341: Food special: George Egg on cheese, family and festivals

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1:19Hello, scumbags. This is the Scummy Mummy's podcast. with your hosts, Ellie Gibson and Helen Thorne.

1:32Ellie Gibson: Hello and welcome to the Scummy Mummy's Podcast. Hello, Ellie. It's me, Helen Thorne. Oh, you surprised me then by changing it up. Normally you just go, it's me, Helen Thorne. Oh, OK. Now I'm unnerved. It's like swapping sides of the bed. I know. And our guest today is George Egg. It's me, George Egg. Hey, George Egg, a.k.a. The Snack Hacker. Oh, I thought you were going to reveal his real name then, and that would be awful. That would be like exposing Cal Bimface. When I did one of these radio interviews yesterday, because it was on Zoom and my real name was up there, one of the live ones, he just said my real name, but I just let it go past.

2:12I thought no one's going to realise.

2:13Ellie Gibson: Oh, you're not a diva, George. Well, it was live. I couldn't have to go back in time. I think you should have had a massive hissy fit live on the air. That would have been good. Should have done, shouldn't I? Yeah, yeah. Next time. Next time. You are, of course, a world famous. Would you prefer cook, chef, cookery, performer? I would say cook because chef feels like I have to be, and I'm not trained. I'm just a passionate amateur. Cook slash comedian slash writer. Yep. Slash fool. Best-selling author, mister. Best-selling author. How about that? It's nice, isn't it? Your wonderful book. I know, The Snack Hacker, which it has been very much loved in this house.

2:56Ellie is a huge fan of your book and it's given joy and deliciousness to so many people.

