Lifestyle
What is Minecraft's Suspicious Stew?
In this episode of Game Theory, we dive into the enigmatic world of Minecraft's Suspicious Stew, exploring its mysterious status effects and the culinary adventure of recreating it in real life. ...
What is Minecraft's Suspicious Stew?
Lifestyle •
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Interactive Transcript
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What is suspicious stew?
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In Minecraft, it's a mysterious food that gives you one of several status conditions
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depending on the ingredients you put in.
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But have you ever wondered what this magical bowl of food would actually taste like?
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Well, today we're going to find out.
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Hello internet!
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Welcome to Game Theory, the show that if you drink it gives you a special power.
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Guys, I'm just going to say it.
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I love Minecraft.
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I love the mechanics, I love the world, and I especially love the law that we've been
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uncovering over the last several years.
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But, despite everything we've accomplished on this channel,
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there is still one question that I have been unable to answer.
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What does suspicious stew taste like?
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Normally, when you get a stew, you understand what it tastes like based purely on the name.
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Each stew, chicken stew, even in Minecraft, you have rabbit and mushroom stew.
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But suspicious stew is named purely based on the fact that, from just looking at it,
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you don't know what status effect it's going to give you.
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And so, from what I could tell, no one has ever really figured out what it's supposed to taste like.
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So today, I wanted to end that mystery.
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But not just in theory.
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I wanted to actually get hands on and taste it for myself.
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The problem is, I'm not a food guy.
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Sure, I love me some good research, and I'm not exactly bad in the kitchen,
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but this is getting to a level of foodie that I am not equipped to handle.
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I needed help, help from a friend of the channel, someone who's opinion I could trust,
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someone who knows their way around weird ingredients and crazy recipes.
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Sauted food.
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What? You thought I was going to say sassy?
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No, I need actual chefs.
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And so, here we are.
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We are here in the kitchen with the boys from Sauted.
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We have Ben and we have Mike, guys, thanks so much for joining me.
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There's going to be quite an interesting one.
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Thank you for flying us all the way from the UK to Miami,
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and your credit.
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You're most welcome.
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Honestly, it's just nice to have some British voices again.
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This is where I was a little bit facetious at the beginning.
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What I like to say, no one has really tried it.
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Mojang has, which sounds like the end of the episode.
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I promise you it's not a whole type.
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We have the official Minecraft cookbook
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as published, as written, as to be copied.
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And then, a little bit further in, I believe, is our suspicious stew.
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So, if you have a look at that, what are your initial thoughts?
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Vegan mushroom lentil stew,
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healthy and hearty.
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I mean, yeah, great.
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It's pretty straightforward.
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But Mojang went a step further.
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They made these.
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This is the official collaboration between Pringles
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and Minecraft in suspicious stew flavour.
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This was from 2022.
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We love eating out of Dave Foodie.
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Well, well, well, well.
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What are you getting?
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Yes, suspicious.
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What?
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Quite dusty, quite earthy.
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If that's what they're claiming,
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suspicious stew flavour is, it's mega-savor.
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Not exactly the suspicious flavour,
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any of us were expecting.
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If anything, it was just a generic savoury flavour.
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Thanks to the onion powder, garlic powder,
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tomato powder and paprika.
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Although, there were some ingredients
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that were a little more on the sus side.
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All the usual things you'd expect to find in here,
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like, Dysodium guanilate,
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Dysodium, Inosinate.
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None of those sound like ingredients.
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And this is where we come into today's episode,
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because both of these are wrong.
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So, who says me and their own freaking game?
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This is the actual recipe.
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Two mushrooms of flour and a...
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A bowl.
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A catapult.
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It's a bowl.
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Ha ha ha ha.
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So, yes, two mushrooms of flour and a bowl
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make suspicious stew.
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They have recipe book, not way too much going on.
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This doesn't have any mushroom in it,
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and you love mushroom powder.
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Why is that not in this?
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If that's true.
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Do you reckon we can make a stew from just three ingredients?
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I'm kind of interested to see whether we can.
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Unfortunately, it's a little more complicated
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than just following the recipe in Minecraft,
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because some of those ingredients are not safe to consume.
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This red one is fly agarate.
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Definitely poisonous.
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Please do not serve that to us.
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But from what I could research,
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people have been bold enough to boil it
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and use it for hallucinogenic purposes.
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And they say it has a typical mushroomy flavour,
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which what does that mean?
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It's a mini.
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But it's got a slight sweetness to it.
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That's probably going to be where that shift has to happen.
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From there, we get into the flowers,
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because again, not actually one flower.
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There are 12.
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Like, these flowers as a category.
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They find it botany.
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So, you've got...
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Allium.
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I mean, that looks like a chive flower.
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You've got, as your bluer, you've got the blue orchid.
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You've got a blue corn flower, a dandelion, lily of the valley.
