♪ ♪ >> MISHA COLLINS: I'm in southeastern Louisiana, which is home to Zydeco music, and alligators, and hurricanes, and Mardi Gras.

And I am going to be exploring a question that has plagued me for some time, which is what is the difference between Cajun and Creole?

And, also, what is gumbo?

And should it have tomatoes in it?

>> No, absolutely not.

>> COLLINS: Now you can have answers to those pressing questions.

♪ ♪ In the 1970s, a young couple set out on the most epic road trip of all time.

Jane and Michael Stern were on a mission to discover every regional dish in America, and over four decades, they burned through 38 cars and published ten editions of their iconic guide, Road Food.

♪ ♪ Now I'm picking up where they left off, exploring what makes America's communities unique and what binds us all together.

And it's delicious.

>> Major funding for this program was provided by: ♪ ♪ >> Yours is a front-yard family.

Because out front... >> How you doing?

>> ...is where all the neighborhood is.

And your neighbors know you well.

>> Mario, what's up?

>> They've seen your robe, your run, even your bathing suit.

>> (laughing) >> They also know your home turf stays open to the whole street.

So you stay out front.

We'll stay real-brewed.

And the world just might get a little golder.

Gold Peak real-brewed tea.

♪ ♪ (shade rustles) (doorbell rings) ♪ ♪ >> (softly): Yes!

♪ ♪ >> Staying in?

Quick!

Bounty-- the Quicker Picker Upper.

♪ ♪ Going out?

Quick!

Bounty-- the Quicker Picker Upper.

♪ ♪ >> COLLINS: When we were looking into finding the right person to talk to about Cajun culture, we found Jonathan Foray, who really popped out for me because he runs something called the Rougarou Fest.

And I don't know if you know this about me, but I used to be on a television show called Supernatural.

And in Supernatural, the rougarou, which is some sort of werewolfy-type supernatural creature, showed up six times over the course of our series.

Six times.

So Jonathan is the person that I want to talk to because (chuckling): I want to talk about rougarous, but he also happens to be a pillar of the community here.

He runs the Wetlands Foundation and also has been doing a lot of recovery work after Hurricane Ida.

>> Hey bud, how are you?

>> COLLINS: Hi.

Thank you for doing this.

>> No, thanks for being here.

>> COLLINS: This is a beautiful kitchen.

>> Thanks.

Coffee cups right there.

Oat milk, or regular milk, or cream?

>> COLLINS: Oat milk.

>> Oat milk?

>> COLLINS: That sounds great.

I did not expect to find oat milk down in the Louisiana Cajun country.

>> (laughing): In Cajun country.

Here you go, bud.

>> COLLINS: Thank you.

So can I ask you a question?

The Rougarou Fest, what is your relationship... >> (laughing): To the rougarou?

>> COLLINS (laughing): To the rougarou.

>> So the rougarou was a story that we grew up with as kids to, to teach us to behave, right?

So if we were acting up, our parents would say, "You better behave or the rougarou is going to get you."

You know you didn't want to get terrorized by this monster.

And so we thought maybe we could use the rougarou as like a Smokey the Bear.

You know, "Only you can prevent forest fires."

So maybe the rougarou could be this character down here saying, "Only you can help save Louisiana's wetlands," kind of thing.

>> COLLINS: It's good that you're carrying on the tradition of traumatizing children with terrifying stories about things that are going to go wrong if they don't behave.

Hurricane Ida just came through, but hurricanes must be hitting you fairly often here.

Did Ida feel different?

>> It was so different.

This was unlike any storm that we've ever experienced here.

Residents of southern Louisiana, we're good at hurricanes.

This was something like we have never seen before.

How do you-- you know, we talk about being resilient.

In my mind, when I think of being resilient, I always think of we're going to build back.

It's going to be stronger and we're gonna take the next one.

And we're gonna take the next one and we're gonna stay here.

But what if being resilient is figuring out a way to maintain the stories of the rougarou and all this, but not putting yourself in harm's way 'cause it's gonna happen again.

Everybody says, like, "The next storm is coming."

Is it going to be next year?

You know... it's tough.