3:02Ellie Gibson: So for anyone who's not listened to our previous podcast with George, George and I have a history. I've known George for 48 years. Yes. Unbelievably. I remember you being born. Wow. All those years ago in 1994. and yeah so our parents were friends and so yeah and we grew up sort of in the same area so the book there's a beautiful painting of the beauois chinese takeaway um just near where my parents live in there that sort of makes me cry every time i look at it because it's you and your brother and then with your dad i know and did you notice i'm gonna find the page yes did you notice because it's the 80s who did the beautiful illustration my son so we put we actually put concord in because it was the 80s oh it's the details and and so how was writing the book then it must have been a joy to it was a joy it was it was really interesting so when I first proposed the book it was just going to be just a book of the recipes that I'd done in my social media my Instagram videos um and then as I started writing it I started writing more about growing up and my dad doing all the cooking at home and all that kind of thing uh and then the publishers were fab because i think had it been with i mean it's a relatively small publisher it's not like you know one of the one of the big five or whatever they are yeah um and they don't do a lot of cookbooks and i think had it been with one of those big ones they would have been much more prescriptive and said no this is how we do a cookbook whereas um blink bonnier the ones who published it they were really uh accommodating of my uh sort of changing direction and going i want to write about growing up i want to write about like you want the history nostalgia yeah yeah and it really is a fantastic book and it's full of like i love that the ingredients are really various and a lot of them are stuff you can get in the corner shop but it's also some of the recipes have got tonnix tea cakes or malt loaf or like peanut butter or greg steak bakes in yeah also the little bit of fancy stuff a bit of miso yeah yeah it's very uh very anti food snobbery the book you know it's it's totally uh uh yeah the food that that people eat either shamefully or not but you know it's ingredients that people like but yeah basically saying do other stuff with them and make them a bit more yeah interesting we love the motorway service station mulled wine that is very great for when we're on the road with our christmas tour i had to very specifically uh point out in that recipe that uh you then get back on the megabus as opposed to back in the driving seat well we've got we've got a driver haven't we we've got miserable steve so we could be just drunk the whole time yes and if you're with in a van with miserable steve for six hours it's best to be drunk so it does help it does help shall we tell the listeners what motorway service mold wine is yes do yeah go for it may i is that okay so it's uh you go to m &s or or you know one of the other outlets at the service station get a little bottle of red wine you use the microwave that they have in the service station for baby food but nobody ever checks uh then you take with you from home some uh some like you've sort of fruit tea bags with you know things like cinnamon and star anise and all those sorts of spices because a lot of those christmasy ones have got those mulled wine spices in or similar things uh some sachets of sugar um a bit of satsuma juice if you've got us that soon or if you haven't leave that out uh basically put all those ingredients in with the inner cup with the with the red wine put it in the microwave give it a stir and you've got a kind of assimilation of mulled wine yeah and then you get on the on the couch and um happy day headphones eye mask where you go but i have to say my favorite recipe in the book is the spatchcocked chicken with french market potatoes which i've made i'm going to say at least once a fortnight really yeah honestly that is so nice to hear it's so lovely all the time and i love the writing about it and the way you talk about going to going on holiday camping holidays with your folks and yeah that um but the honestly well you talk us through the recipe george so yeah so so basically it's it's the uh where you get the the the wall of chickens in the french market and then at the bottom of the wall of chickens there's like a trough full of very yellow new potatoes with all the chicken fat dripping on them as they as they revolve in front of the the the heating elements uh so it's yeah basically a way of doing that at home so you you get a chicken you spatchcock it which is really easy you just cut the spine out flatten it yes do it with a pair of scissors piece of piss you literally do do it with scissors yeah yeah uh and um uh and then you put it on so the the trick with the potatoes is you use tin potatoes because which are which are fab and people turn their nose up at them but again you know they're cheap they're affordable they're they're yeah and they've got that kind that exact right flavor um you season those with well i use a chicken stock pot as well like a little nor chicken stock pot um and season those put those on a tray at the bottom of the oven put the grill on uh and then you put the the chicken straight onto the bars at the top and and basically grill it and the the dripping falls down onto the potatoes and then you flip it over halfway through and uh yeah have that with a bottle of rough red wine and i'm i am not kidding you it is absolutely amazing it is delicious and considering it's like four ingredients or something it's just unbelievable so i make it all the time and i'm again full disclosure i was one of those people george i i'd never bought a tin potato i generally was like oh you know i wouldn't buy a jar of guacamole either yeah do you know what i mean i wouldn't buy jarred guacamole well there you go i have jarred guacamole in my fridge so fuck off and i like it i like it my body my choice good for being you that lovely acidy flavor that's what you want very smooth and creamy thank you so is guacamole but enough snobbery no but but i just realized we're supposed to be uh anti-food snobbery oh my goodness apologies oh god rewind I am a complete convert because the tin potatoes yeah they're all smooth and pebbly and they soak up all the fat and the juice and you get these and they go sort of a little bit fudgy and oh my yeah kind of yeah the bits where they stick to the pan they go sort of chewy and then yeah and they're so waxy aren't they almost like eating nightlights and I love a roast dinner but when I can't be bothered with the full like gravy and peeling potatoes and parboiling and all that I'm just like oh i'll just do george's chicken and that's why we have it for dinner most weeks not just that it's a great recipe i'm also lazy so but no it's it's absolutely fantastic so yes so buy george's book the snack hacker sharing food with your kids is this one of the greatest joys oh so much so you know one of that joy of having like the first bite of you know yeah no you know when you give your kid bacon for the first time you're like welcome in you know so so much so if that one of the things i wrote down here on my little notes was uh my daughter zoe's first mcdonald's which was she'd been intrigued but being you know growing up in brighton and these very uh worthy kind of uh fellow parents uh who you know and say there was a real it was so funny because i kind of think of growing up around here and going to mcdonald's birthday parties and that being a totally normal thing oh my god getting yucked in the freezer yes yes sometimes you got a crown you got a paper crown but then there was but there's none of that when our kids were growing up to it was like really anti it but anyway and zoe was intrigued and was like you know i would really like to try my tunnels she's probably about i'm like seven and uh uh anyway and so so we were walking home we went and i said well you know i'll get you a cheeseburger if you want and she was like okay anyway and then we were we were at some times and she went i'm gonna walk down the road like in case any of her friends saw at that age terrible but so i went in bought her a cheeseburger came out and then walked in and she was like you know we're good let's get a bit further down the street before i try it and then she's anyway and she just had her first bite and honestly just i i mean i had to try and explain this as an audio format but honestly her eyes literally rolled back in her head and it's kind of like absolute bliss and i said can i have a bite and she was like oh oh happy days i yeah i i listen i weirdly enough just a couple of days ago i ended up googling whether mcdonald's still offer birthday parties because i was trying to write yeah a joke about it in this novel that yes i am still writing and uh and they don't really do them anymore they occasionally do them at the mcdonald's with play areas but it's not mcdonald's birthday parties which yeah in the 80s in southeast london was if your parents threw you a mcdonald's birthday party I mean, you're basically Prince Harry.

11:43Ellie Gibson: Do you know what I mean? Oh, yeah, yeah. Always Captain McDonald's as well, all the ones that I like to. On the island. On the island. So there's a policy for you, Andy Burnham. Bring back McDonald's birthday parties. Now, look, here's the thing, George. Here's why we've really brought you here. What? It's the summer holidays and we are shitting it. Let's be honest, because we've got these children now, George. The youngest one is 11 and the oldest one is 17. Yes, yes. So we've got teenagers. and they just eat all the time. They just want to eat and I don't know how I'm going to get through the next six weeks.

