- Hi.
This is Tut.
That's the lady of my life.
And she likes to go riding the boat and go fishing.
Every now and then she falls in the water.
- [Mike] And who are you? - But...
I'm Jack M. Ray.
better known as Better known as Skeeter
or they call me sometime the Godfather of the Bayou.
We try to own up to what we are
and just enjoy life.
Favorite thing for us to do around here...
It's probably cook and shoot the bull.
If we feel like doing it, we do it.
We don't feel like doing, we don't do it.
We get up in the morning
we feel like doing something we go do it.
We don't feel like doing nothing, we don't do nothing.
We get us a cool beer
and just enjoy the day.
Especially when we got a day like today.
You know, but we try to work a little bit once in a while,
not often but now then we get something done.
- [Mike] And what are we doing today? Right now?
- Not too much.
One hell of a glorious meal.
If it got it better than this,
the good Lord kept it for himself.
He didn't give it to us.
Thank you.
- Welcome to Opelousas in Louisiana.
We've tracked down this guy called Skeeter, Skeeter Ray.
The idea was to find someone who is very Cajun,
who can cook for us, show us the ways.
Show us really what it's like to be Cajun.
And we came across this guy who was on a television show
10 years ago and was such a character.
We did some Facebook spamming and hunting,
found his phone number through one of his Facebook friends
and are meeting him for the first time.
The plan today, meet Skeeter Ray and make some Cajun food.
And that's about all we got.
His house is about five minutes away.
Let's go say, hi.
(acoustic guitar music)
- Hey puppy dogs.
- How you doing? - How you doing? Skeeter.
- Yeah, good to meet you. - Good to see you man.
I got one question. - What's that?
- How did you find out about me?
You know how you got my number?
It don't matter. I'm glad you did.
- That is a good question.
Skeeter Ray invites us inside for some lunch.
We have been invited into my friend's home here, Skeeter.
- Hi, I'm Skeeter.
I'm the head cook, chief bottle washer around here.
I do it all.
- [Mike] And what are, what are we eating?
- And we're eating some...
alligator and frog in a gravy.
- [Mike] Yeah.
This is it.
- [Skeeter] That's it right here.
- [Mike] That's a piece of alligator? Or...
- [Skeeter] That's a piece of alligator
- [Mike] And show us a piece of frog.
- [Skeeter] And that's a frog.
- [Mike] Yeah, man.
He tells us it's crawfish season
and he's got a bit of a secret recipe.
He knows a place where we can get a fresh sack
but I brought a few beers and cigars.
So we decide to shoot the bull a little bit first.
You call these lady beers?
- Yeah. - Why?
- There ain't nothing in them man.
You drink that and Miller Lite
and pay your water bill twice.
Don't make you do nothing but pee pee.
- It says ultra though.
Is it not ultra? - Yeah. Ultra light.
- Oh, I didn't know. - Ultra light.
You might drink that Budweiser, the old Budweiser?
Drunk that old Budweiser.
They've got a kick to the dick, boy.
It'll put down, man. Oh, what.
- I have these though, these are from Cuba.
- Let me see that, man.
Romeo and Juliet.
That's a good cigar. - It is.
- Romeo and Juliet.
They'll make you sing to your girlfriend.
- [Mike] That's right.
Ha ta ta ta.
We head in Skeeter's pickup truck
to get us some crawfish.
So one person getting how many pounds of crawfish?
- Depends who it is. - All right.
How about, how about me?
- You?
You probably won't eat bout two, three pounds.
- And how about you?
- I can sit down and fuck up about five or eight pounds.
- Five or eight pounds.
- Depends on, if I boil them, yeah.
I can eat five, six pounds. - All right.
- Crawfish are a big deal here in Louisiana
and we've come just at the right time.
Rice patty fields are the perfect place to grow crawfish.
So when it's not time for rice,
it's time to crunch on these little crustaceans.
Most are trapped fresh in the morning,
using these wild amphibious boats.
After about 15 minutes of driving,
we arrive at Alonso's crawfish shack
and get a big bag of fresh ones for the boil.
- Thank you. - You'll be in this video,
for sure.
Yeah, it's right there, see?
Next, we stop by the grocery store
to grab some vegetables for the pot.
- And we're gonna throw one little bag of carrot in there.
Sweet corn on the cob.
