padma lakshmi is stopping by! padma!se ] and we've got good music from big sean featuring kid cudi tonight! what a show! a lot of show! guys, today's friday, and that's usually when i catch up with some personal stuff. i check my inbox, return some e-mails and, of course, i send out thank you notes. [ cheers and applause ] and i was running a bit behind today. so, i thought, if you wouldn't mind, i'd like to write out my weekly thank you notes right now. is that cool? please? [ cheers and applause ] thank you. you guys are my best friends. hey, roots? can i get some thank you note writing music, please? ♪ >> steve: that was very agreeable. [ laughter ] that's bobble head james. that's not real james. >> jimmy: you can get him at the nbc gift store, if you want. yeah. you can go to the nbc gift store. they're staying open late tonight. yeah, get the james bobble head. yeah, he's cool. ♪ thank you, "last vegas" -- starring michael douglas, robert de niro, morgan freeman, and kevin kilne -- for being like the love child of

i am merrilees parker, and i am going on a voyage around the world with my chef friends padma lakshmi, who is in india and spain, tyler florence, who is in mexico... >> you may find the following scenes disturbing. >> and peter gordon, who is in china. >> mmm, it's pretty pungent stuff this. >> mmm. between us, we explore the colorful past of spices and how they have changed the way we eat today. we follow the journey spices made from china over the silk routes to the middle east and from the spice islands through the spice ports of malacca, sri lanka, and kerala, via arabia to europe... and from central america to spain and from there around the rest of the world. spices can be the bark, root, bud, seed, or fruit of a plant. they can be used whole and fresh, dried, or, most commonly, pounded into a powder. the word spice comes from an old french word meaning special. spices came from lands at the edge of the world. many people in the ancient world believed spices came from paradise. the egyptians mummified their dead with cumin, the chinese burnt cloves to commune with the spirit wor

padma is on the case. >> master chef mehboob alam khan is inviting me to his home to cook his specialty: the biryani. >> ...ginger and garlic paste. >> garlic and ginger. >> now this is a common ingredient for all-- most of the indian cooking. also give me some turmeric. >> where did you learn to make this biryani? >> oh, at my house, from my mother. give me the red chilies. some cinnamon stick. the lychee cardamom. >> and you leave the shell on? >> now give me some onions. >> these have been fried, correct? >> this is fried crisp, fried onions, you see? and now you see i crush them with my hand. now give me the lemon juice that is there. mint, coriander, green chilies, all chopped together. >> ok. >> now this is our basic marinade, you see. now we will be adding a little of refined peanut oil. >> mehboob leaves the sumptuous mixture to marinade for 45 minutes, then he adds the rice. >> and what's this? >> now this is saffron, boil it along with milk. >> whole milk. >> in a pot sealed with pastry, it's left to cook for 40 minutes. did you guess which of all those spices came from india?