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Do you say so?
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I mean, I've seen Breaking Bad.
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That'd kill you.
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So, have fun with that one.
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You've got an oxide dazing, tulips, poppies.
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And then there's the ingredients that don't even exist.
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So, now we've got this guy.
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This is the eye blossom,
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which, as you may guess from that name, isn't real.
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It was part of their new update.
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It was meant to be from a spooky update.
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It's a bit strange.
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What it does that's interesting is it opens at night.
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It gives you blindness if you put it into your suspicious stew when it's open.
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Oh.
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And when it's closed, it gives you nausea.
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It's like the opposite of a muscle.
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Basically.
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Now, this is another made-up flower called the torch flower.
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The torch flower in Minecraft is the torch plant in reality.
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There are these beautiful red hot poker,
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is there also known as...
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They were used a lot in, like, African tribal medicines.
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Was that heaven?
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Yes, there was fire on the way out as they were on the way in.
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Yeah, exactly.
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They are also a night vision one.
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And so, our final one here...
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That looks sad.
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It is sad.
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This is called the Wither Rose,
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which gives you the withering effect,
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which is basically just consistent pain for a while.
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But those are our 12th.
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How do you boys feel?
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It feels like there's a lovely balance between poisons, mushrooms, and poisonous flowers.
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And we've got to go and collect something.
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LAUGHTER
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That's safe to consume and cook.
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Yeah.
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That'd be interesting and delicious.
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I reckon we can get away with it,
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because I reckon we can find versions of those,
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and we can play with the definition and or spelling of flower.
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So, with that...
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I think it's time I send you a foraging as you put it
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to the supermarket or wherever you can find.
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Let's go to the Amazon.
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LAUGHTER
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I think we'll be able to find a lot of them from there.
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I'm intrigued to see how you interpret some of these,
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come back, and show me the way.
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Yes, chef.
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It's going to be playful.
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But good sun.
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Let's go for it.
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And with all my in-game knowledge,
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suitably dumped on them,
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the boys are off to bring our pixelated recipe
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into full three-dimensional reality.
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How are they going to make a stew incorporating
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some of these interesting flowers?
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How will they make the base stew with only two mushrooms?
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And how will they look the part while doing it?
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Huh?
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Why is that in my script?
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Wait, does that mean yes, loyal theorists?
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I know it's been a while,
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but we've been cooking up something special just for you.
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We saw your comments, we heard your feedback,
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and so we put our heads together and had a lot of...
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extremely serious conversations.
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And now we are finally ready to let you in on our big secret.
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That's right, we are so back.
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Here we are, has returned, and this time the gang's all here.
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Get ready for new shirts, new hoodies,
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and new accessories featuring all five channels
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in the theory verse that you know and love.
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No matter which channel is your favorite,
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G.T.Live, Style, Game, Food, or Film,
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you are represented here.
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And who knows?
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I've heard theoryware can be a great conversation starter.
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Sir, sir.
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Oh, I'm scared to hear this.
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Maybe you're my friends with a fellow theorist next time you're out and about.
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Or maybe wrap yourself up in a super soft theorist hoodie,
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head with some cozy socks while watching the new episodes
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in the comfort of your own home.
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Regardless, we truly hope that you have as much fun with this new
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and improved theoryware as we did.
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And like that, we're back, and you've been shopping.
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Yeah, we've literally bought all the mushrooms,
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but only two types to stick to the pixel rules.
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Yeah, so where did you end up going with
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for these classic brown mushrooms?
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Yeah, classic sort of button mushroom.
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And then nice sort of king oyster mushroom
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just because they are the king of the mushroom world
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and they've got more texture, more bounce,
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good body, and they're work nice in this as well.
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So the slightly sweeter?
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Yeah, certainly when you cook them out,
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basically we'll go in and sort of off all the mushrooms.
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And then we'll go in with some flowers
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or kind of plants.
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Plants.
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You could for it.
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Roast.
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Roast.
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Roast.
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Roast.
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Roast.
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Roast.
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Yep.
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As in ground wheat.
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Around the buttery mushrooms to form a roux
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and then we'll use a mushroom broth
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to form a balloute around them.
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So it's essentially mushroom mushroom mushroom plants and flowers.
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Wow, so this is what it's like working with professionals.
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This already sounds delicious, you know,
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as long as you like mushrooms.
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But technically this was the easy part.
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Now we're onto the more unique ingredients.
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At least I thought they were.
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But now that I have a professional chef involved,
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this may have been more simple than I first thought.
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I have a soft spot for the very, very easy granted
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with the chive flowers or the allium flowers.
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Okay.
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Because I've grown them at home.
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They are so easy to grow even on a balcony.
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But I think we can just go heavy allium.
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What does that mean, though?
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What do you mean by allium?
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Because it sounds like you know what that means more than I do.
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Onion family.
