The Hairy Bikers' Cookbook

The Hairy Bikers roar back into action with a madcap tour of south India starting in Madras, now known as Chennai - a riot of hustle and bustle, colours and flavours, bullock carts and heat. They keep bumping into ancient temples and elephants, as they discover a cuisine that's very different from the northern Indian food that the world is used to. After a day foraging in fragrant Kumuli, India's spice central, they head through the jungle to a maharajah's palace.

The Hairy Bikers are on another cooking road trip, this time across India. As they travel through the Cardamom Hills high up into tea country, Si finds an astonishing piece of his family history. They're heading across the beautiful mountains towards Kerala and its cultural capital of Cochin. In the paradise-like backwaters of Allepey, they commandeer a traditional wicker houseboat and cook up a local delicacy of fish and coconuts.

Si and Dave hop the Channel and find themselves in the alternative universe of Belgium, birthplace of surrealism and the finest chips in the world. In the medieval town of Bruges, they get lost in the medieval one-way system and their GPS is no help. Falling back on the 300 local beers for support, they discover beer cookery. Then it's off to a village to learn about an ancient bird-related sport - before making a mysterious meal of it.

Things get surreal in Brussels when Si and Dave walk their way into a Magritte painting. They try to corner a couple of members of the European Parliament to find out what is happening to Europe's traditional foods. They go to Strasbourg, the capital of Alsace-Lorraine, where they discover that real men do eat quiche. Then back to Belgium for a spot of wild boar hunting in the Forest of the Ardennes, after which the Hairies decide to feed a posse of Belgium cowboys a stew of boar and beer.

The boys begin their Moroccan adventures in Marrakech, where Si gets a carpet and Dave acquires a king cobra on his head. After treating the locals to a kefta tagine cooked in the city's historic square, they learn how to cook a classic pastilla. Then it's a ride over the Atlas mountains, interrupted by a spot of unlikely skiing. Fortified with a harira soup cooked on the piste, they head off to a tiny Berber village, where a whole lamb is roasted in their honour.

Si and Dave head into the film town of Ouarzazate. On the roofs of the old medina they learn the secrets of the tagine and traditional bread-making, and then put their new skills to the test on a massive disused film set. Getting ever closer is the Lisbon-Dakar Rally, and the boys head off to check out one of the world's greatest off-road races. Having temporarily swapped the bikes for camels in the Sahara, they rustle up a classic medfouna before the next stage of the rally roars into the dawn.