Television: Hairy enthusiasts go the whole hog

Lin Ferguson Photo/File

I am taking a swerve this week on to the Choice TV Channel because my interest has been piqued by the The Hairy Bikers and their travel and cooking programmes.

I watched The Hairy Bikers' Mississippi Adventure on Saturday at 5pm and was amazed on a day off on Tuesday when there they were at it again - Hairy Dieters: How to Love Food and Lose Weight.

Now I could make plausible excuses about why I was watching the telly early, but suffice to say, in my case, take it as a research project ... okey dokey!

So anyway these two middle-aged very British lads, Dave Myers and Si King, both with long hair, head and face, when not roaring along on shiny Harley motorcycles were salivating with knife or whisk in hand over a bench, chopping board or large pan.

Their Mississippi adventure was superb because these chaps were so enthusiastic about the region, the good ol' southern food and the glory of great soul and blues music.

It was all going on for them and they said it was their trip of a lifetime.

The sampling of the food nearly finished me off. With their eloquent descriptions of the shrimp, catfish, oysters, corn bread, hit biscuits and gravy n'all I was hanging out for a taste.

They visited a busy restaurant which apparently sold the ultimate in po'boys in Louisiana.

A po'boy (or poor boy) is a traditional submarine sandwich from Louisiana. It's served on baguette-like New Orleans French bread with roast beef, or fried seafood. and lashings of hot gravy and mustard ... the po'boy originated in the 1930s during the depression when one would feed an entire family for a few cents.

Every year there is a one-day festival in New Orleans The Oak Street Po'Boy Festival and our hairy boys fronted up nervously to enter with hundreds of other local contestants.

They reckoned they had a chance at making a superb po'boy with a slapping of their secret mayonnaise.

They didn't come close but they didn't care as they slurped their way through magnificent soul food cracking with calories and blissed-out to live blues music.

Well just a couple of days later on Tuesday these Hairy Bikers it seemed had radically changed their lifestyles (on my tele set) as they roar into a campaign to lose about 15kg in three months.

Suddenly they were the Hairy Dieters revealing that years of overindulgence had taken its toll.

So still determined to love their food and lose weight, they embarked on a weight loss regime with their usual zest and love for life.

I'm still laughing as they very seriously compared stomachs ... whether they were shrinking on cue.

It was all about losing the lard on their guts and in their cooking, they said.

So in this weight-losing series the boys are out on their bikes road-testing and finding recipes that cut the butter, cream, sugar out of all that delicious food we know we should hate.

They finished with their idea of fish n'chips on the beach ... I'm still laughing ...

There they were smacking their lips over a barbecue of fresh shell fish, herbs and a sniff of oil ... yum better than that old newspaper packet of greasies on the beach any day ... mmmmmm.