It's really tough.

>> COLLINS: Well, I mean, it's interesting that you're talking about migration as a form of resilience because the Cajun people, as you are well aware, are migrants in their own right.

>> Right.

We were in Nova Scotia, and then got kicked out of Nova Scotia, and ended up coming around Florida and landing in southern Louisiana.

>> COLLINS: Which is why we have French-speaking... >> Absolutely, yeah.

>> COLLINS: ...people and the French influence here.

>> Absolutely.

Absolutely.

>> COLLINS: How would you describe Cajun culture to the outsiders?

>> A lot of it revolves around food and a lot of that food is tied to the landscape.

And so that makes it even more concerning to have to leave this place, if we do, because of climate change and the storms that are coming in.

>> COLLINS: It's one of the themes that has emerged throughout this, this journey on this show, is, is finding communities that are trying to be... trying to be resilient in the face of whatever the challenges that are presenting themselves.

>> Right.

Right.

>> COLLINS: Whether it's factories closing down or literally shifting tides of water in, you know, places that are getting eroded away.

>> Yeah, yeah.

Right.

>> COLLINS: And resilience is, is an emerging theme, but also people clinging desperately to traditions that make them feel whole... >> Absolutely.

Yeah.

>> COLLINS: ...and make them feel a part of a community.

And I think losing one's cultural identity, for whatever reason, is really terrifying because it's like losing a piece of yourself.

>> Yeah.

And so that's a testament, too, I think to the ties and the, the... how strong we are connected to this place for our own identities, right?

I do want to bring you down the Bayou because it's bad here.

But as you go into like the fishing communities, you just see pilings where somebody's house was.

One stop that we can make is to meet up with Raegan Creppell, she's the executive director of the Helio Foundation, if you're up for it.

>> COLLINS: Okay, that sounds cool, yeah.

♪ ♪ Why are all of these houses on stilts?

Is that because of storm surges?

>> Flood, yeah.

From the flood.

And so, see, we do really well when it comes to flooding.

So, my godmother, this was her house.

That rubble right there, they just tore it all down.

And this used to be a house right here.

This school was completely destroyed.

They tarped the roof over, but the roof just peeled off like a can.

>> COLLINS: I think I might have seen footage.

Was this on the news?

>> It was bad.

No doubt.

She's up ahead.

Billy's Marine.

Here we go.

>> Hey.

>> Hey.

So I wanted to introduce you to Misha.

>> COLLINS: Hi, Raegan.

>> Hi, Misha.

Raegan.

>> COLLINS: So you are the executive director of the Helio Foundation.

Can you tell us something about what you have been doing in the wake of Hurricane Ida?

>> So we started running about a week after Ida hit, and the first thing we did was a triage program, actually knocking on doors, asking families how they were and giving them small grants, just to put a little money in their pockets.

>> COLLINS: A lot of these people are people who don't have insurance.

>> There is no insurance.

>> COLLINS: There's no... there's no rainy day savings account.

>> No.

>> COLLINS: And FEMA isn't stepping up to get them back on their feet.

>> Absolutely.

>> So we talked a little bit about Cajun culture, and helping other people and whatnot, doing this kind of work since we were little.

>> Yes.

We believe in service.

I was in the military.

I believe in service, and I believe that serving your community is the only way to go.

We're physically losing where we live.

The only way to save that in any way is to save the people.

If we don't get shrimpers back on their boats out there shrimping, trawling, crabbing, we lose everything.

We're going to lose our land.

We don't need to lose our people.

We don't need to who we are as Cajuns.

And I'm telling you it starts with trawlers.

>> ♪ Way down in Terrebonne Parish ♪ ♪ Everyone's waiting around ♪ ♪ For the water to rise to the edge of the sky ♪ ♪ And rain to come tumbling, tumbling down.

♪ >> COLLINS: What are we looking at here?

>> This was my home.

There was a three-bedroom, two-bathroom, shed, porch.

When I got here two days after the storm, there was nothing left.

It was just gone.

It's been almost three months and we're just ready to get a home.

>> COLLINS: You see it on the news, but it's hard when you're not in person to conceptualize it.