12:20Ellie Gibson: Hack me a snack snack. Are they fussy? The little one, my little one is very fussy. Both of us, our second one, they don't eat as much as the first. The first are the easy breezy ones who will eat anything and then the second one's, yeah, ham-based things. sliced ham cheese uh bread cheese and carbs that's a good combination yeah and you've actually raised teenagers to completion so i have to and and and and now have uh grandchildren coming up uh very young very small oh how old are your grandkids two and none well oh my god and what's it like what's it like becoming a grand can you describe what it feels like it's great i mean all the cliches of you know that you can play with them and hand them back are true of course that's dreamy because I've heard some people say um it's different to your own children in terms of the love you feel for them and I've had other people say it's more or you love them in a different way what's your experience been um I the love I feel is it just feels the same really yeah it doesn't feel like I love them in a different way uh it's um I mean the whole it's more the difference is that they're not not being the parent so not so having an opinion so I think there's quite a lot of that yeah well you mean you you're not allowed to have an opinion or you try not to have an opinion well I'm just conscious of I think because because I became a parent quite young and so become a grandparent quite young it feels like it doesn't feel like very long ago at all that my parents had just become grandparents and were on occasion would say things like well you know we think you should do something differently and I'd be like how dare you you know your mother was not a woman to keep her opinions to herself no no completely and I mean that as a compliment neither am I neither am I I mean and so and so which which yeah now I look back now that they're they're dead sort of very differently but at the time I was uh uh you know I'd get really riled and so so because that memory is still pretty fresh when i've had thoughts of like i wonder if you know maybe you know then i kind of and then there'll be like occasional times when i've said something and then thought oh god i'm really telling my parents yeah yeah and so so that's kind of tricky but no it's great though it's it's loads of fun and some doing a lot of going to dmi and all that kind of thing oh you sound like the best granddad ever yeah yeah that's pretty nice and so so the two-year-old would be in the sort of trying new things yeah yeah yeah he is he's he is just starting i was asking about the fussy fuzziness just because he's just starting to get a bit like i don't want that i don't want that and it is that sort of oh when they realize they have free will it's a nightmare awful it's so tricky and then so when ours was small we were really conscious of giving them whatever we were eating so we had this little kind of grinding device yeah like a like something you'd do weed in i suppose but uh

15:33yeah and so like if we were having curry or spaghetti bolognese or whatever like that would just just make it into a into a sort of pulp uh and um and feed that to ours and then and i think i don't know maybe i mean there's all chance and all sorts of other factors going on i'm sure but i i think maybe that they've you know they've got quite broad palettes and they did when they were young they still were fussy about things here's the thing did you find this when your kids were small they would like one day they would be into one thing and then what so like you give them sausages and broccoli one day and day one they'd eat all the sausages leave the broccoli day two

16:07Ellie Gibson: they'd eat the broccoli and very tough sausages yeah very fickle very and and yeah and my i've had completely different experience with both sons as well so one of them like you're saying just just blended up whatever we were eating he never had a problem with it and the other one yeah he's 11 and still like this is how fussy he is he he likes plastic ham like all children and like me so he loves plastic ham but he will only eat plastic ham from tesco's the particular way for wow that's really um and trust me i've tried i've tried just not mentioning it and putting sainsbury's or little ham just quietly in a sandwich and he will take one bite and go that's the wrong ham really so is that a sign of a sophisticated palate or just that's fascinating Have you tried, because it's the whole thing, I would love to, I know people who think they're wine experts, and I would love to decant a bottle of Cheat Blanc into a£20 bottle and then say, oh, I got this from San San.

17:06I'm sure they'll be going, oh, yeah, you can do it. But have you tried putting other ham in the actual ham box?

