Original subtitles

I'm Adam Richman, global food explorer.

I'm back in Britain on a mission

to combine two of my biggest passions,

food and football.

Come on!

This is some delicious chicken in my face,

get that bird, ya heard!

Making the match-my-menu,

I'm visiting some of the biggest clubs in Britain,

exploring football culture fork-first.

Do you need me to tell you this is going to be spectacular?

From classic fan favourites...

Scran! Scran!

..to fine dining footie style.

You don't want a burger, no.

It's where beautiful grub meets the beautiful game.

My taste buds just qualified for the Champions League.

This is Adam Richman eats Football!

(THEY CHEER)

I'm in Birmingham,

a city with a diverse food culture

that draws on influences from around the world.

It's also home to one of England's oldest

and most famous football clubs.

This is Aston Villa's home turf of Villa Park.

The team is currently preparing

to take on Bologna in the Champion's League.

But until kick-off, I'm going to make this match my menu

and I am going to explore Birmingham fork-first.

A cosmopolitan city

where over a hundred different languages are spoken,

the city's culinary diversity is reflected

in more than 2,000 restaurants and takeaways in and around it.

And my first stop is one of its oldest,

an iconic local landmark steeped in history.

But right now I've come here to the Barton Arms,

a classic British pub that was built in 1901

and has since become a match day staple

for Aston Villa fans.

They've managed to preserve all of the details,

and the ornate tiles on the wall have even been officially designated

as being of profound historical significance.

So, at a legendry traditional English pub that caters to the fans

of a traditional legendary English club,

naturally their dining room is gonna serve Thai food.

They serve Thai food here?

Birmingham's foodies have plenty of Thai restaurants to choose from.

But its historic setting gives this one a unique feel.

It's also just a mile from Villa Park,

so no wonder it's many fans' match-day choice.

Alright, we are in the nerve centre,

the smell of lemongrass and fish sauce...

Yeah. ..and shrimp

permeate everything lovely. To my left, this is Pink.

Yes.

I know she looks different than she does on MTV.

Tell me about the football fans in Birmingham, what are they like?

It's just over here, it's not too far, you know.

So, everybody, they come here because one thing, Thai food,

beautiful buildings else.

If I walk out there now, because it's game day,

is it all gonna be claret and blue?

Yes, you will see.

We have in front of us the making of their number one seller,

which is... What we have here is Pad Thai.

Pad Thai is not only the best seller here,

but it's also the national dish of Thailand.

And a lot more goes into it than you think.

OK.

Just walk me through the ingredients that we have for the Pad Thai.

I know there's these are onions, I'm assuming this is Nam pla?

Yeah, yeah, fish sauce. Nam pla, yes.

In Thai, it's Nam pla.

Get in.

Next one is our fried onions, and that one is palm sugar.

Oh, palm sugar?

So, we don't use the white sugar

because it's more tangy taste, this one is more like smooth, yes.

Shrimp, obviously. Yes.

What do we have here?

That one is tamarind sauce, yes. Tamarind?

Yes. Tamarind sauce.

OK. Sprout, carrots...

With sprouts, with carrot and spring onion and...

And that's the noodle? Noodle, a little bit

like rice noodle,

but it's made to be like, be the big size, yeah, for Pad Thai.

For Pad Thai?

Yeah, for Pad Thai, yes.

And then what are the two sauces here on the end?

That one is chilli sauce and ketchup.

Ketchup?

Yes, yes, that's the ingredients,

that's what we Thai people know is an ingredient

in the homemade sauce, but you may never know about that.

Yeah. Wow.

Yeah. And here I am

talking about the exotic flavours of southeast Asia.

And they're like, "No, dude, that's Tommy K right there."

Yes.

So, Pad means to stir fry?

Stir fry, in Thai, Pad it means to fry or quick wok.

So, it's the stir fry of Thailand?

Yeah. Pad Thai.

That means, yeah, that's it's means.

So, let's make the number one dish.

Yes.

So, you put a little oil in the pan? Yeah, start with palm sugar.

This is amazing, so basically

what chef did first is to kind of make a caramel.

Yeah.

You heard Pink say it has to be like a jam to get started.

So, now he's gonna flavour it with tamarind?

Yes, so following by tamarind sauce.

So, then the test from caramel will mix with tamarind sauce,

so it's real like balance, you know, but sweet.

Sour.

And sour together now.

So now, some Nam pla.

Fish sauce, yes. Yes, then...

Oh, so then ketchup.