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So chives, leaks, garlic, onion, obviously spring onions
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or salad onions.
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And I think, given this is so worth it,
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raw allium into dishes.
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I raw onion to finish a dish or some spring onions
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or some chives can give you a real acidity
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that just kind of lifts a dish.
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And I think with the earthiness that I've actually worked
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so simple, job done.
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What Ben forgot to mention, but has since told me in an email,
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is that onions are also high in quercetin,
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which is a natural anti-inflammatory.
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Get it?
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Anti-inflame atori as in fire resistance.
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Hey, don't blame us for that pun.
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I'm just happy there is some connection
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to realism in this game that we can achieve
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for this left to do now is taste it.
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Excellent decision, getting me to forage and then taste
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and be it no part of the dish.
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Well, I'm glad that works for you.
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It's very mushroomy, obviously.
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I think we've got another copy in paste.
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Yeah, I think we'll start to see a lot of recurring thing there.
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That sharpness from the spring onions,
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it really cuts through.
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And when we're developing a lot of recipes,
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we often consider adding a little bit of raw onion
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with it sliced red onions,
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but not just to garnish enough
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to actually bite through it and get in texture
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because that allium warmth is really good in earthy flavours.
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It's very thick and pleasurable, are they?
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Oh, they're...
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And on that note, let's move on.
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So, we have azure bluettes next,
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but I'm seeing you're holding a red leafy vegetable.
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Yes, we know that this kind of stuff is bitter,
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so we've just gone for some kind of bitter leaves.
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Swiss chard, really good, wonderful
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because of the vibrant red,
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which so often when you see it in things like
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toasts, and mushrooms, you know avoid,
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but actually here it's delicious just a bit bitter.
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And then we're going to serve it with some
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a falfer sprouts and these gorgeous leaves.
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And a falfer sprouts, you were saying there's a similar flavour profile.
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A similar flavour profile, but actually as some of you can by,
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these are hugely popular and trendy
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in sort of nutrition and well-being stores,
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but quite a dainty little option.
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Like, come and not die.
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It's almost like he doesn't trust you.
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What have you done to him over the years, Ben?
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He's very trusting.
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There's not much he won't put in his mouth.
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I have found...
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I can say bitter.
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Bitter from the chard and the sprouts.
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Adds that grassy note to the earthy tones of the mushrooms,
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but yeah, very much more on the bitter side rather than
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overpowering some of that, who liked me even a little bit,
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which is some of how bitter that is.
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The crunch is nice.
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For me, the curlies on top,
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it's a little bit too much.
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Too much, too bitter.
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Very popular in salads because they have that wonderful crunch.
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I quite like them, but they are very vegetal.
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I can imagine with quite an acidic dressing,
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that would really, really work nicely, but...
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Okay, so a little more mixed on that one,
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but certainly better than a stew that makes you blind.
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Next on our list is tulips,
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a flower which I've now learnt
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isn't really edible outside of the petal,
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although good luck finding ones that aren't covered in pesticides.
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However, according to Ben,
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if you do manage to find one or you just grogging yourselves,
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depending on the colours,
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you get flavours that are similar to things like
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peas and cucumber.
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So that's what we've gone for?
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Cube cumber, which all I've done is take the wet bits out the middle
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and we're just going to put that through.
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So we've actually got the crunch and the snap.
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Okay, come back as a texture in it.
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And peas and it's our absolute phenomenal,
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a wonderful garnish on seafood dishes,
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pasta dishes, risottoes.
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I've never had these before, but I totally get it.
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So often there are like foody things where it's like,
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oh, you get hints of this,
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like, and I'm sitting there going,
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ah, do I get that?
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But that I absolutely get subtle peabit
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in that kind of grassy floorly way that would probably...
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I would assume match what we get from tulips.
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But of course, as with any experiment and with Ben being the chef for the years,
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he decided to change things up on me at the last minutes.
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I'm actually standing here thinking this was our plan,
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and now I'm thinking I might change it.
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Oh, what's the plan?
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The middle's might be better.
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Wow, gonna keep the wet there.
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Yeah, I don't know this is supposed to be an experiment
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and we're making up as you go along.
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I'm gonna go double wet and put it through.
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See, Ben?
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Now you're thinking like a theorist.
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Welcome to the channel.
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But while Ben is changing up the plan,
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I am eating these pea shoots and having an interesting experience.
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Oh, that'll happen.
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I'm having a sort of subtle allergic reaction.
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It's fine.
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Turns out, there's a reason I've never had these before.
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But with antihist means in hand,
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I'm all good and ready to try this stew.
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I'll just eat around the pea shoots this time.
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Dig in, Mike.
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This one's a bit different.
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No, that's subtle, but nice.
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Because of all the extra moisture we've added
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through wet cucumber,
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it's actually a nice eating consistency.