17:15Ellie Gibson: I've obviously hidden the ham packet, so he's got no knowledge. didn't we have a confession at the show recently of a woman who her children insisted they would eat only eat Heinz baked beans and the supermarket own brands were inferior so she would do exactly she saved Heinz bean tin she washed it out and then every time she makes the cheaper supermarket baked beans she just leaves the empty clean tin on the counter and the kids think it's Heinz and they wolf it down so there's a snack well my my wife bless her to bits but she is someone who thinks Heinz are superior and also she has a thing with oat milk there's an oat milk that she thinks is superior to us and I've I've been so tempted to decamp little oat milk into the into the oatly carton and just say but I thought I can't because then if then it just feels it feels too uh yeah in terms of in terms of your go-to sort of comfort food George what what what you know if you're at home with not much else on you're like right what what what what what's your what's your comfort or your cuddle food i mean i i am i am very good at eating cheese on toast yeah i reckon cheese on toast like i i think i made that basically for the first four years of my son's life yeah it's so easy and so instantly gratifying yeah so let's compare our ultimate cheese on toast i like a white bread i like a bit of butter i like grated cheese and a little bit let's let's go a little bit deeper you said white bread but what sort of white bread are we talking something you slice yourself or are you talking like straight out of the like proper plastic like yeah proper plastic ideally not even from a supermarket from like a corner shop or motorway services oh that comes in one of those clear plastic bags with a knot in it that's what i yeah yeah nice i don't want none of your fancy and sour and then you you butter the the bread as well as have the cheese on toast the bread then butter it then the cheese then grill it and then the worcester sauce and just was the sauce or any other other just worcester sauce come on george change my mind debate me well i mean i i'm you know i'm not a food snob so yes i would absolutely wolf that down however i think if i were doing a cheese and toast i was going to I would I'm sorry sorry folks but I'm gonna go for a sourdough I know it's I know what have I become but yes no it really turns out you can take the boy out of South East London put him in Brighton yes and now it's all sourdough and kimchi and maybe even my own set my own homemade sourdough oh my god sorry I'm just gonna go and vomit you've changed but yes so so well toasted bit of sourdough i wouldn't i wouldn't bother with the butter just because i'd be very generous with the cheese get that really bubbling under the grill and then i would in and i'd well i'm so bad at decisions i would say i'd go for nice thick slices of really good tomato just placed on top and a bit of salt and pepper a bit of all of all also what i love doing is what you've just described and then cutting it into sort of eight little fingers and then putting different things on each one but let's put a little bit of salad cream on one let's put a little bit of just cayenne pepper on one and yeah maybe even a bit of sour actually that's another sauerkraut underneath the cheese then put that under the grill you get that vinegary kind of yeah you've got all cat's deli on us have overnight but i i have to have some sort of vinegar base like i i quite like a thin um spread of branston and right yeah and then or or would you go for the sandwich version or the chunky oh yeah the fine fine chunk the small chunks small chunks small chunks i really like that or or even um your caramelized onion chutney i do like that i do like that and then yeah have you tried i think it's called uh mrs hs balls chutney no it's uh i think it's a south african uh chutney and it's it's like a cross between um a branston pickle and it's got, it's a bit sweeter and it's a bit relish and kind of onion chutney vibes and a bit of heat to it.

21:26But it's, yeah, it works. And if it was the saucy as well, it's, yeah, it's great with hot cheese. Also, I will say I'm a convert to Agita's lime pickle chutney with a cheese. I think that is interesting. Sensational. So much so. And in fact, when we come on in time to talk about this game thing. I think you've got it. we're going to talk about. No, come on, come on. Let's go.

21:52Ellie Gibson: Now, just before we start, we need to say this episode is fuelled by delicious and bold flavour-flipping snacks thanks to Pilgrim's Choice. Mmm. That's my choice of cheese. Is it? Yes. I love that choice. Does that sound nice and natural and completely unforced? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm often talking about delicious, bold flavours. Yes, me too. You have partnered with, which, of course, as we understand, been paid by Pilgrim's Choice and so have we to talk about Pilgrim's Choice cheese. Good old Pilgrim's Choice. Should we have a jaunty little ad break? A thank you to our sponsors. That's what we should do.

22:28Ellie Gibson: I love Pilgrim's Choice, Helen, and I prefer it much to the inferior little knockoff Pilgrim's Second Choice. Oh, that's good. No, that's good. No, it's not as good.

22:41Sloppy seconds. Nobody wants that.

22:43Ellie Gibson: Pilgrim's Imperium Choice is not for me. I genuinely have had a block of Pilgrim's Choice in my fridge for years it's oh my god you hate it that much you haven't eaten it not the same what's wrong with it it's from the pilgrims handed down through the generations yeah I absolutely love it it's on my favorites uh you know in my Sainsbury's thing because I like I like a very mature cheddar and yes it's got a good itchy kind of yeah kind of punchy bowl blah blah yeah and it goes on everything like you know heavily on the top of a spag bowl because it it almost has that sort of parmesan yeah because of that and then the perfect cheese on toast and just generally just i instead of making a sauce for my pasta i will just get boil up the spaghetti and then with a bit of the um put grated pilgrim's choice in the bottom of a bowl, pour the pasta with a bit of pasta water, whizz it around, basically a cup and a half.

23:41Then you've got, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's basically cacio e pepe. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Did you know I've actually brought some Pilgrim's Choice cheese? What are the chances? Hang on. Shall I get it now? Yes. I'll grab it. Do you want to get it? Okay.

23:54Ellie Gibson: Good, good. We could just have a gnaw on it. Gnaw on the Pilgrim choice. Look, George Egg has bought us a beautiful box of cheese. It's the dream. Look at this. What? Red Leicester dip and dunk mango and chutney. Oh, see, I was just saying that I love chutney and cheese. And you love to dunk things. Mango and chutney, not mango and chutney. No. I thought you dipped the mango in the chutney. No, you dipped the red Leicester in the mango chutney. Oh, yes, please. Yes, please. I'm going to hide those from the teenager. They'll be gone. Italian one, garlic and herb grated cheddar. That sounds amazing.

24:30That would be like pasta heaven. That would be.