- It'll all go together with seasoning
for Skeeter's secret recipe
- Somebody bring that sack of crawfish.
Oh ho ho it got me. - [Mike] Is it cold?
- Cold beer? Cold beer?
- One cold beer. And I got sack, yeah.
- Yeah. You grab the crawfish. I got the ice chest ready.
- All right. Little plan breakdown here.
Number one, get some more beer 'cause we're out.
Number two, we're going to purge the crawfish.
We're gonna put them in water for a little while first
to kind of, you know, get the stuff moving out of them.
Then we're gonna start boiling the vegetables
'cause the vegetables take longer to cook
than the crawfish do.
And while those all simmer with the spices and everything,
the crawfish will deplete themselves.
We'll put it together and it'll be our feast.
- I like that. Good claws.
Look at the size of them claws.
- Yeah. We (indistinct) those claws, right?
- What. Imagine we do.
- That's a good one.
- Ha ta ta.
(upbeat music)
- Ah, don't dump them in there.
- That's what you said, right?
- No. Put them in there.
Put everything in there.
Ouch.
My hand.
(upbeat music)
- [Mike] Skeeter, how do you know
which vegetables to use for crawfish?
- We've been doing it for years.
What goes with it. You know what I'm saying.
Don't do this home. This is done by a professional.
You could cut yourself.
- We have been drinking though.
- Yes.
- Professionals don't have to be sober.
The broth mushrooms, carrots, potatoes,
and whole cans of corn.
I mean, not just what's inside,
the whole freaking cans.
- Oh I gotta go get the wieners.
(upbeat music)
Okay.
Now let's see here.
Another pack of wieners.
(upbeat music)
Ah shit.
I believe we got it. We got it going on.
A lot of work in a short time.
Right quick like, but we got it done.
Thanks to the good help of my...
cameraman.
- [Mike] While the vegetables boil away,
I pull Skeeter aside to ask him if he has any advice
about life, love and happiness
for another video I wanna make.
And what about people who are going through tough times?
I had one person ask me that
who was going through a tough time
and they wanted to hear you talk
about getting through tough times.
- Let me tell you something about a tough time.
I've been through some tough times, what have you...
But there's always someone
that you can talk to.
That's been through a tougher time than you.
Look around. Don't do nothing stupid.
You know, if you're depressed,
you're not happy about something,
you got a friend, you got somebody you can go talk to.
go share your thoughts
and that will console you
and help you figure out a way
to get over this problem.
- Skeeter to Ray's buddy, Mike shows up,
or as most people call him, Squirrel.
- It's all good in the neighborhood.
- [Mike] That's right.
- And there ain't an Applebee's around here.
- Cold beer, good crawfish and good friends.
We enjoying life, having a good time drinking cold beer
and socializing. We call it socializing.
That's what it is.
We're gonna feed y'all some boiled crawfish.
- [Mike] I'm excited. - Like they need to be fed.
You know.
I'm gonna sit you down there,
I'm gonna put you a bib under your shirt,
that way you don't get crawfish on your shirt
and then let you get messy and have a good time.
- I'm learning some thing real quick.
This man, Skeeter Ray, is a goddamn national treasure.
- Ha ta ta ta.
If you want to hear the full video
of the Cajun wisdom of Skeeter Ray and Squirrel...
how do you find a good woman?
- Now that's a hard question, you know.
- [Mike] Stay tuned for the next episode
on "Fearless and Far."
- When we start eating, you know,
she's gonna be right there to get her share,
I promise you.
- How often do you have crawfish in a season?
Like once a month? Once a week?
- Sometimes it might be once a week man.
- Yeah. But it seems like one of those things
you don't do by yourself, you know,
you invite all your friends over,
have some beers, have some Moonshine,
whatever cigars, I guess.
And you...
you make an event out of it. - We get together,
and cut up, you know, - And cut it up. I like it.
So how long you been smoking these for?
- A while. - A while.
For me it was one of those things that I
I started doing when I was enjoying myself.
And you know what? In this world today,
we don't enjoy ourselves enough, it seems.
We stress about everything.
This was a... - Ain't nothing better
When you sit down and relax,
you're drinking a cold beer. - I know.
- And a good cigarette.
Whether it be a big one or it be a small one like that.
- There's a bit of a size difference, yeah.