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Genuinely adding something,
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which is ironic because cucumber tastes of not much.
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And tell you, you put it into a big vat of water
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in a hotel lobby,
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and then the most cucumber you can ever try.
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Right.
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And I think my chefy instincts love these flavours
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because just I think smell alone.
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They take you back to a greenhouse or an allotment
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or a grouierone or just basically very spring
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summer vines.
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Just cucumber sandwiches.
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Or you know, foraging around the overworld.
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That one.
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I just forgot where I was.
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Forget it.
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Forget it.
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OK, so at this point,
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we've had a few flowers that aren't truly edible.
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But Ben and Mike have put their true theorist
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brains to work using quote-unquote notes
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of other flavours to get us as close as we can.
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And on the whole, they worked relatively well.
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But as we all know,
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sometimes we theorists love to overcomplicate things.
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And there are actually a bunch of flowers
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in Minecraft that we can just straight up eat.
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Rather than adding garnishes or other vegetables.
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So let's start with the humble dandelion.
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So dandelions.
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It's a flower we all know.
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What are we doing for it?
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It's a flower that's actually already
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quite a culinary flower.
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So the dandelion root you can use in all sorts of things.
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But here the dandelion flowers, we've picked up dried.
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You can either just make a tea from it.
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So we've literally just steeped it in hot water.
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Have a smell.
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OK.
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Very floral, earthy grassy.
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But also they say quite honey-like, but not sweetness.
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So you get almost like the perfume
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flaw of honey, no sweetness.
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But I'm going to add some honey into it.
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So you now get the flavour and the sweetness.
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So if you just strain it off,
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the liquid we're left with should now be sweet from honey,
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but perfume from dandelion.
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A dandelion tea.
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The question is, does that work with the mushrooms?
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With the depth of the mushroom.
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I don't know, but it's going to be pixelated, so I don't care.
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Thank you, mate, for stopping by once again.
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You've got the best job here.
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I have, I've been living the dream.
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It's great, but there's a little bit of lawn mower.
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Yeah.
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On the top of here.
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Yeah, we went through the garden just before.
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You know what, that would work.
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I mean, this is Minecraft.
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It's all about foraging and finding your own food.
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So this is quite literally,
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I mean, they are scattered all over lawns and meadows and parks
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in the UK certainly.
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Yeah, all over the place.
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But this is the tea that it comes from,
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which I want to try before we think about what it's going to do to that.
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Please do.
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And then we mix a little bit into the ballutate elusinus slightly.
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Okay.
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And finish it with some of the leaves.
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Really?
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Very mellow.
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That's nice.
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Again, I know it's at the sweetness and we had a little bit of honey
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to help with that sweetness.
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That honey ginger lemon tea vibe.
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Yeah, it's very much of that.
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It's just the grassy sort of earthy,
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but it's nothing like really potent.
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No, it's the perfect balance between sweetness.
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So subtle that it just takes the edge off the grassyness,
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which makes it really, really tasty.
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So now, here's it mixed in.
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The mushroom loosened up,
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but actually I think it's the leaves again.
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I think in that dry form,
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an interesting eating experience in mouthful.
spk_0
But it's like peppiness.
spk_0
All right, delicious.
spk_0
The texture's really pleasant, actually.
spk_0
But the subtle shift.
spk_0
It's very, very subtle.
spk_0
Like, you could put more in and boil it down over time to be fair.
spk_0
But now having the sours loosened up is nice.
spk_0
I always expect to be almost, I feel like gritty,
spk_0
or like, gritty, when you get something stuck in your teeth
spk_0
in your mouth, why don't you shift,
spk_0
but it kind of just melts almost.
spk_0
But it hasn't made it worse.
spk_0
No, and that's the key thing.
spk_0
Like, if you've got a bowl of this,
spk_0
in your pirate ship, in your fortress,
spk_0
or wherever it is you find it,
spk_0
I mean, you probably wouldn't want to eat it,
spk_0
because it's probably been there for centuries,
spk_0
and you don't know.
spk_0
If the refrigeration's good, but it tastes alright.
spk_0
And should keep hunger locked up.
spk_0
It's all done.
spk_0
And he's not saying that just to make a pun.
spk_0
Dandelions do have an actual saturation effect,
spk_0
thanks to the vitamin A inside them.
spk_0
You see, vitamin A regularly hormones like lectin,
spk_0
which can act as a satiety hormone
spk_0
that usually is produced by fat cells
spk_0
to signal to the brain that you have enough energy.
spk_0
Therefore, reducing your appetite.
spk_0
So, I guess that's another win for Mojang,
spk_0
and another win for us and the taste of these stews.
spk_0
Sadly, this more direct approach won't continue
spk_0
being as successful as we'd like going forward.
spk_0
Oxide, daisies, cornflours, and poppies
spk_0
all have dried variants that you can use to make teas.