24:33Ellie Gibson: The American one, hot honey grated cheddar. These people, where do they come up with their ideas? I know, they can't stop having ideas. Oh, smoky paprika grated cheddar. That one actually is really, if you microwave that, it's just like, and you just eat it like with a spoon. Oh, like a sort of hot yoghurt. Yes. Which is a phrase nobody ever wanted to hear. I don't know. But yes, hot honey sliced cheddar. So again, we like to eat sliced cheddar just out of the packet in the dressing room. I do like that. So that's fantastic. And what's quite good about sliced is you can sort of ration yourself, can't you?

25:09Yes, but then I can. But I mean, you know what I mean? You can sort of, you can look at the, you can go, well, how much of this have I had? Whereas when it's a block, you're just eating it like a biscuit.

25:18Ellie Gibson: Oh, caramelised onion, sliced. And look, this is the good stuff. Mature and extra mature. Just like me and George. Oh. Which one's which? Well. ah i mean by a if i if i if i remembered ellie being born i think we know which one's that i think so oh what a selection of of of cheese cheesy goods this is absolutely delightful yeah oh this is really good oh i i did not know there were so many kinds of pilgrim's choice available how does the pilgrim choose well well exactly that's the thing because it's the pilgrim's choice so therefore yeah which is the choice yeah i mean if i was you know walking 200 miles to canterbury i would definitely want some italian garlic and herb grated cheddar with me george that would be an ideal snack to put in my bag with i don't know what medieval people with my mead yes let's try that red leicester with mango chutney not mango and chutney that would be insane oh the thing is with you can't get pilgrim's choice red leicester in a block i don't think maybe you can i've not seen it no but you could buy 10 of these dip and dunks and you could sell tape or perhaps melt.

26:26Ellie Gibson: If you've got a lighter, you could melt the understudy and stick them together like bricks to make your own block. If you were an insane person, that's something you could do. There's a summer holiday idea for the kids. Beautiful. Thank you, George. Thanks for all the cheese. Thank you, Pilgrims. Thank you, Pilgrims. So we've sampled a few of the finest of their selections. Tell us about your game. We were talking, me and the Pilgrims. did they wear the funny hats well i had to stop them because they were mid pilgrimage and i said just take a break it's hot yeah uh let's find some shade and then discuss the problem of children in the holidays not not you know you've got to feed them snacks and that kind of thing all the time endless endless snacks so we've come up with a game and it's called Flavour Flip.

27:23And it is, you know, I mean, okay, cards on the table, literally with the game, but that came to me just then. And the idea of it is that, you know, your kids are hungry and you've become reliant on crisps and biscuits and chocolate bars and things in a drawer and things that are probably not necessarily particularly good for, you know, well-being and so on. and so it's a way of expanding your kids palates by by turning into a game because i think you know if you say to your children oh why don't you eat this broccoli thing they go why don't you yeah yeah why don't you get broccies yeah whereas if you've got and it's kind of aimed i guess at probably younger kids but if you've got all these ingredients on the table and you're turning into a game and it's about trying different weird combinations so what you've got is you've got three sets of cards one is because it's pilgrim's choice thing is basically cards that are all different cheese things then you've got a set of cards which are things that you'd find in the fridge and because obviously not everyone's going to have the same things in the fridge you can you can write on them and you can change them if you you know to adapt to what you've got and then you've got a set of cards of things that are in the cupboard and then they've got different scores so things like chili sauce has got a higher score something like mushrooms slightly lower a bit more adventurous you get yeah you get points for being a bit more yeah and then and then what you do you shuffle them up uh everyone gets dealt a card from each thing they gather those ingredients they try them and then they win the points if they've tried them and then they talk about how it tastes and then to make it more of a game there's a whole a whole nother set of cards that they pick from which have got things like uh where you can steal a card from another person like blind steal if there's one say you've got anchovy and you go i really don't want to try anchovy and you can do a blind still with someone else but then you might get something you might be even less oh this is uh yeah and uh and like you know sort of charade kind of element to it as well i mean it is it is actually a i think it's a good playable fun game i think it sounds

29:27Ellie Gibson: honestly i think it sounds great not just for kids but maybe when you've had a bottle of wine in your caravan holiday just actually yes yes a sort of a dirty version no don't have to go that sounds great and i will eat most things with with cheese in so yeah i think maybe the kids that's a good way of getting them right exactly and i think that it's yes because the cheese is the sort of safe base and then you put the other thing i was i was thinking of a bit like um so obviously in the film ratatouille when he's got the he's got the cheese i think and the grape and he's like describing flavor and he goes you know like this tastes amazing and you get all the little sort of fireworks popping above him and then the grape and it's like this is amazing too and then tries the two together and it's like an actual sort of display uh i think it's a bit like that but i think because you're using in the game you you are you know there there are you're encouraged to use more not off the wall but but less child-friendly things like raw onion or anchovy or whatever else um and so it's a bit like i kind of think of it like a a skiffle band in that kazoo by itself.

