This was published 7 years ago
Eye of fish and blood of goat: a real I'm A Celeb... tucker trial
Staring at the shot glass of goat's blood in front of me, I wondered how it had all come down to this.
By Ebony Bowden
Staring at the shot glass of goat's blood in front of me, I wondered how it had all come down to this.
"This is the palate cleanser," the producer teased as I looked at him pleadingly.
Fairfax entertainment reporter Ebony Bowden takes on the I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! tucker trial... and lived to tell the tale.Credit: Ten
As press visiting the I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! set, obviously my camp mates and I could have packed it in and gone back to the lodge.
But a weird pack mentality and desire to win takes over when you're in one of the show's tucker trials.
Don't worry, all of the food is especially bred for human consumption.Credit: Ten
The lukewarm goat's blood went down easy enough, but the metallic aftertaste was overpowering and our hands shook with adrenaline, shock and rising nausea afterward.
We'd come this far, why give up now? From there we were served a sushi train of boiled fish eyeballs, witchetty grub, maggots, offal, flies, fly larvae, goat's stomach lining and cow intestine noodles.
I got off lightly, munching on boiled fish eyeballs while one of my camp mates ate a sushi roll of curl grub, blood caviar and maggots in just two bites.
It really is incredible what you can achieve when put in that tense environment. While for us it was just a game, in the camp it translates into a real meal for celebrities who would otherwise starve.
Ebony Bowden moments after eating boiled fish eyeball.Credit: Ten
"The trials are basically their currency," executive producer Alex Mavroidakis told Fairfax Media. "The more stars they get, each star represents a meal for camp, so it takes on great importance."
"When someone comes back to camp and says 'I only got two stars', we're all sitting on the couches at home going 'oh, look at her she's getting all upset', but it actually matters. It means they've got no dinner."
A round of goat's blood to start.Credit: Ten
And if you were worried about hygiene, don't. The fly larvae on your plate is perfectly sanitary. All of the insects are bred in captivity by a team of critter specialists. It's no wonder the show's crew stands at more than 400.
All of the tucker is also prepared by a chef and food stylist whose job it is to consume every dish beforehand. Just don't expect her to make it taste nice.
Boiled fish eyeballs was one of the less challenging meals on the menu.Credit: Ten
Portion sizes are tested, and while goat's stomach lining and cow brain might horrify you, it's not going to kill you.
My buddies and I managed to stomach nearly everything except the fly larvae, impressing producers who said we'd done rather well.
Fast forward an hour and our hands were still shaking as we stuffed ourselves with Pringles, rice crackers, anything we could get our hands on to disguise the lingering taste of goat's blood.
And while we could go to our lodge, brush our teeth and numb the distress with an ice-cold gin and tonic, you couldn't help but feel for the celebrities who'd be walking back to camp with stomachs full of blood and guts and a long, un-airconditioned night in the jungle ahead of them.
*This journalist travelled to South Africa as a guest of Channel Ten.