(screen whooshes) - Hello and welcome back
to another taste testing global dishes.
But today, with some very special guests,
it's Jesse and Will from Topjaw.
Welcome.
- There's Will not there.
- Sorry, there. He's there.
- Yeah, buddy.
- Hey, Will. (kisses to will)
- Simple game, we feed you dishes from around the world.
You guess where they are from. Easy, right?
- Super easy.
- This is your job.
- You should have this down.
- Blindfolds on. Kush, bring in the first dish.
(energetic music)
- Nice. - Oh, yeah.
- Barry, get your hand out there.
- What?
- Boys.
- Yes. - Remove your blindfolds.
- Whoo.
- Ooh, okay.
- Got some like raw garlic or ginger on top of it.
- Like a tamarind-y sort of sauce.
- By all means, dig in.
See if you can guess what you're eating
in terms of texture and ingredients.
- It's like a dumpling.
- It looks rice-y.
Well, it's cold. Really cold.
- Super refreshing.
- Oh, I know what it is.
- No. Shut up.
No, you don't. (Jesse chuckles)
- It's couscous. - Couscous?
- Couscous or a quinoa type thing.
Oh, it's got a kick to it. Hello.
- Descriptors. Do you like it?
What is it?
- [Barry] Really zingy, refreshing.
There's a chili here in the food
'cause I thought that green sauce,
I'm guessing is green chili.
- Kind of got a chutney on it, yeah?
- Yeah, it's like the pesto
or whatever that's running through it is.
- Can you hear it? (Barry laughs)
- Hello? - It's unlike anything
I've ever had before.
- In terms of taste or texture or appearance or-
- Both because I've never had couscous-y meatballs.
I'm amused by this dish. What is it?
- It is strange. It is strange
'cause it is like, it is a dumpling.
I'm gonna go out. - It's not.
What's dumpling about it?
- Dumpling isn't necessarily what you get in a Chinese shop.
Dumpling is, you know like a suet dumpling?
- Yeah.
- But this is sort of made with couscous, okay?
'Cause I can't think of anything more specific.
- Do you think it's grain-based?
- I think it's grain-based.
It's like a Middle Eastern or Mediterranean type.
- Kush is laughing, which is not like the best sound.
Do you know what I mean?
But is it like a yogurt?
- So essentially, there's a nice yogurt there
that's spiced up, and let down with a bit of water,
a bit thinner, and some salt, and then you've got tamarind,
you've got like green chutney,
and you've got those dumpling things that you spoke about
we'll talk more of later.
I need you to pick a country.
Any country. You've got 190 odd to choose from.
If you get it spot on, we're gonna give you three points.
- Three.
- That is less than normal, but all the comments said
that five was too many and it just ruins the game
so three points if you get it spot on,
one point for the closest wrong answer.
- I'm going out on an absolute whim
- And reveal your answers in three, two, one.
- Bang.
- United Arab Emirates, Dubai specifically?
- Yes, because that's where I've been in Dubai.
- You are both
- Correct? - Equally wrong.
- No.
- Perfect.
- You are 1,621 miles away.
(Barry grunts) - Only that?
- This is Dahi Vada and it is Indian.
- Perfect.
- What they are are lentil fritters.
So cold soaked, overnight lentils
turned into a batter and deep fried.
Then when they're lovely and golden and crispy,
they are soaked in a brine.
They're like sponges
and then you squeeze out that water
and then you serve it with the yogurt mixture,
and very specific spices.
The beauty is think really hot summer months in India.
This is served pretty much ice cold
and then the tamarind and the chutney through it
gives it a little bit of spice, a little bit of tang.
Delicious dish.
- I should've got that. Yeah, I'm sorry.
Kind of let us down with that one.
- [Will] That's okay.
- I did say Indian to be honest.
Right, scratch and sniff.
- Okay guys, you are both equally wrong.
You're gonna get one point each for being 1,621 miles away.
- Oh, okay, so we walk away, don't we?
- Yeah, it was a nothing round though.
- We don't walk away - One point all.
- empty handed, I mean, I'll take it.
- Let's move on to round two.
(energetic music)
So far so good.
- Now take one item of clothing off.
(Jesse imitating fanfare) (fingers snapping)
- Round number two.
Blindfolds off
- Single man, reveal yourself. Hello, ooh.