30:32Ellie Gibson: Because kids love Skiffle. Exactly. I think the thing is, as a grandfather, I have to try and get down with the kids. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All the kids. You go on TikTok, it's nothing but Skiffle, Skiffle, Skiffle. All day. Here's the thing. I've got Skiffle on my mind because I went to... This is a whole separate thing. Skiffle on my mind. It's like a Radio 6 programme. But I went to Amsterdam. come on you're going to have us down aren't you um or have been depending on when this goes out but uh yeah i went to see a gig and it was so good went to see the gig in london and fainted that's a whole other story but anyway eating enough cheese get some pilgrim's choice in you where were we we were talking about the game no so skeffle that's you threw me because you because i was very rude but no so i was thinking yeah kazoo by itself oh my goodness no thanks like raw onion uh uh bass made out of a broom handle and a tea chest by itself sound very good guitar yeah that's great the guitar that's the cheese the kazoo that's the raw onion by itself no plinth no thanks uh the bass the anchovy maybe but this by itself a bit too much put the three together oh my god you've got music yeah or a nice mouthful of food and who doesn't love skiffle no absolutely i think it's great i'm pretty sure i'm guessing that my children will hack it and also put really the most revolting things they can think of so they'll yeah they'll change like the marshmallow card to like bleach things like that don't do that and is there a prize do they win some pilgrim's choice cheese or something i think i think it's literally just a points thing in the game i mean i guess you could say i mean it's up to the people playing you could go the winner gets this copy of the canterbury tales to keep it on brand gets to join us on our pilgrimage yeah uh bring uh sensible footwear oh well i think it's brilliant and where can people get this game so uh they have to follow the pilgrim's choice instagram account and then there'll be videos of gameplay on there and details about how to get hold of it yeah and there's an event if you're listening to this before the 29th of July.

32:50Ellie Gibson: There's an event in London, isn't there? Yes, near somewhere at Waterloo. I think it's a kind of games cafe kind of place. Oh, fun. And yeah, so I'm talking about, I'm doing some child family friendly stand up on the tables. There's going to be all the ingredients and the game. And then it's going to be lots of sort of families there playing the game and... Sounds great. Getting all full of cheese and skiffle. Yes. George eggs, cheese and skiffle event. I would go to that every time. That's really fun. Everyone's going to be talking about skiffle. Yeah, I look forward to Pilgrim's Choice releasing a new kind of cheese, the George Egg skiffle cheese.

33:30Ellie Gibson: I think that's... That sounds like something awful, doesn't it? Skiffle cheese. I wish I'd never said that. Because that's how you're finding your shoes. I was going to say, it's a bit of a bit. Between your toes. A bit skiffly. Yeah, very skiffly. So, yes, thanks again to Pilgrim's Choice for the cheese and the money. Now... And the chutney. And the chutney, yes. Oh, that was lovely. Which I should be buying more of, again, with that sweet, sweet Pilgrim's Choice money. Listen to the cheese. That was some grated... Mexican one. Oh, I think that's going to be lovely. So one of the things that...

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34:41You've got social dialed in. Search is doing its thing. So why do your marketing results look the same as six months ago? That's because you're fishing in the same pond as everyone else. Podcast listeners are a different audience entirely, more engaged, harder to reach through traditional channels, and ready to act when someone they trust makes a recommendation. We're Acast, and we put them right in front of you. Browse thousands of the world's leading podcasts, book host reads or run your own ads, and track every conversion in real time. same skills you already have brand new results a cast a cast.com slash advertise we have loved over the years is catching up with you at a festival george egg we've seen you at edinburgh at big festival all camp festival i'm sure we didn't have festivals yeah yeah so where are you off to this summer i am off to uh rock oyster so all the festivals i'm doing this year i'm doing cooking demos yeah uh doing recipes from my book and then fish finger spaghetti mushy pea hummus oh leftover chip tortilla oh that's a good one i like that that's very nice uh where else am i you're doing a uh an event with our friend melissa yeah yeah yeah of course yeah who uh i was introduced through you you introduced me to melissa now yes so we're doing uh berry literature festivals yeah albora food festival oh beautiful and uh ludlow ludlow food

