大象传媒

Wondering how to ring the changes for this year's Christmas feast? Rick Stein has some delicious new ideas which he brought back from his Far Eastern Odyssey. His travels have inspired him to come up with the answer to that big cooking dilemma facing us all at Christmas time - can there be an alternative to goose or turkey?

In Sri Lanka, he continues his passion for seafood by taking part in a most unusual fishing expedition in the southern city of Galle and gets to sample Parava curry.

Continuing his odyssey across the Indian Ocean, Rick tries out the night food stalls in the heart of Bangkok before taking a train south to Phuket for a hot and sour tom yum goong, the culinary icon of Thailand.

Over the border in Malaysia, he visits the former heart of the spice trade, Melaka, to enjoy the delights of Nyonya cuisine and cooks his favourite Malay dish, beef rendang.

His culinary tour ends in Bangladesh, the country that spawned thousands of Indian restaurants in Britain years ago. In Dhaka, he discovers the intricacies of making a true biryani.