Ketchup and some of the chilli, yes. Chilli sauce.

After this we need to leave in the low heat in pan

until it's got like meld, reduced, sticky,

like the sauce got to be like, yeah, sticky sauce.

But now he ready for onions and then some prawns.

One thing that I noticed that chef did

that kind of broke my brain a little bit...

Yeah, yeah?

..you know, he tipped the wok and he caught some

of that flavour oil and he splashes it back on top.

And now and... Noodle, noodle on now, yeah.

My mind is blown, this is a dish I have eaten in Thailand,

in New York, in Los Angeles, in Chicago,

and I, I, I don't think I thought I knew everything

but I thought I knew what I was eating.

The fact that you've seasoned the wok

then leave the caramel out, then you add the sauce back into it.

I know, can smell now.

It smells ridiculous.

Pink, I hate to dine and dash... Yes.

..but this smells amazing, it just came out of the wok.

Yes.

I'm gonna go to your beautiful dining room and eat,

and I'll let set up because I'm sure the Villa fans are coming in.

And they look hungry. Make it spicy for them.

I'm wanna see what happens in the...

Yeah, yeah, sure!

Alright, I have a such different appreciation of the sauce

because now that I realise it's the caramel

meant to coat the noodles.

The real sweetness is coming from sugar,

the heat is coming from the chilli paste,

the umami and savoury is coming from the fish sauce,

and the sour from the tamarind.

But if you look at it, you will still see the noodle,

you don't see a heavy, thick Alfredo-like sauce on it,

yet it possesses like that incredible characteristic.

To me it, it doesn't matter how well you cook the noodles,

if the protein you add is mush or tough.

The shrimp are perfect, and whether you come for one

of their famous ales or you come for a Thai curry,

you can get it all, walk to Villa Park,

have a bit of Thai tradition, bit of English history,

and then go watch new history being made right on the pitch.

Birmingham's pub-grub scene

is clearly thriving, and thriving right along with it,

an impressive selection of fine dining restaurants.

And just a short cab ride South from Villa Park

is a restaurant called Chapter.

Since opening in 2021, it has specialised

in elevated but accessible food, using local seasonal ingredients,

and even growing its own 'erbs and vegetables.

What's not to like about that?

You can eat well without joining the prawn sandwich brigade.

Head chef Ben is gonna show me how he crafts

a delicious dish using local mushrooms.

And I know I'm up for it, because I'm a fun guy,

a fungi because they're fungus..?

OK, let's just get to the cooking.

Admit it, good knife skills are additive to watch.

Sorry chef, I'm just totally enjoying.

This is Ben. Hey.

This is his labatoire, and I am just watching.

He is really, he's the world champignon right now,

this is the champignon league.

Have you been a Villa fan your whole life?

Yeah, since I was, since I was a little boy.

All time favourite Villa memory?

2nd of October against Bayern Munich.

I've seen them since a youngster,

but that night, the atmosphere,

just the build-up, the actual performance itself

was just so special, it was, it was such a good night.

So, where are the mushrooms from?

So, mushrooms are from just up the road

in a little place called Ashby-De-La-Zouch.

And they're grown by a guy called Tim Livesey.

I like the fact that you actually know the name of the person

from whence the vegetables come.

I'm a, I'm a proud Brummy.

I've, I've been here pretty much all my, all my life,

so it's the centre of the universe to me.

So, if I can use something from as close to home as possible

and showcase it in a restaurant,

that's a real sort of bonus, is it.

So, what were the mushrooms that you diced first..?

The first mushrooms are chestnut mushrooms,

we're gonna use that to make a nice duxelles.

And we have King Oyster right here?

They're gonna be roasted.

I've heard them called enoki,

pure peeny, what do you call them, chef?

A Shimeji. So oyster?

So, yeah, so that's your oyster, that's your...

Shiitake.

Shiitake, some more chestnut in there,

so this is their sort of wild mushroom mix.

Reminds me of like really good like broth in Japan.

Really good dashi.

Incidentally, don't just like jump into foraging.

Read and take classes, folks.

What dish are we making with this mushroom medley?

So, we're making a wild mushroom ravioli. So...

And it goes in the ravioli, or it's served on top?

Yeah, so the duxelles fillings gonna be the filling for the ravioli.

So, we're gonna serve it with some roasted wild mushrooms,

some local seasonal greens and a truffle cheese custard.

So, you kind of get the spectrum

of the mushroom flavour, what it can be.