36:13Ellie Gibson: yeah so they're all food festival ones have you have you got any tips for surviving festivals because i think you're i think you're better at it than me i i i so i do glastonbury most years when that happens obviously it's not happened this year uh and i really relish like setting up i mean i i've got a nice van with uh you know a lot of good kitchen equipment and i mean big top tip is i like to have a lot of ingredients a lot of spices and that sort of thing yeah so i get the um the little uh 35 mil film canisters from when people used to put film in their cameras and you can get those uh on ebay or whatever like for pens yeah people sell loads they've got yeah yeah and they're great they're airtight you know like really really good seal on them and they're perfect for like a you know a tablespoon and a half of whatever so you can have your curry powders and your spices and your your you know uh ground chili and everything else uh so i've got like two tupperwares full of those all written on the top and they take up very little space and then you can convert anything so you can get something off the site from one of the stalls and you could get like regular cheeseburger and then get your spices out and enhance it with you know and play around so i love that so that's that's a top tip apart from that yeah i mean i'm gonna pop noodle it's pretty good isn't it our friend our friend zoe de pass friend friend of the scummy mummies she says freeze a cask you know a box of rose so it's a massive ice block keeps things cool but also you get each old rose by the time we get to the festival yes that is that is an absolutely fantastic idea and then you can blow up the empty bag and use it as a pillow that's right or as a game yeah it's a game we're just like bouncing it about oh i see yeah yeah or to pretend you're pregnant there's so many things you can do yes and then you get to the front yeah yeah and whip it out and it's for the rose as well yeah or if you need people to get out of your way just be like oh it's coming it's coming more and more yes yeah yeah right i've done a similar thing that with the rosé but where i've made a in fact the last few glastonbury's has become a traditional like the first night we'll have uh stroganoff and then what i've done is i've frozen that in blocks to keep everything cold on the way there and then yeah and then defrosted that and cooked it now i'll share a little it's going back to your spices thing and now most people are going to be like yeah obviously that's obviously a bit blew my mind so in the van we like to we like a boiled egg often George we like yeah we like to get one of them service station when we're lazy so we don't always remember to boil our own eggs yeah we'll sometimes buy those um in the in the packet but you need salt I think that's essential with a boiled egg utterly a border without salt is like that pilgrim without chomis

39:05Ellie Gibson: you know I've thought of a new tagline for them your body your pilgrim's choice why don't they do that you can we'll sell that to them after this anyway but yes um so so i bought a little one you know you can get salt that comes in a little sort of twisty what do you call it mill grinder yeah so like you can get them in tesco's whatever these and then and then rose roadie rose came up with a brilliant idea she then put peppercorns into the soul grinder so now we have salt and pepper yes no that is that is that is a brilliant and i tell you what is really nice as well i mean obviously it well no i think it works with pretty much everything vegetables and meat and the works but if you put yeah salt and pepper and then about i don't know sort of quantities wise i'd say sort of sort of 40 salt 40 pepper and then 20 a mixture of uh fennel seeds and coriander seeds oh it's all up together and it just it's not like overwhelming but like if you cooked a bit of a burger or something like that just it just lifts it and it that slight aniseed from the kennel just makes it that much more savoury and yeah that's a really nice little tip really nice so there you go there's some festival tips for you uh now should we do some scummy mummy confession yes please george do you have a scummy do you have a scummy grandparent confession or a scummy dad i guess it's i yeah i don't know if this is a confession or not should i just tell you what it is it's just a fun thing and we'll judge you when uh when the kids were small when they're at primary school uh we uh i i volunteered to do face paints uh at the um uh the school fate and uh and so i brought along and i'd we'd got i think when the kids were small i can't remember i think for halloween or something we've got but i'd gone to this really good website and got hold of some very like good like i think called a bruise wheel which has got all the right colors for doing bruises and all this kind of thing uh and and like fake blood and scratches so anyway so everyone was wanting spider-man and shrek and all this kind of thing and then uh a um a mum uh came over and said could you just for for fun give me a like a pretend black eye so you punched her in the face yeah that's my confession oh it's the police um uh yes so so i said oh yeah okay if you like so anyway so i did so i did a really really good black eye on this mum uh and then she went off and then obviously someone saw it and and said but you know oh guy over there did it no no you know uh anyway and so anyway and we had this queue of people and just everyone wanted nobody everyone stopped wanting uh you know your digital faces but all wanted wounds and i had kids with like like bruised arms and cuts and grazes and then and then a bit later on the first mum came back and said um can you actually clean this off because i realize i'm going somewhere later on and i know i'm just going to get looked at and like yeah so it's not particularly convenient but it was just yeah it was just a very fun thing and and then after after that event at the next school fate basically i i had a still doing doing bruises and cuts and that was literally what it was so it wasn't face painting it was fake fake injuries oh i'd be like Can you give my husband a cesarean scar just so, you know, see how he likes it?