>> That's true.

>> COLLINS: Some of these places are just gone.

>> So this is Abear's Cafe.

This is like a place that if you don't get Cajun food often, you definitely need to come here because they know how to do it.

>> COLLINS: The parking lot is crowded, which is always something that I look for.

>> You know, right, right.

And it's the gumbo.

The gumbo is the best over here.

Hey, guys.

How's it going?

It's good to see you, bud.

>> COLLINS: Are you Raegan's brother?

>> I am, hi.

>> COLLINS: Misha, nice to meet you.

You are some burly dudes.

Those were some bone-crushing handshakes.

Is there, uh, authentic gumbo and then gumbo that is BS gumbo?

>> I mean all over the country.

(laughter) All over the country.

>> My ma's gumbo is the authentic one.

>> Yeah, that's right.

>> I'd say only trust the one south of I-10.

You know, anything up... >> Without tomatoes.

(laughing) >> COLLINS: What is a real gumbo?

Without tomatoes?

You don't put tomatoes in gumbo?

>> No.

>> No, absolutely not.

>> That's a running thing.

>> COLLINS: I always see tomato in gumbo.

>> No, at that point it becomes a sauce piquante, not gumbo.

♪ ♪ >> The gumbos are coming out right behind you, gentlemen.

>> Got some gumbos, y'all.

>> COLLINS: This has tomatoes in it.

This has tomatoes.

This has tomatoes.

>> A lot of people think it's a bunch of different ingredients, but really it's... you know, the Cajun culture, it was fishermen and, and shrimpers, and you didn't have a lot of ingredients.

Like my grandmother had nine children.

I mean, you can't go get a bunch of different groceries.

It's "I got a lot of onions, I got chicken, and sausage."

>> COLLINS: How would you describe Cajun culture?

>> Yeah, I mean, I think like what Cajuns originally were embodied, like, a neighborly community, and that's how it originally was.

It was you get it from your neighbors, you know, that's where you find help.

And that's why we started, you know, this South Louisiana Veteran Outreach because we wanted to give help to the guys around here because a lot of times small towns are ignored and we try to find ways to help.

>> COLLINS: Is this sacrilege what I'm doing right now?

>> You got to put some hot sauce.

Everybody does.

You don't disrespect.

That's not disrespecting anybody, you good.

(laughter) >> COLLINS: And I have to say, I like it better without the tomatoes.

>> Uh-huh.

(laughter) >> There you go.

>> There you go.

>> COLLINS: I'm Team No Tomato.

>> You already fit right in.

>> COLLINS: All right.

Thank you.

>> Y'all be cool, be safe, and have fun.

♪ ♪ >> COLLINS: Can I ask you a personal question?

>> Yeah, go ahead.

Sure, sure.

>> COLLINS: If you don't want to talk about this, it's totally fine.

But I'm curious about like living in coastal Louisiana as a gay man.

Is... was that a... >> Growing up, it was tough.

You know, like, it really was.

You know, I mean I got bullied in school, but I wasn't really effeminate.

I could pass.

(chuckling) You know what I mean?

I still did not feel comfortable openly being who I knew I was, right?

But then you get to a certain point in your life where you can't not be you.

And I wanted to have a family, and I wanted to have a kid, and I want to live here.

I want my son to be able to have the experiences that I had as a kid growing up, and the answer is most likely no.

I thought that we were going to have a good 20, 30 years before a storm like this hit.

And it's not, it's happening much faster.

>> COLLINS: It's happening every year or every two years.

It's happening... >> And they're... and they're just so strong, man.

This is the Bayou Terrebonne Distillery and it's a music venue here in Houma.

Waylon Thibodeaux is going to be playing here tonight.

So I'm excited to have you meet him.

>> COLLINS: Awesome.

>> Hey, man.

How you doing?

>> Good, good.

It's nice to see you.

>> Great to see you.

>> I want to introduce you to... >> COLLINS: It's an honor to meet you-- Misha.

>> Misha.

>> COLLINS: Nice to meet you.

>> Very nice to meet you, Misha, yes, sir.