That's it, yeah lots of, lots of mushroom flavour going through,

but lots of textures, couple of different temperature in there.

So, leaves it quite sort of interesting dish for eating.

Next up is the every bit as decadent as it sounds, truffle custard.

Incidentally on my Christmas-Hannukah-Kwanza list,

it's not just a blender and it's not just a heater,

it is all things at once.

So, now what are you programming in?

So, right, I'm setting it to 80 degrees

just on speed three, and just whole eggs and parmesan.

We knock it back with a little cream,

finish it with some truffle oil and salt at the end.

And then we're gonna chill that down

and that's gonna be poured on the dish to finish.

Right, so we've got this lovely fresh pasta dough.

OK.

So that we've made, made that last night,

so it's had time to set, rest.

So the, that bright yellow coat, is it coming from the eggs,

from semolina, what are we, what are we...

So, yeah, so it's eggs, flour, little bit of water,

and we do put a pinch or turmeric in there.

Oh you do, OK?

Because I was about to say this is golden.

Yeah, just to give it that nice golden, golden colour.

So we don't wanna go too thin

because we'll struggle to work with it.

So, this is out mushroom duxelles.

You put it in here and you froze it?

We froze it, yeah.

Obviously making pasta, sort of perfect shaped pasta,

the soft duxelle's going to be really challenging.

So, freezing this,

this is gonna allow us

to get sort of a perfect, really well filled ravioli.

So, to stay contained, they won't run away.

That's right, and then you freeze the pasta raw as a ravioli stay.

And you can cook that from scratch.

By the time this is soft in the centre

because they're only small,

the pasta's gonna be perfectly cooked.

That is so cool. Chef, thanks for having me in here.

Let me get out of his way.

To assemble the dish, Ben starts with mushroom foam

then sauteed greens.

Next, it's a selection of roasted local mushrooms

that are looking Asby-De-La-Licious.

And that truffle custard. Oh baby!

Last but certainly not least is the perfectly cooked ravioli.

Oh, thank you so much.

Here you go, your mushroom and truffle ravioli.

Thank you very much, sir. Wow.

Oh, smells so good. I wanna try the custard.

Oh my God, that's awesome. That is awesome.

The narcotic division of the MET needs to come and talk to the chef

because this has additive properties.

So, the mushrooms have also been reduced

to sort of a foam, a custard.

That's delightful, really light.

Deceptively light knowing how many different varieties

of mushrooms were in there.

Let's combine it all, one of the mushrooms, some of that foam.

It tastes like a backrub feels.

You end up with this just ridiculous spectrum of flavour,

very delicate texture, the pasta itself,

it reminds me more of an Asian dumpling

than it does very doughy traditional pasta.

I feel, in many ways, my tastebuds

just qualified for the Champions League.

2 I'm in Birmingham and the match that I'm making my menu

is Aston Villa's Champions League clash with Italian side Bologna.

So, I'll be eating the finest in the Venice of the north.

Due to its large South Asian population,

Birmingham is renowned for excellent Indian food,

and for being the birthplace of the curry dish

that's known as the Balti.

But the place that I'm heading is a famously Brummy

and undeniably delicious flavour fusion

of Indian and British culture.

When it comes to matchday, other than the beloved pie,

what is more iconic than having a pint and having a curry?

Well, here in Birmingham, there's a style of place

like this one, the Grove, which is called a Desi pub

where you can get a pint, get a curry, enjoy the flavours

of south Asia while watching the football of the Midlands.

'Desi' is derived from a Sanskrit word

and literally means 'from South Asia.'

Desi Pubs are vibrant watering holes where traditional British pub food

is served right alongside Indian, Pakistani or Bangladeshi dishes.

Desi pubs are now found across the UK

but originated in the Midlands.

And I'm joining two die hard Villa fans

for a tasty tour of the menu.

Right, walk me round the table, what do we have here?

Fries I can tell, I'm assuming chips.

They're chilli chips.

Is that a Birmingham curry thing?

I think it's more of a, like a Desi thing,

like when you go to an Indian grill,

that the chilli chips are kind of in Indian grills.

So is the definition of a Desi pub just like, err,

a pub that serves curry or is there more to it than that?

You can go to a curry house and you get the curry.

But a Desi pub, you get the mixed grill.

So, it is the mixed grill that really defines it?

Yeah, yeah.

Is the Indian meal with a pint part of the Indian tradition?

Usually what we would do is, after the game,

come to a Desi pub and mull over the game, whether we've won or not.