spk_0
They just don't really taste of all that much.
spk_0
Yeah, it's just kind of like slightly garasi water.
spk_0
The very subtle flavors just get completely overpowered
spk_0
by the strong rich flavors of the mushroom base.
spk_0
Then did try his best to make up for it with visuals.
spk_0
But that looks fantastic.
spk_0
Yeah, and the confession is, that's all.
spk_0
Oh, it looks fantastic, but we've not added anything
spk_0
to the stew. It's really just there for you eat with your eyes.
spk_0
It smells good.
spk_0
At least with the poppy, there is some extra texture,
spk_0
thanks to the poppy seeds,
spk_0
but overall, the literal flowers had just kind of been disappointed.
spk_0
Though there was one that even I felt pretty confident
spk_0
would change our tune, the Wither Rose.
spk_0
So these, I recognize.
spk_0
Much more familiar.
spk_0
Much more.
spk_0
And on the scale of like petals and flowers
spk_0
and floral things to use, these deliver flea.
spk_0
They're the much more in that sort of stronger
spk_0
rather than just vaguely garasi.
spk_0
But also because somebody else has already done the hard work.
spk_0
I extracted all of the deliciousness
spk_0
into something like rose water,
spk_0
which you will find in all sorts of sweets and confectionery.
spk_0
I think most typically and famously in Turkish delight.
spk_0
Yes.
spk_0
So, so good.
spk_0
Well, they're well with mushrooms.
spk_0
Yes, so in a savoury dish.
spk_0
Who knows?
spk_0
Something else from the florist?
spk_0
Rose.
spk_0
And or the linoids in the wardrobe.
spk_0
You're left with it.
spk_0
Mmm.
spk_0
It's not immediate.
spk_0
Yeah.
spk_0
Yeah.
spk_0
Oh yeah.
spk_0
It's almost like mint.
spk_0
When you breathe in and you get that sense of like,
spk_0
that's the fragrance kind of.
spk_0
Yeah.
spk_0
Almost like that.
spk_0
We always say that 80% of flea
spk_0
comes from what you smell and not what you taste.
spk_0
And I completely agree.
spk_0
It's all in the nose on that ticket.
spk_0
I agree.
spk_0
Definitely are left with Turkish delight.
spk_0
Yeah.
spk_0
Got you.
spk_0
Are you a fan?
spk_0
Not massive.
spk_0
No, I'm honestly similar.
spk_0
So maybe the fact the previous ones
spk_0
didn't have much flavour was really a blessing in disguise.
spk_0
This one makes me feel like I'm taking with the damage
spk_0
every time I take a bite.
spk_0
So disappointing in the flavour department
spk_0
but not inaccuracy?
spk_0
I guess, thankfully, we only have one more tea-based flower
spk_0
to get through.
spk_0
Or at least, that's what I thought this was going to be.
spk_0
This is again,
spk_0
pushing the extremes of what may or may not work.
spk_0
Sure.
spk_0
But you gave me the eyeball, son.
spk_0
Apparently, that's dragon fruit flower,
spk_0
which is a thing.
spk_0
OK.
spk_0
The flower of the dragon fruit
spk_0
and you infuse it to make a tea.
spk_0
OK.
spk_0
Now, we know that not all teas
spk_0
are turned out to be the best thing to add to our stews.
spk_0
This one may well be a good example.
spk_0
So we have done exactly that,
spk_0
infused the dragon fruit flowers into a tea.
spk_0
So it's an example of a flower that is nocturnal.
spk_0
So it either awakens at night
spk_0
and closes during the day,
spk_0
or vice versa,
spk_0
but it reacts to light.
spk_0
Oh.
spk_0
And dragon fruit is another example.
spk_0
Oh, that's so interesting.
spk_0
I didn't realise that flowers did that anyway.
spk_0
And then we've ended up with this.
spk_0
I mean, it looks right.
spk_0
Like, these are obviously dried
spk_0
but we'll show some on screen
spk_0
but they are white flowers
spk_0
with these yellow centres,
spk_0
which is very much like the eyeball, son.
spk_0
However, given how well the flower infused teas have gone so far,
spk_0
Ben is going to spice things up a little,
spk_0
not just by adding the tea,
spk_0
but the dragon fruit itself.
spk_0
Yeah.
spk_0
Oh, now I...
spk_0
I never thought you were going to see that
spk_0
in a bowl of mushrooms stew.
spk_0
No.
spk_0
I didn't actually.
spk_0
This is definitely the oddest one we've done today.
spk_0
But going back to the cucumber and how that worked.
spk_0
No.
spk_0
With like a slight sweetness to it.
spk_0
It starts to feel like it's going to do something
spk_0
and then does it.
spk_0
It has a bad turn.
spk_0
Do you think?
spk_0
So I agree with you.
spk_0
There's that thing in the beginning.