- Oh, they're like little deviled eggs. Really deviled.
- They look nasty.
- [Jesse] So you got some fried onions
- And some chilies. - And some fried chilies.
- Fried chilies.
I'm gonna say that's not normal basil.
- Thai basil. I know where this is from then.
- What do you got? What are they?
- Eggs. - Eggs.
- Eggs. - A lot of them.
- With crispy onions.
- Right. Anyway, let's take these apart.
- You can emit the little chili on top
although obviously, it's there for reason.
- Whoa, very jammy.
(hand thuds) - That's fantastic.
The yoke has sort of turned into a bit of a chutney.
- That is the sweetest egg I've ever had.
Sweet and spicy.
It's still going.
- I'm gonna have another one.
- Now, it's left with a (gasps) burnt tang on my tongue.
- Burnt tang?
- So you start off with like sweet, oozy, jammy egg
then you get spice and that spice
then kind of gets less sweet and more hot, burnt almost
in your tongue.
- Sweet, sour, salty, little bit of spicy.
Kind of ingredients floating around,
chili, lime, palm sugar, fish sauce, tamarind.
- No jokes, honestly, they're a masterpiece.
- Okay, here's a question for you.
How do you both get on with your mother-in-law
and or mother-in-law to be.
- I don't want that on camera.
(Barry laughs)
No, I'm joking.
Jane Lam is a wonderful human being of the highest degree.
- Why do you ask that question?
- Why are you asking that, you weirdo?
- Because this is a dish a mother-in-law
would ask this potential son-in-law to cook for them,
and if they can nail the dish,
that wonderful egg with the fried nature,
then it's considered you're kind of welcome into family.
These are called son-in-law eggs.
- Son-in-law. - Oh, eggs.
Brilliant. - Yeah.
- But I need you to pick a country.
- Ben, I'm gonna eat one more, okay?
- We're feeders here. We're very happy with that.
- Jess, we can't confer
but blink twice if you think you got it.
(eyes chiming)
- Perfect. Thanks, sir.
But I was also very confident last time
and we're both very wrong.
- Come on, come on.
- Turn your boards around in three, two, one.
Oh. - Oh.
- I don't think we've ever had this
where you're both thinking
- We are something, mate. - exactly the same.
- My head was going, they love their jammy eggs.
There's a feel of having really jammy eggs there-
- Have you ever ever been to Singapore?
- Have you ever had century egg porridge?
They get eggs and they basically ferment them
until they turn black. - Yes, hard.
Really funky. - Quite an experience.
- And they put it into like a reasonably sweet porridge.
- Like a congee.
- Yum. - Yeah.
- I said Singapore because you threw me
with the son-in-law thing.
Do I say my original answer?
- What was your original answer?
- Thailand but then I thought 'cause the Thai basil was like
and then fish sauce, very Thai ingredient and so I was like,
"Okay well, this is gonna be a Thai thing."
And I thought, "No, that's too obvious."
- That's exactly what I thought.
- Really?
- I thought the Thai basil was jumping, screaming at me.
At the same time, it felt like it wasn't just Thailand
and the melting part of cuisines.
- My knowledge of this language isn't great
so apologies on the pronunciation.
Kai look keuy is the name of the dish.
It is Thai.
- Oh, no.
- So unfortunately, you are both 1016 miles away.
Another point each.
- But I felt like I won, you know what I mean? (laughs)
- And also, I know we were told not to confer
but it was when Will went, "Oh, really mate?"
- Teamwork makes the dream work.
Now what we would say is like
this is a classic street food dish
and if you are in Thailand,
it's one of those ones to look out for.
Quite literally hard boiled eggs that are then deep fried.
- They're deep fried? - And at this point,
they're then being finished with that wonderful sauce
which has got all the things you love about Thai food.
Sweet, salty, sour, spicy.
Finished with crispy onions and garlics
and yes, some Thai basil.
- It was really good but you know what, three is enough.
(Ben laughs) - Really?
- Yeah, I'm starting to feel a little bit queasy from that.
- Talking of queasy, I don't particularly like
the way you're both thinking exactly the same.
Again, it's two apiece. Let's move on to round three.
If you are enjoying this,
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(mouse clicks) Thanks.
(screen whooshes) (upbeat music)
Blindfolds off. Round number three.
- Ooh, okay, we have onions or are they-
- Have a sniff.
