to get their blood glucose levels up because they're working so hard Yeah, that is what happened. We came in and they went we're so sorry. We ate your pastries Yeah, well, there we go. It's another 300 episodes. Yes. I guess we'll do another hundred more. Yes, please and If we sound tired, it's just because we had a massive meal just now Yeah, and also that episode was longer than normal. That was a long episode. That was so long AJ kept the energy up though. Is a professional. Yeah.

That's why AJ hosts live television. Yeah. We were tired because on our own podcast, we deliberately made it longer by picking way more things than we needed to. And we're tired and annoyed at that. Yes. Yes. That's why we're very lucky to have a podcast at all.

Yes. Cause, I mean, you do host TV shows to be fair to you, Yes, that's why we're very lucky to have a podcast at all. Yes, because I Mean you do host TV shows to be fair to you, but absolutely not The one thing I learned from this podcast day one. I'll be like I'm out I'm not hosting this TV show. This is exhausted But thank you for listening, of course loyal listeners 300 episodes. We hope you enjoy the of the next 100. See you later and keep things Off Menu. Oh boy oh boy the Off Menu boys are back in town doing live shows in London, James.

Ed, drop the act, we're a couple of losers who can't even sell out the Royal Albert Hall. Well, I think we pretty much have, James. We're doing five shows at the Royal Albert Hall, 13th to the 15th of March, 2026. This is depressing, man. We used to be a great podcast. People used to flock to see us, and now we've got like, some tickets still knocking around for Royal Albert Hall. Are you kidding me? This is exciting, James. We're on the scrap.

We've sold so many tickets. It's going to be tasting menus. It will be previous fan favorite guests being given the menus of other previous guests. The shows are going to be brilliant and we haven't even sold them out. We're on the way out. James, it's the Royal Albert Hall. We're on the way out. And listen, if you were ever a fan of this podcast, you've got to come and see these

shows because this could be it. This could be the end. OfBurneyPodcast.co.uk for tickets. Happy with that?