spk_0
It feels like something's about to happen,
spk_0
maybe some kind of interesting flavour combination.
spk_0
Then it kind of doesn't.
spk_0
And then I got like a slight after
spk_0
mouth of like, oh no, that doesn't,
spk_0
there's something wrong with that.
spk_0
That doesn't quite work.
spk_0
But for me, that's what dragon fruit is full stop.
spk_0
It's a beautiful fruit,
spk_0
but I think it always under delivers.
spk_0
Compared to a kiwi,
spk_0
which I think behaves very similar in the mouth.
spk_0
It's similar black seeds, very similar texture.
spk_0
Cold out of the fridge.
spk_0
You eat a kiwi and you go,
spk_0
oh, that's really sharp and tangy and delicious.
spk_0
Dragon fruit, you think,
spk_0
oh, it's going to do any, never kind of goes anywhere.
spk_0
Yeah.
spk_0
I think.
spk_0
Furco, no pants is what you think.
spk_0
Yeah, I feel like.
spk_0
It just never quite gets there.
spk_0
So when you've got all the earthy mushroomness,
spk_0
I think it gets lost.
spk_0
Needless to say, we all feel a little nauseated after that one.
spk_0
Though, thankfully, not blind.
spk_0
But if you thought that one was weird,
spk_0
trust me friends,
spk_0
it's only going to get weirder.
spk_0
Because this is when Ben has to start getting,
spk_0
let's call it creative with these interpretations.
spk_0
Especially when it comes to one next contender.
spk_0
I mean, trained by the curiosity of this one,
spk_0
blue orchid,
spk_0
not something we can get hold of
spk_0
or would want to put anywhere in near our food
spk_0
and certainly not ingest.
spk_0
However, I recognised the word orchid
spk_0
and went immediately to one of my favourite ingredients, vanilla.
spk_0
Tennuous link.
spk_0
Right.
spk_0
You joined the dots?
spk_0
I mean, yes.
spk_0
So blue orchid, again, knowing this going in blue orchid is,
spk_0
it's not strictly poisonous, I don't think,
spk_0
but it's not going to do your belly much good.
spk_0
No.
spk_0
So I can see why you've gone in a different direction,
spk_0
as was the challenge, but vanilla.
spk_0
Well, I've got no idea if it's going to work with mushrooms,
spk_0
but it can work in savoury with soft,
spk_0
poached fish, works lovely in like a tomato vinaigrette.
spk_0
Will it work with the eartheness of mushrooms?
spk_0
I don't know.
spk_0
But it's the closest thing we had to orchid and blue orchid,
spk_0
besides the packaging as blue.
spk_0
So what I'm going to do is I'm going to take the seeds out from the inside.
spk_0
Okay.
spk_0
As soon as it hits the heat, the pan,
spk_0
you get a second round of vanilla flavour.
spk_0
A little bit of lemon.
spk_0
Oh.
spk_0
If I ever do sort-aid mushrooms on toast
spk_0
with creme fraiche or some cream through at the end,
spk_0
a little bit of lemon again just lifts it.
spk_0
Yeah.
spk_0
And the reason I put it into this one above the others
spk_0
is because if you're not careful,
spk_0
it could end up being associated with sweet.
spk_0
I think the lemon would just have the little bit of acid
spk_0
to bring it back.
spk_0
And this is why I got Ben to come on and help me
spk_0
because I wouldn't have known that.
spk_0
I'd have just put something into it and gone,
spk_0
that'll do and it would have been awful.
spk_0
Yeah, I'm not so sure I've been a lemon
spk_0
is going to be your saving grace here, IRL me.
spk_0
You can probably smell it in the root, my cab.
spk_0
Is this going to work?
spk_0
No, I didn't.
spk_0
No, I didn't.
spk_0
No, I didn't.
spk_0
There isn't design to necessarily be good at it.
spk_0
It doesn't not work, right?
spk_0
It's very close, not working.
spk_0
It's not offensive.
spk_0
No.
spk_0
And weird enough, it's not clashing.
spk_0
No.
spk_0
But I get vanilla and I get mushroom
spk_0
and they never really overlap for into lot.
spk_0
It's kind of very separate.
spk_0
Just kind of sits in that weird mirror
spk_0
and it's not to show something you've won.
spk_0
Yeah.
spk_0
But it doesn't not...
spk_0
Not...
spk_0
Let's discuss things then you'd think.
spk_0
Let's move on to another one quick.
spk_0
Yeah, let's go.
spk_0
Although, honestly,
spk_0
I was unsure I wanted to.
spk_0
See, our next ingredient has me a little worried
spk_0
because as Mike said so well at the start of the episode,
spk_0
I mean, I've seen Breaking Bad, that had killed you.
spk_0
I mean, the in-game effect is poison,
spk_0
so putting one of those in a stew would be accurate,
spk_0
but I'm really hoping that Ben has come up with an alternative
spk_0
that doesn't mean taking a trip to the ER.