Let's see yours. - Yeah.
- Does this reflect my manhood?
Am I less of a man because of this or?
- No, no. No, no. - You're not judging me.
- They're both good. - They're both good.
- It just depends on what you want to put on, you know?
- That shit might kill me.
That's as big as like a sausage.
- Huh? - That's as big as a sausage.
- Yeah, but it's smooth, yeah.
- Or maybe something else.
- Yeah.
- [Mike] With the veggies almost done,
Skeeter finally explains his crawfish secret.
- I'm gonna shock them. - You're gonna shock them.
- When I shock them, what it's gonna do,
I shock them, and then I let them sit
for about 10, 15 minutes.
- And what does that do?
The shocking. - It makes them
draw the water and the season that's in here,
it makes them eat them up.
When they put that thing in there,
it sucks in the seasoning.
And when you go to eating them rascals,
they're seasoned right there,
when you break them open, the, the...
You gotta watch and lean over
' cause the juice runs out of the crawfish.
- You need like a bib,
you need like a... - They're so much
better like that, boy.
- [Mike] We get them ready for the pot
and Tuts gets a treat.
(ambient music)
The crawfish go in, boil for a few minutes,
then we shock them.
I had never seen this before.
Uncommon actions produce uncommon results.
And apparently, this step makes all the difference.
- Cold beer, boy?
- [Mike] First step, we taste our canned corn.
Is it good? Is it good?
All right. Crawfish is in the pot.
This is the corn.
The can, holes on the side,
boiled in the water with the vegetables in the seasoning.
- And not peppered. It's good.
I didn't put too much seasoning.
- Is it good. - It's not Mike.
- Sometime it ain't.
It's sweet though.
- See what I'm talking about. - It got sweetness to it, huh?
- That's a lot easier to eat
than that son of a gun off that cob.
Here I sit, broken hearted
with my friend, Mike, that farted.
- You're not gonna let that go.
A guy does one thing once
and we talk about it all night, right?
- Wait.
Here, Mike sits brokenhearted, but he only farted.
Okay. But he's okay.
I love him like a fly loves a bowl of milk, you know?
He's what I call my asshole buddy.
- True that my friend.
- My Canadian aye aye aye.
- Aye aye aye aye. - Yeah.
- That's it, man.
You cook food like this, we'll be best friends forever.
I'll tell you.
- Y'all come here anytime you want.
The door is always open.
And I'm gonna tell you what,
I gotta get fixed...
I got a bed in that other bedroom.
The next time y'all gonna come, I'll have it fixed.
Y'all won't have to stay at the fucking hotel.
Y'all stay your ass right here.
That way you get fucked up like a chicken
and get blistered like Mike and you ain't gotta leave.
- Well, look... - I have a bed,
one sleep on the car, once sleep in the bed
- Moonshine, cigars, beer. - And like I told them, Mike,
I know you're gonna go with me on this.
- I might have to use that bed later
- [Squirrel] Clean my house. - We'll have to see.
- Wait, Mike.
I told them this, this is what I'ma tell you.
(upbeat music)
(crawfish rattling)
(upbeat music)
All right, here we have...
fresh caught this morning that y'all caught in the boat
with the guy. - [Mike] Yep.
- Crawfish, okay.
Boiled crawfish with the veggies.
We got potatoes, we got onions.
We got wienies,
we got mushrooms
here that are awesome.
Baby portobello mushrooms.
You don't need any more than what you got right here.
Any more than that, you ain't gonna know what to do with it.
And a good cigar when we finish.
One hell of a glorious meal.
If it got any better than this,
the good Lord kept it for himself.
He didn't give it to us. Thank you.
God bless. Amen.
Thank the Lord and bless the cooks baby,
that we got a feast in front of us.
- It's for me? - You got it?
You got the picture? - Don't tease me now.
Don't tease me.
- [Squirrel] Put the dip on that son of a bitch.
- Need a mushroom? - All right.
We got some friends here.
We got a giant dish.
This is like a designated crawfish table,
right? - That's what it is.
Made for eating nothing but crawfish.
You can eat crabs, you can eat shrimp on it.
- So gimme the crawfish tutorial.
How do you eat this?
- Okay. - Little critter.
- First thing you do is you grab your crawfish.
- All right. Got a crawfish.
- Grab the tail.