42:26Ellie Gibson: Yeah. Oh, that's amazing. I'm going to share a festival related confession. Well, it's a tip and a sort of confession all in one, really. And so I may have talked about this on the podcast before, but not for a while. Whenever we go camping, I like to bring with me a urinal gourd. Now, I see you looking at me askance, George. I'm just intrigued. And well, you might. yes so it's i think the official name is like she we or something yeah but it's like it's like a big and i did choose the color a big red i thought if we're going to go for it let's go for it yeah we don't this isn't a time for subtlety yeah it's like a big sort of red gourd is the only way to describe it but not squash kind of yes yes but even bigger right and so yeah it's like a sort of bulbous at one end and then there's a sort of tunnel and then there's an attachment for ladies which is a sort of white funnel that clips on to the end and then so you do your business and then again if you're camping up miles from the toilets which is one of the reasons I loathe camping um then you can just you know stand up in the tent or indeed step outside if it's dark wee in the funnel goes into the gourd and then there's like a screw top lid um and and that's you know I think that's a wonderful solution um no what you mustn't do and this is where the confession is uh this happened what about 10 years ago what you mustn't do is go to a festival of your comedy partner and your husband and um like do do the wee in the gourd and maybe not put the lid on quite tightly enough cross the thread but not realize that and then when your five-year-old picks up the gourd and starts waving it around inside the tent and your husband says you go oh it's fine you're so uptight and then listen as the urine splashes out of the gourd all over the sleeping bag your husband's sleeping bag mark you and the lilo um thus sending him into what can only be described as an absolute rage uh but you and i would imagine as well because the child it's a child they can't help it but yes it was my experience of festival urine is because you are walking around a lot sweating quite a lot it can be quite uh pungent amber yes yes yes like a August.

44:35August and trace. Yes. A shoe. A shoe. Almost like an orange. Like an orange squash. A gravy.

44:42Ellie Gibson: Yes. So there you go. Take a she-wee, but put the lid on properly. That's if you would like to stay married, which we are by a thread. Hey, hey, hey. My confession was we did a gig in Olverston the other day in the Lake District, which was beautiful. Absolutely sensational. and um i walked up a hill and saw a beautiful view of the surrounding areas and i came down i was thirsty i thought i'll go and get some i'll go and get a drink but also i'll get some milk for ellie um because she likes the fresh milk with a tea at a premier inn i'm a very good friend anyway um uh i like a chat with a with a shop assistant anyway and and and it was at a service station and i i walked in and uh and i got my drinks and she said oh any fuel any fuel i said no no this is my fuel and i held the milk up and uh now i have to kill myself um and i was like i can never go back to oh thank god i never have to go back to that service station ever again because i've embarrassed myself in front of every no one said anything you've got no reaction there's no no she scanned it i paid her and and then then left i thought oh thank god i never have to go back there again anyway so we go back to the hotel have a shower we go off and then steve goes oh god we need some steve's the roadie we need some fuel we'll just pull into the service station i was like no we can't we can't we can't go we cannot we can make it to the next one yes just on fuel i wonder if she saw you and was like oh my god she's going to do that joke again oh god no no oh here comes the lady from london with her jokes yeah anyway that was it it was a great moment there's nothing worse than that as a when when a light-hearted comment is just met with utter indifference happened to us all it's happened to us all yeah so there we go yeah oh well uh we must end the podcast george so people can buy your book the snack hacker it's out now yes it's it it is out from all the all the usual places and who are you on instagram is it george egg or the snack hacker just at george egg at george egg um we're not on tour you'll be amazed to hear for the next few weeks because we're having a little break for the summer So we're going to Camp Festival and Feastable.

46:59Ellie Gibson: So you can come see us there. And then we're back on the road, end of September, beginning in Gloucester, I want to say, or Sevenoaks. Yes, we are. We are in Gloucester and then to Sevenoaks and then up to Newcastle, which will be wonderful. And then we're going to a new place called Aldershot, Ellie, which we've never been to before. Aldershot, military town. Oh, is it? Apparently. Yes, sir. So thank you, George. Huge thanks for coming on the podcast again. Thank you. Lovely to see you. Thank you so much. Thanks, of course, to the pilgrims for their cheddar, which is... choice choosing us today thank you to the pilgrims we are the pilgrims choice we are they chose us their cheddar is our cheddar of choice yeah if you're touring does that mean you're pilgrims yeah you sort of make a little pilgrimage to a yes theater every every but we don't have a choice we're contractually obligated but anyway again enough i feel like we're going too deep yeah that's it thank you for listening everybody eat your cheese choose your cheese choose your cheese wisely like the pilgrims did dream, believe, eat cheese your pony, your pilgrim's choice yeah that's right I love that oh until next time bye bye bye bye bye

48:15ones where you're camping and oh for fuck's sake it's the door sorry

48:18Ellie Gibson: it's the door we're doing it's probably the pilgrims yes yes yes say uh you forgot to mention yeah hello just a pillow delivered i cannot find a comfy pillow i've tried 100 pounds ones i've tried 15 pound ones this is a mid-range one this is the latest john lewis uh soak and sleep that one soak and sleep soak and sleep as in like bath and bed oh i see right i think they sell towels yeah i see yeah okay yeah so it sounds a bit like an adult film but yeah so it just sounds like yeah like yang can cook yeah the bed's all uh yes right sorry about that okay hello i'm monica reinagle host of the nutrition diva podcast summer is here and with it the hot and sticky weather a morning working in the garden or maybe on the golf course can leave you more depleted than you realize and plain water isn't always the most efficient way to restore the balance.

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