>> We were just talking about Cajun music, and I mean, you're sort of the poster person for that music genre.

>> COLLINS: You don't want to call him a child?

(overlapping chatter, laughter) >> It felt weird.

>> I'm a little old for my age.

(laughs) ♪ Well, I'm going up the Bayou just to see my girl ♪ (band starts playing) ♪ Well, I'd abandoned my hero ♪ ♪ Just to see my girl ♪ ♪ You know when I get there ♪ ♪ She'll be waiting for me ♪ >> If you look at my shirt, it says, lache pas la patate.

That's a... that's an idiom for never give up.

What it really translates to is, "don't drop a potato," but that's a Cajun saying for never quit, never give up.

And that's why we're still here today.

>> COLLINS: Was there a Cajun historically who did drop a potato and then... (laughter) >> He's not Cajun anymore.

>> We don't drop the potatoes, man.

>> COLLINS: Yeah, I mean, all day we've been exploring Cajun food, uh, culture.

What, what is it about Cajun music that you all are trying to preserve?

Why, why is that important?

>> What's special about it is it comes from here.

You know, it was from South Louisiana.

I was talking to some friends of mine a while back, and we listened to this accordion player, and he's like, "You know, man, that's got to be like the best accordion player in the world."

And we looked at him and says, "But it's a pretty small world where they come from."

(laughter) >> ♪ Still waiting for me.

♪ (song ends) You better roll your B-roll, baby.

(laughter, cheers) >> All right, all right.

>> COLLINS: So now I've left the Cajun community of Houma and I'm heading back up to New Orleans to explore Creole cuisine and culture with a tour guide, Bernard Pearce.

And he also happens to love beignets.

Hi.

>> Hey, good morning.

>> COLLINS: I'm Misha.

>> Bernard.

>> COLLINS: Hi, Bernard.

>> Pleasure.

>> COLLINS: Thanks for coming.

>> Yeah.

>> COLLINS: How are you?

>> I'm great.

>> COLLINS: What do you... what do you know about beignets?

>> I love 'em.

>> COLLINS: Uh-uh.

(stammering): That's your breadth of knowledge?

(Bernard laughing) >> I love 'em.

They're delicious.

And it's a French donut.

>> COLLINS: Yeah, it's a donut.

>> That's what it is.

Fried dough drenched in powdered sugar.

And I grew up eating them along with the cafe au lait.

>> COLLINS: Hello.

>> Hey, how y'all doing?

>> COLLINS: Good.

How are you?

>> Fine, thank you.

For your powdered sugar.

>> COLLINS: Oh, we self-powder the...?

>> Correct.

>> Self-powder.

>> COLLINS: Am I doing the right thing here?

>> You doing it and doing it any way you want.

>> COLLINS: We're going to have to clean up here.

>> I've never self-powdered.

Mm.

>> COLLINS: Mm.

It's piping hot.

You're kind of a Renaissance man, huh?

It sounds like you do... >> I guess.

That's what I've heard.

>> COLLINS: Your CV is fascinating.

It sounds like you have your fingers in a lot of pies.

>> Well, you know, not brain surgery, just the arts, all of the arts.

>> COLLINS: And you don't live here in New Orleans anymore?

>> I've been nomadic since Katrina.

I did a own a home in the Upper Ninth Ward.

It breaks my heart because I want to be here, but I can't take the hurricane season.

It's not healthy for me.

You know, post traumatic stress, it's a real thing.

>> COLLINS: I read that Louisiana has the highest retention rate.

So people who are born in Louisiana tend to stay in Louisiana.

>> Right.

>> COLLINS: And have children in Louisiana more than any other state in the country.

>> Really?

I didn't know that.

>> COLLINS: So there is something about this place, in spite of the fact that it's peppered with hurricanes every summer and fall, and in spite of the fact that it's really too hot for human survival, people love it here and want to stay.

>> And you can't replicate that in other places.

Like the food here, the food's incredible, but it's very specific.

The ingredients, you know, it's that Gulf shrimp.

It's the filé.

It's the salt here.

And I think that's what makes it special.

And you try to replicate that other places, it really doesn't work.