spk_0
American healthcare is scary.
spk_0
And I'll be honest, what you did mention I'd never heard of.
spk_0
I feel a little bit Googling.
spk_0
Lillian's a valley, it looks very, very similar to wild garlic.
spk_0
And also, not poisonous.
spk_0
And it's much better flavor,
spk_0
great for chefs to play with for a very seasonal time of the year,
spk_0
and then I realize it's late July.
spk_0
That's also impossible,
spk_0
so we're just going to make garlic butter and with some baby spinach,
spk_0
and you'll have a similar effect that will also be delicious
spk_0
in a much more true cave.
spk_0
Hoo!
spk_0
Crisis-averted.
spk_0
Once again, why I wanted real professionals and not.
spk_0
Santi, who would have inevitably just tried to kill me for the loss.
spk_0
But we still need to convince Mike that he isn't going to die today.
spk_0
Okay, but it's not actually Lillian the bad.
spk_0
No, you're not going to die from this.
spk_0
Okay, great.
spk_0
Like it's almost got that slightly frayed rawness to it
spk_0
in that yum cooked out for ages, so you still get enough of that allium,
spk_0
as we know it's good.
spk_0
Yeah, that's really subtle, but palatable enough that you're like,
spk_0
I can tell that's in there,
spk_0
but it doesn't overpower the entire thing.
spk_0
That works.
spk_0
Who'd have thought the poison one that you were not supposed to cook
spk_0
would actually be the one where you're like,
spk_0
oh, this works.
spk_0
It just finished your rules.
spk_0
Don't take that as a rule moving forward.
spk_0
Yes, this is working and is the closest we're probably going to get realistically.
spk_0
Now, if you're keeping track, you'll know that we're onto our final challenge.
spk_0
At least in the flower department, the torch flower, the red hot poker.
spk_0
We covered this guy in our sniffer episode when I first took over the channel.
spk_0
And even then, I remember looking it up and finding out that while it was used
spk_0
for real world herbal medicines for a multitude of ailments,
spk_0
humans shouldn't really be digesting it.
spk_0
So how has Ben going to bring this one to life?
spk_0
I like these breeze because they're more tenuous.
spk_0
There's no right or wrong answers.
spk_0
You can make up a great story.
spk_0
Absolutely.
spk_0
It's kind of purpose is night vision, which means we need good eyes,
spk_0
which means we need lots of vitamin A.
spk_0
And the step before vitamin A is beta-carotene.
spk_0
So beta-carotene, our body converts into vitamin A,
spk_0
good for our eyes.
spk_0
So things like anything orange, anything like carrots.
spk_0
I thought sweet potato would be nice.
spk_0
So what I've done is boiled some diced sweet potato.
spk_0
Okay.
spk_0
We're going to add that into our mushroom stew.
spk_0
Yeah, along with a ruggla, which I've just chopped up,
spk_0
which will wilt down.
spk_0
And that's got lutein in it, which is basically something else
spk_0
that I need for good eye health.
spk_0
Okay.
spk_0
And then some chili oil, because that's the fire and the taste.
spk_0
Oh, no, no, no.
spk_0
Yeah, torch.
spk_0
I've got to say, like, that was one of the ones I looked at.
spk_0
I don't know what they're going to do with this.
spk_0
I think that's a really nice interpretation.
spk_0
And it's a really good way of handling it,
spk_0
which is going to make this one feel really different
spk_0
to everything else as well.
spk_0
If that's not suspicious, I don't know what it is.
spk_0
Bye!
spk_0
Why are you here?
spk_0
You've been telling me all episode.
spk_0
Do you want to try it or no?
spk_0
Can I?
spk_0
No!
spk_0
I wish I looked like that.
spk_0
Yeah.
spk_0
Now, I think this looks a little better than everything
spk_0
we've served just so far.
spk_0
Look at this.
spk_0
Dig deep.
spk_0
There's all sorts underneath.
spk_0
Oh, we've got additions.
spk_0
Right.
spk_0
Here we go.
spk_0
Ooh, peppery.
spk_0
No, chili oil.
spk_0
Ah, well.
spk_0
Oh, yeah.
spk_0
There it is.
spk_0
And once the richness of the mushroom stew dies down,
spk_0
the peppiness of the szechuan oil comes through.
spk_0
Szechuan oil.
spk_0
I like it.
spk_0
It's definitely got dimensions.
spk_0
This feels like the first proper stew we've had
spk_0
where you would typically have a lot more going on,
spk_0
but that heat is nice.
spk_0
Torch flour, which means it's going to allow you
spk_0
to see in the dark.
spk_0
Fantastic.
spk_0
And I will save on electricity during fridge at midnight.
spk_0
That's the best by far so far.
spk_0
I would agree.
