Despite all of their time in the RTÉ studio in Cork, Today Show hosts Maura Derrane and Dáithí Ó Sé have yet to get on board with one of the Rebel County’s most famous traditions.
On Monday’s show, the pair took on a “Cork Bushtucker Trial” live on air, featuring a Cork classic — tripe and drisheen.
Beef tripe is the lining of a cow’s stomach, and looks like a honeycomb while drisheen is a sausage of beef and sheep’s blood. Traditionally in Cork, both are served together.
TV personality James Patrice surprised Maura and Dáithí with the challenge on Monday, and it’s fair to say they didn’t look too pleased.
“Some people say the two of you talk tripe…there could be tripe in your mouth shortly because we have on the Today Show the Cork Bushtucker trail,” Patrice said before revealing the tripe and drisheen.
Even Patrice couldn’t hide his shock, stating that it looked “horrific” while Ó Sé simply exclaimed: “That looks like poo.”
Smelling the drisheen, Maura Derrane was taken aback. “Oh, Jesus! Sorry, I’m not eating that,” she said. Describing the smell, the presenter said it was like “urine” while Ó Sé dramatically put his head in his hands and said: “I’m going to get sick”.
However, Derrane was braver than Ó Sé and eventually took a bite of the tripe. “It tastes like nothing, it’s fine,” she said.
Feeling brave, she decided to go for the drisheen too. Her advice? “Don’t smell it, just eat it.”
Eventually, Patrice was also persuaded to do a taste test and the presenters couldn’t contain their laughter at his facial expression.
“Ah that’s not human,” he said as Ó Sé laughed.
The segment had viewers at home in stitches too. “I had the best laugh in ages,” said one Today Show fan in the comments under a clip of the challenge. “You would all be great fun in the Jungle,” said another.
We’re not sure how they would fare with Nigel Farage’s camel udder pizza on