♪ ♪ So, Misha, this is one of my favorite places in the city, is Bywater Bakery.

Yeah, so we're going to meet my friend Jeffery Darensbourg.

He's a scholar, an expert in Louisiana Native American cultures.

Hey, Jeffrey.

How you doing?

>> Hey, Bernard.

>> This is Misha.

>> COLLINS: Hi.

Misha, it's a pleasure to meet you.

>> COLLINS: Nice to meet you.

>> Good to see you.

>> Yeah.

>> Hey, Misha, this is Elton.

He's-- >> Hey, how you doing?

>> COLLINS: Hey, Alton.

>> The owner of this beautiful establishment.

>> COLLINS: Misha, nice to meet you.

>> Nice to meet you, Misha.

Welcome.

Welcome to Bywater Bakery.

>> COLLINS: What a beautiful place you have.

>> Thanks.

>> COLLINS: What's the origin story here?

>> Origin story.

I'm from a long line of Creole families of New Orleans.

Being a Creole from the Seventh Ward, dark roux gumbo is deep in our roots.

We close at 2:00, and it's really gumbo is not necessarily a breakfast food, but we needed to find a way to incorporate it into our daily diet.

(laughter) So by putting it over grits and eggs, it becomes a breakfast gumbo, and I'm able to get my, my daily nutrients of chicken and andouille sausage gumbo and everyone's happy.

>> This combines two of my favorite foods.

>> COLLINS: Thank you.

>> Now that's got grits instead of rice... >> COLLINS: Holy smokes.

>> ...scrambled eggs.

>> COLLINS: That is so yummy.

>> Right?

>> COLLINS: Don't be afraid to eat your breakfast gumbo pot pie.

>> Thank you.

>> I want to marry this dish.

>> COLLINS: Do you mind if I just pry into personal things like right away?

>> Please.

>> COLLINS: What does Creole mean?

Do you... do you know how to... what is the definition of that term?

>> It, it means different things to different people.

People identify as Creole, and it's regional.

It's like, you know, I mean, Beyoncé is Creole.

>> Creole people are mixed people by definition, which I'm also Creole.

>> COLLINS: How did you identify as a young... like as a kid?

>> As a kid, you know, I'm a white-passing person most of the time.

I'm a lot of things that are Louisiana.

I'm French, I'm Spanish, I'm West African, and I'm a member of one of Louisiana's indigenous nations.

>> COLLINS: You were pointing something out, which is that all of these cultures have... Melting pot is such a... it's such a charged term.

It's such a weird-- yeah, I don't like it.

>> COLLINS: And I don't want to use it.

But at the time, there's something happening here.

>> If you're living right next to each other for a long period of time, you know, then there's going to be cultural overlap.

And also, as my friend, David Cheramie says, "When the different ethnic elements of Louisiana got here, they did more than shake hands."

>> And what was happening in Louisiana pre-Civil War was frightening, you know, to a lot of the country.

Before the Civil War, the Creole culture of New Orleans, you had free people of color here.

We had a Black governor, you know, for a minute (laughing): after the Civil War happened, and then Reconstruction came.

And then after Reconstruction, there was Jim Crow.

And, you know, white supremacy reared its ugly head here in New Orleans and those statues were erected, you know, the Confederate statues.

That was, you know, designed to suppress the Black vote.

And now that they're finally coming down, those Confederate statues, it feels to me like the Civil War is finally ending.

>> Yeah, so, it's a complicated place.

>> Mm-hmm.

>> And it's, yeah, it is the rest of the South and it also isn't because there's some cultural blending and uniqueness to it that doesn't exist anywhere else.

And that's what's Creole about it, that everything is layer on top of layer of complexity of ethnic origin.

>> COLLINS: Yeah.

Thanks for sitting down with us.

It's really nice to meet you.

>> It was good to meet you, too.

>> COLLINS: Yeah, really nice talking.

That was really great.

>> Thank you, Misha.

>> COLLINS: I will be following you from here.

So I don't know why I shook your hand.

>> (laughing): I don't know.

So we're going to take you down to a great restaurant called Liuzza's by the Track.