spk_0
That is really well balanced.
spk_0
It feels very full.
spk_0
It's got heat.
spk_0
It's got the umami from the mushrooms.
spk_0
Natural sweetness as we've been tasting.
spk_0
The flour has actually had something.
spk_0
I do have one more thing I want to try before we end,
spk_0
but we've done it.
spk_0
That's 12 suspicious stews.
spk_0
All done and dusted.
spk_0
Every single variety of the game offers is here.
spk_0
And I've got a degree in flora and bungie.
spk_0
I've noticed these have appeared.
spk_0
Well, when we were talking about this,
spk_0
I understood that kind of like life points in the game.
spk_0
It was like, I thought it was a chicken drumstick first.
spk_0
But it is a hamhawk.
spk_0
So we've put some hamhawk to go with it.
spk_0
But what is otherwise a plethora of mushroom stew?
spk_0
What do we think?
spk_0
This has been an experiment.
spk_0
We've all been trying this for the first time.
spk_0
Variety is the spice of life.
spk_0
I think they all look really different
spk_0
and quite inviting.
spk_0
But a lot of edible flowers rely on decoration.
spk_0
Or sweet delicate desserts with cream and sugar and meringue,
spk_0
where they have a place.
spk_0
They get quite lost in mushroom.
spk_0
I think my favourites were the ones that added sweet potato
spk_0
or spinach or allium.
spk_0
Or adding something to the base rather than just the top.
spk_0
So basically the ones that kind of required
spk_0
a little bit more interpretation
spk_0
than the very literal like this plant
spk_0
is edible so we'll put it in.
spk_0
Well, the ones that actually got closer to the cookbook
spk_0
at the first place,
spk_0
they had a few other root vegetables and stuff in it.
spk_0
All of these dishes feel like small parts of a bigger thing.
spk_0
You've got spring onion here.
spk_0
You've got garlic is somewhere that one.
spk_0
Like the poppy seeds to some degree.
spk_0
You've got the sweet potato from the torch plant there.
spk_0
So there's a bunch of like small pieces of the puzzle.
spk_0
Almost like you've got one stew
spk_0
that has then been split apart into 12 dishes.
spk_0
And so I might regret this.
spk_0
I know what you want to do.
spk_0
But I want to try now putting them all together.
spk_0
Now I know why you told me not to wash up that.
spk_0
Let's wash up the big pot.
spk_0
We're going to need it.
spk_0
So let's put all these together
spk_0
and see if the final concoction,
spk_0
if they balance each other out
spk_0
or whether it's just one horrible mess.
spk_0
You've somehow made this look good.
spk_0
Yeah, I don't know if I've got my
spk_0
room left in my belly.
spk_0
But put the hamhawk on top.
spk_0
We've mixed it all together.
spk_0
It's now got floral, it's got spinach,
spk_0
it's got sweet potatoes,
spk_0
it's got poppy seeds,
spk_0
it's got cucumber, it's got just about everything.
spk_0
Oh, the banana ride through.
spk_0
That is not for me.
spk_0
That is more than energy.
spk_0
Now, and then the one twelfth, but we had earlier on.
spk_0
Those doors are also got,
spk_0
I'm getting little hints of things like
spk_0
the honey and the rose.
spk_0
And the rose, yeah.
spk_0
So I'm not all the bad things have risen to the top.
spk_0
And I don't understand how they've done that.
spk_0
Because they were all kind of like sussled.
spk_0
They kind of are not really,
spk_0
they've all combined to create a super, super bad.
spk_0
Some of those we had before were perfectly okay.
spk_0
I blame the ham.
spk_0
Well, you know, who knows maybe
spk_0
Mojang was kind of on the right path
spk_0
with one final, one big shoe
spk_0
that kind of stood out as all of that.
spk_0
That's what's missing.
spk_0
Lentus.
spk_0
Perhaps not accurate in the game.
spk_0
No, but if you're buying a cookbook,
spk_0
you want the food that you cook to taste nice.
spk_0
Well, that was the point of today.
spk_0
Was to try all these things,
spk_0
this video game that doesn't make sense.
spk_0
You shouldn't make sense.
spk_0
We did it anyway.
spk_0
And I think we've learned a lot from it.
spk_0
I know I certainly have,
spk_0
I've learned a lot about plants
spk_0
and how they are used in food,
spk_0
the different kinds of variants there are.
spk_0
And the creative genius that actually goes behind cooking.
spk_0
Thank you guys so much for joining me
spk_0
in the end.
spk_0
A lot of fun.
spk_0
I just ate stuff out of great times.
spk_0
It's been, it's been a good, well, sometimes.
spk_0
Sometimes.
spk_0
But it's been a lot of fun.
spk_0
But as always, friends, remember,
spk_0
it's just a theory.
spk_0
A game theory.
spk_0
Thanks for watching.