(Barry sniffing and exhaling)
- Yes, this is the Worcester sauce smell thing.
So it looks like fish, marinated onions.
- Egypt. It's cold.
(Jesse grunts)
One theme here is deep frying things
and then taking away the crisp and making them soggy.
- Yeah basically, this is a white fish.
In this case, a hake that has been floured and fried
so you get that kind of lovely crispy golden outside,
and then it is submerged in a vinegar pickling liquid,
which has got lots of lovely spices
including turmeric, which gives you the color.
- It's got a real tang.
- Onions for sure, plenty of bay leaves.
- Even though it's really vinegar-y,
you've got a lot of sugar in there as well.
- It's quite a sweet vinegar. It's got a liquid.
But at the same time, like we've made this today,
this morning, and it's been in that liquid for a few hours,
but it's one of those dishes
that kind of gets better and better over a day or two.
So sometimes, it's made on bulk and then served cold.
On a really hot day, it's kind of marinated,
kind of pickled, battered, but soggy fish.
(fingers snapping) - Oh, I think I know.
- I had a bit earlier
and I think it's absolutely delicious dish.
The question is where it's from.
- Ooh, ooh.
- What's calling me is India
but at the same time, we can't do that twice, could they?
- Kush would've done that.
- It's a really big country.
It's unlikely we've done it twice
but we absolutely could have done.
- I'm going for it. I'm going for it.
No secrets here. I'm doing it.
- Right, you've both committed to an answer.
- Yep. - Yeah.
- Turn it around in three, two, one. What have we got?
India again.
You think we've double bluffed you
with two from the same country?
- Yeah, I think so.
- And Portugal.
- It reminds me of something I ate in Brazil.
Brazil, Portugal.
They have a lot of similarities.
One being the language but there was a fish dish.
They love having fish in a sauce like this
that's then fried and da, da, da, da.
- Like escabeche?
- Sure.
- I think you're spot on.
Escabeche is a kind of pickled fish dish
that would be served cold and is a very good point of bass.
Why did you think India?
- There are some Indian though. It has Indian flavors to it.
- Indian spices, curry leaves.
- [Kush] Nope.
- No?
- Bay leaves. - Oh, bay leaves.
Oh, they do nothing.
It kind of like had a piccalilli kind of vibe to it.
Slightly curried.
It's kind of went towards that direction.
- I made up my mind for some reason that it was European.
Dunno why, but went for it.
I actually thought it was quite South American
but I haven't been to South America or Topjaw.
- So the European slant could come
from kind of a little bit of Dutch influence
but this is Cape Malay fish.
(Barry laughing)
This is Cape Malay fish.
So it's the influence of Malay, Indonesian
cultures moving to South Africa is where this dish is from.
- Sweet.
- You are both over 5,000 miles away.
- That's bad. It's getting bad.
- But however, who's closest?. - Who's closest?
- Who's closest?
There's only 92 miles in it.
- Really? Oh my goodness.
- Jesse, Portugal is 5,213 miles away
and Barry, the centroid of India is 5,120 miles away.
Barry takes a very marginal point.
- I'll take it. I don't care.
- That's so annoying.
- The point is we're talking South Africa
and it was during the Dutch colonial sort of period
with the Malay and Indonesian influence.
- Wow, okay.
- And it is all those spices, hake, absolutely delicious.
Phenomenal dish. - No, fair enough.
I would never have guessed South Africa.
- No, no, no. Not South Africa.
- Not in a month of Sundays.
- Barry now winning with one round still to go.
(energetic music)
It's all still to play for in this last round.
Blindfolds off.
- Ooh, doughy pancakes.
- So they're like individual things.
- What the hell? (Barry exhaling)
- Do we just take one?
- By all means, take one or a slice one.
Sometimes on the street, they are cut up into triangles.
Sometimes, they're cut up into squares
and they're kind of a handheld snack.
- Okay. God, there's a-
- There's a very distinct smell.
They're pancakes where they're
as equally cake-y as they are pan-y, you know what I mean?
- Not really.
- They look like they've got a bit of...
Oh, you're in, you're in, you're gone.
Oh my God. I have an answer in my head.
- Don't trust it.
- But I'm almost certain it's wrong.
- Sometimes, they're served just as they are.
Sometimes, they are topped with ingredients
but the basic pancake meets flatbread is gluten-free.
