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Louisiana if you can believe that. it's kind of scary, right? >> anthony: eight feet elevation. >> megan arceneaux: you take a cajun to the mountains, they might get a little woozy. ♪ >> anthony: no party around here would be complete without a crawfish boil. all right, fire up the reactor. hell, yeah. >> megan arceneaux: i hope you're ready. >> anthony: i'm ready. i like this thing. >> megan arceneaux: oh man, this is my baby right here. >> anthony: now what's the appropriate term for a crawfish? just crawfish? crawdad? mud bug? >> megan arceneaux: we don't -- don't say crawdads. down here ...

Take for example, cajun mardi gras. ordinarily, i loathe the idea of mardi gras. any kind of group celebration. anything festive involving dancing fills me with self-conscious dread. thousands of happy drunks crowding into the french quarter for instance, not for me. but cajun mardi gras is another thing entirely. closer to the ancient french tradition. vaguely more dangerous, down right medieval. cajuns do things their way. always have, always will. whether it's hanging onto the french language of their ancestors, their music, traditions, or food, cajuns fiercely keep it all vibrantly alive. ...

Especially acadiana, this is the most european part of america, in my opinion. >> anthony: so we're going to eat well this week? >> toby: yeah, lot of good food. lot of house parties. >> anthony: excited about mardi gras? my first, never been to one. >> toby: here it's a whole different thing. i mean, the major difference is that here, you are the event. >> anthony: mhmm. >> toby: like if you're attending mardi gras, if you're running mardi gras, then you are part of it. >> anthony: right. >> toby: like it's bigger than christmas. >> anthony: toby rodriguez is about as cajun as you get. i met ...

♪ trail rides go back a long way. they happen all year, but are also the way creoles celebrate mardi gras around here. kind of a moving tailgate party and barbecue. interestingly, and i almost want to dig up john wayne just to tell him this, creoles are widely believed to be the first american cowboys. herding cattle in the plains and bayous of louisiana long before white dudes in ass-less chaps started showing up in the west. in fact, zydeco music was born out of cowboy culture. the rhythm of the washboard mimicking the trot of a horse on the trail. ♪ >> dave lemelle: we don't want to los...

Oh, this place is awesome. this is a charming ethiopian institution called a tej bet. they serve one thing, and only one thing -- tej, an alcoholic beverage made from fermented barley and honey. it's not highly alcoholic though, right? you gotta pretty much hammer back a lot of this stuff to get a buzz. >> marcus: yeah. >> antnyly tso basic people around here who've got a load on, they've been working on this for a long time. >>arcus: all day. this is a working class. this is where the workers go. >> anthony: it's a cheap buzz. >> marcus: it's a cheap buzz. cheers. and you just knock it back. ...