You see that second finger? Put that second finger
under the tail. - Like this?
- And then you grab that tail and you crunch that skin
a little bit. - [Mike] Yep.
- Crunch the peeling. - Yep.
- You break him out. - Uh-uh.
- You pop that first little ring right there.
- Oh yeah. Okay.
- Pull that tail out of there.
You squeeze the back of the tail and pull that tail out.
- You suck it out? - [Squirrel] Yeah.
- Once you finish with that, then you catch the head.
You turn to head like that.
- And that goes in the middle, right?
- Yeah. Bam.
- Turn the head like that.
- And you suck the head.
So this is the fat, right? This is the fat part.
- Brandon, get around there and eat you some of that.
- This is the good stuff right here, right?
- [Squirrel] Yeah, that makes the hair grow in your nose.
- So not everyone eats the fat,
but the fat's in the head. Eat the tail, of course.
This is the good stuff, right?
This yellow stuff. - What's in the head,
that's right. There you go.
That the fat that's what the (indistinct) shit.
Taste it, you gonna see. Taste it.
See the flavor in that?
- You know what though? - Look,
you turn them like that, what don't come out here,
then you go back in that finger like that,
the other finger, look what you got.
- Yeah.
That's Goddamn delicious.
- Shit, I want some more of that.
- That's better than the tail, man.
- That's better than eating pussy.
- Right down with the camera.
- So I'm from New Brunswick, Canada, right?
- Right. - We've got Maine lobster.
- [Squirrel] Ain't nothing like that.
- Which is kind of like this, they look the same.
- [Squirrel] Ain't nothing like that.
- But what we do is, we don't cook it in spices.
We just cook it in salt water.
- Next time you come here...
- [Squirrel] Bring some lobster.
- You bring some lobsters
and I'm gonna cook them like these crawfish.
- I think I might like it more.
I think Canadians get mad at me, man
but this tastes so good.
- You gonna like them suckers more like this though,
I ain't gonna lie.
- So where did you get this recipe with the ice?
- I got the ice deal from a friend of mine.
I saw him boil it and done it.
And I saw how the seasoning were in the crawfish.
- Brandon clarifies this point.
- If you doing season and outside the crawfish,
you don't know what you're doing.
And then when he puts that ice on it, it kills the boil
But also condenses the flavor in.
It pulls all the seasoning into the meat.
The outcome of it, like we say,
is the best crawfish you'll ever eat in your life.
- Skeeter starts a fire,
and we light up a couple more cigars.
I didn't know this man yesterday.
He was a complete stranger.
I showed up on his door step, ate some frog and gator stew.
And here we are.
The world is filled with people like this.
People who open their homes and hearts to strangers,
to people they barely know,
almost reckless hospitality.
I have a hundred stories just like this one.
People will try and tell you otherwise,
people who have rarely left their house,
but the true travelers,
the ones who venture farthest from home
will all tell you the same thing.
The world is not dangerous.
It is kind.
- After a good day at work. - Was a great day.
So you gonna miss me Skeeter? - Hell yeah.
- Hell yeah.
- I enjoy cooking when people eat and enjoy it,
you know? - Well, we,
we enjoy eating when people cook.
How was my technique? Was it okay?
- Huh?
- How was my technique with the crawfish?
- You were doing pretty damn good.
- All right. I'll take that. - You were doing pretty good.
I ain't gonna lie.
I am really impressed
at the way you picked up on it.
I'm not kidding you, man. - It's like little,
little Maine lobsters. - You know.
But I tell you what,
I damn sure would like to cook some of them lobsters,
like I done with them crawfish.
- I'll see if I can bring you some.
- You know, if you could bring me down have a dozen, fuck.
- Take some big Maine lobsters, cook them like that,
I think we'll start a whole new trend.
Fusion - Ah, man. I'll tell you what.
- So Skeeter, at the end of the video,
we gotta say some final words to the people.
Anything to say? - Yeah.
Thank you very much.
And thanks to the good Lord
for giving us such a beautiful day,
the good time we had,
and the good groceries.
- Cheers to that, my friend. - Need I say anymore?
- You have any beer left that can?
- Yes, friend. Amen.
Chase your fears, everyone at home.
Have some crawfish if you can.
- Yeah. - Come down here, Louisiana,
and we'll catch you in the next video here.
(ambient music)