So are you a pie eater at the match?

We have different things at different grounds

and we rate the food at different grounds that we go to.

I love that, so who'd got the best ground

you've been to on an away, away game?

For a pie? For a pie...

Brighton. Brighton fans, Brighton.

Yeah. Really?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

They do like a really nice ham and leek pie.

Noted for my trip to the south coast.

But that said, how is a Brighton curry compared to...

Oh no, the curry, not the curry, no, no.

Yeah, he's like didn't even give it a chance.

Like la-la-la-la. He red carded me, he's like nah-nah-nah-nah-nah.

I applaud you because, with the team I support,

I live in squeaky bum time.

The idea of intentionally putting curry...

Yeah.

With my, because it's the hope,

they say it's the hope that kills you,

no, it's the hope and chillis that kill you.

Yeah.

All this food chat is making me hungry.

It's time to get in the kitchen.

Wow. Hey are you Gurgit?

Yeah, I am actually. Adam, so nice to meet you.

Hi nice to meet you, man. Thank you for having me.

We're only about 15 minutes from Villa Park.

On matchday, is it chocka-block blue?

The reason that Aston Villa are doing so well.

Really?

Yeah, and if Villa do well then you know, we obviously do well.

Do you have to hold your curries

to a higher standard because you're here in Birmingham?

Yes, we do. I think so, yeah.

Really, tell me about that?

So, do you have to have different recipes?

Probably the best chefs, and also, I eat something

what I would eat or my family would eat.

I would like to go for a curry

where, as if it's been cooked by my old mum.

Gurgit and his team are hooking me up

with me the fan-favourite, the mixed grill.

And the word is these chicken wings are next level.

With over 25 different flavouring elements here...

Yeah.

..is this like a stock marinade or is this just for the chicken wings?

Just for chicken wings.

Come on man, what? Serious.

You combine this, what does it look like when it's all done?

Here, Adam.

All this becomes that?

Yes.

Just for one dish? That's right.

I'm just gonna try a little of this, can I just try a little?

Course, yeah, yeah. Alright.

I think they call it a ramekin

because every time I hold one on camera, I ram my face in.

Oh my God, that's awesome.

First thing I was about to say

was oh, that's sour,

and then I went oh, that's sweet.

And now the spice just caught me in the back of the throat,

and that's before we add heat,

before we add protein, before we add the fat.

After a deep body massage in the marinade,

the wings are skewered.

You don't wanna a burger, no.

Then it's into the authentic tandoor oven.

Joining this delish' Desi meat medley

are lamb chops, seehk kebab and juicy chunks

of chicken tikka, all bathed in their own bespoke marinade.

Just listen to that sizzling succulence.

It smells like everything good in the world.

What's wild is there's a mix of smells and a mix of spices

because the marinade for the lamb chops

is not the same as it is for the wings.

I'm just trying to decide how we're gonna go in.

Oh, I already know I'm gonna like this one.

It's like stuck, it got like... Oh, look at that.

For my fellow wing eaters, just look at that for a second,

because you know when a wing gets like that,

you know it's kind of fire already.

Super juicy.

Goddamn. Wow.

There's so much going on flavour wise,

and because they're marinaded for days,

that flavour goes all the way through.

What you see isn't sauce brushed on, it's sauce cooked in.

If you've never been to a Desi pub,

come for a little mixed grilla' when you come to see Villa.

Um!

The delicious Desi pub mixed grill

was a fitting finale to my gastronomic visit to Birmingham.

A city that's also served me up

a luxurious local mushroom masterpiece

and the perfect Pad Thai.

Well, the eating may be over, but in a sporting sense,

I still have the main course to come.

Alright, it's just before kick-off here at Villa Park,

the energy in the air is positively electric.

And when you wanna understand the food culture

that surrounds this club,

well, it's as vibrant as modern Birmingham itself.

If you ever find yourself in Birmingham

on an away day or for work, you can still dip your toe

into the culinary culture

and the edible excellence that surrounds this club.

And me, I'm gonna dip my toe in Villa Park

and watch a great game of football.

There's a lot more footy and a lot more food ahead.

Love each other, see you next time.

Pork scratchings, a Birmingham treat.

Perfect for all you porky blinders out there.

Fruity. Why is it called scratching?

This pig ain't scratching a damn thing anymore.

That's a lot of fat.

Whoa, that's like a lot, it's like a candle on top of it.

Up the Villa and the cholesterol, I guess.

Captioned by AI-Media ai-media.tv