And Mr. Roadrunner is going to show us how to make a roux and maybe we get a taste of that gumbo.

>> COLLINS: This is a good way to tour a city.

I like this.

>> (laughing): Yeah.

One bowl of gumbo at a time, right?

>> COLLINS: The mythical roux.

>> Uh-huh.

>> COLLINS: Hi there.

I'm Misha.

>> Nice to meet you.

>> COLLINS: And this is Bernard.

>> Glad to meet you.

>> COLLINS: Is this true that it's okay if we come see how you make a roux?

>> Yeah, I could just do a small roux for you.

>> COLLINS: Okay.

>> Yeah.

>> COLLINS: I love that you said you're making a little bit of roux.

I've never made that much roux at once.

What's the difference between Cajun and Creole gumbo?

Do you know?

>> One big difference between Cajun and Creole gumbo, a Cajun will never put tomatoes in their gumbo.

That's a thing.

>> COLLINS: Why do they hate tomatoes so much?

>> They love tomatoes.

>> No, they love the tomatoes.

You just got a lot of people that don't put it in their gumbo.

That's a New Orleans thing.

>> Yeah.

>> COLLINS: How did you start making gumbo?

>> From a kid, you know, my grandma, all of them were good cooks and it's just something I picked up.

I always did like to cook since I was a kid.

I started when I was like 12, 13 years old.

♪ ♪ >> COLLINS: What about the peppers and celery to make this a trinity?

>> That's all in there.

>> COLLINS: So what do you do with the peppers and celery?

>> All that goes in there.

It's in there already.

>> COLLINS: You don't sauté them separately?

>> No, no, no.

>> COLLINS: Okay.

>> No, no.

>> A roux is like fingerprint.

>> COLLINS: He looked at me like, "No, no, no.

"You ignorant fool.

You foolish, foolish child."

(laughter) This is the moment of truth here.

Mm... >> It's delicious.

Thank you.

>> Yeah, I love to cook.

I love to see people happy.

You know, that's part of the cooking.

You know, when you know you're doing it right, the people will let you know.

>> And you're doing it right.

(laughing): For sure.

>> COLLINS: You're doing it right.

>> You either do it right or you don't do it at all.

That's a reality.

>> COLLINS: That's a good edict to live by.

Hearing you opine about it, it sounds like something happened here that hit you personally kind of hard.

>> Yeah, so much of everything I do and everything I'm involved with is around this, South Louisiana.

I don't want to give it up.

I really don't want to give it up.

♪ ♪ >> COLLINS: What do you want the world to know about the Cajun community?

>> You know, when they say Southern hospitality, everybody's welcome with open arms.

And even after the hurricanes, they're willing to give what little they have to help somebody else.

>> It's not a big, famous thing.

You know, I know people talk about Cajun food, but when you get to the heart of Cajun country, it's neighborhood.

>> COLLINS: What is Creole now?

>> I think to me, it's having several things inside of you that are all fully part of you.

Like you're rural, you're indigenous, you're city folk, you're a migrant, you know, you are people with multiple language backgrounds and that all exists inside of you at the same time.

>> People are different here.

And I think people live with open hearts here.

I think there's a lot of empathy in the culture here that you may not find other places.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> COLLINS: If you want to see extended footage of these conversations, or of me spilling food on my shirt, or if you want to know more about the restaurants and recipes from this episode, go to roadfood.com.

>> Major funding for this program was provided by: ♪ ♪ >> Yours is a front-yard family.

Because out front... >> How you doing?

>> ...is where all the neighborhood is.

And your neighbors know you well.

>> Mario, what's up?

>> They've seen your robe, your run, even your bathing suit.

>> (laughing) >> They also know your home turf stays open to the whole street.

So you stay out front.

We'll stay real-brewed.

And the world just might get a little golder.

Gold Peak real-brewed tea.

♪ ♪ (shade rustles) (doorbell rings) ♪ ♪ >> (softly): Yes!

♪ ♪ >> Staying in?

Quick!

Bounty-- the Quicker Picker Upper.

♪ ♪ Going out?

Quick!

Bounty-- the Quicker Picker Upper.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