- Ooh.
- They're also dairy free.
- What? Okay, what am I eating?
- Very, very old and traditional
and probably a good way of demonstrating
the variety and diversity of this country's cuisine.
- Oh, man.
I think I'm gonna have to go with what I'm thinking
but I equally think it's stupid.
- If It's gluten-free,
what do you think it might be made from?
- Potato.
- I haven't got an absolute Scooby. I have no idea.
- Chickpeas.
- It doesn't taste very pea-y.
- Right, okay, thank you for that
'cause I'm gonna not do the answer I thought I was gonna do.
- Chickpea? - That's pretty much it.
It's a batter made from chickpeas
that's allowed to rest and then fried
in oil rather than butter,
and obviously, it's seasoned so it's got salt in it,
but that's pretty much it.
And then yes, it's either eaten as is,
served on side of other dishes,
or served as the base with lots of different toppings.
Jesse, you're a fraction behind on the points
but if you get this spot on, you can take the win.
If you get closest wrong answer, it's a draw.
If you let Barry win, it's game over.
- We've done a good job. Look what we've done to our guest.
- We invite you in, we feed you,
and then we put you on tenterhooks in the game.
- It's just a very hard game.
I've only probably been to 15% of the country in the world
from Topjaw and so therefore,
you think it would be a doddle.
- You would, wouldn't you?
- Yeah, but then you save Portugal
when something's in South Africa.
- We should stress, we went through
and looked to all of Topjaw's videos
and we have picked items from the countries they've been to
to give our guests a bit of a leg up.
'cause Barry, you've been playing this game
in a studio like this for about 13 years.
- (chuckles) Okay, so maybe you don't have
that much of an advantage 'cause you are sort of-
- Well, don't backtrack. Come on, let's go, let's go.
(Jesse and Barry imitating fanfare)
(Jesse blowing raspberries)
- Denmark and India.
- Denmark. - I went Denmark.
- I had Netherlands going through my head.
- I feel like I need a really sweet jam with it
and I was trying to think of like Scandy countries
that would do a really sweet jam as well
and I know you've been to Copenhagen.
- I wouldn't say that that's...
- That's what I'm going for.
- Hey, don't know the answers
but I wouldn't say it's very Scandy.
I felt originally, that it was Irish
'cause it reminded me of potato farl
and then I didn't have the (censored) to write that.
So I did a you and just went with India again.
- Again. (chuckles)
- But you're talking about street food,
talking about chickpea flour.
You know, I can imagine that wrapped around
it would go really well with like veg.
- Chickpea flour and batter is very common in India.
However, unfortunately, you are both wrong.
One of you is about 3000 miles more wrong than the other.
- That's quite wrong.
- This is a dish called farinata
and would typically be topped
with lovely tomatoes, olive oil, maybe some fresh basil.
It's Italian.
- No way.
- Get out. Again, that does not taste Italian.
- No.
- And I think that's what's so beautiful
about Italian cuisine.
It has something for everyone
with so many different ingredients
and that is a very, very base level dish
that can be adapted in so many different ways.
As it means, you were slightly close on that one.
- Oh, yeah. Well done.
- Take the point and take the win 4-2.
- I'm taking it. It doesn't happen often.
Guest or no guest, thank you for coming. I'm so sorry.
- It's okay, bro. We both did terribly.
(Barry laughing)
- Neither of you got a single answer right
but we all learned something.
- That's fantastic. Thank you very much, guys.
Thank you, Kush. Thanks for picking up a storm.
- Feast as always. - Amazing.
- A worldwide adventure of which I failed out.
- If you want to cook the Farinata at home,
the full recipe is now available over on Sidekick
and it's free for 30 days.
Boys, thanks for coming in.
- Thank you very much. - Thank you.
- Well done, Jesse.
(Jesse clamoring) (Barry laughing)
- Nicely done.
Make sure you go and check out Topjaw
where there are loads and loads and loads more travel videos
and a video where Jamie and Barry took the guys
to a pub they grew up in.
Grew up in? From where they grew up.
- Pretty much grew up in. - Grew up in, yeah.
In their baby's bottle with beer.
- [Ben] It's time to whap your flip flops out
because this summer, Sorted Live brings you
the Wild Weekender.
A festival style weekend of live stream sorted mayhem.
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See the link below for all the information.