Once considered the most dangerous city in the world, Lagos is, in many ways, the epicenter of modern Africa. The driving force of the city is a pervasive, almost pathologically positive outlook, a sincerely entrenched “can do” spirit. The ingenuity of the Nigerian people is the focus of Bourdain’s travels as he explores its food, music, and rich cultural diversity. Among the food offerings are fresh fish dishes, spicy soups, a great deal of beef, and the ubiquitous pounded yam. Bourdain also spends time with Femi, Seun and Yeni Kuti, the children of Fela Kuti, a family that is still at the heart of Lagos’ creative, political and cultural scene.

A shadow puppet performance provides an entry into understanding Indonesia, a country comprised of thousands of islands whose people endured political turmoil, and one in which, Bourdain discovers, food is the great unifier. In this fourth largest country in the world, every area has it’s own unique traditions. In Jakarta, Bourdain eats at a Padang Restaurant where nearly every menu item comes to the table; while in Bali he visits the beach, commenting on yoga before joining in a traditional Balinese Funeral ceremony.

Anthony Bourdain travels to Las Vegas, a city known for over-indulgence, with food author Michael Ruhlman and visits locales that include Huntridge Tavern (in the shadow of the strip), and famed restaurant é by Jose Andres. Also featured are Penn Jillette, and former mayor Oscar Goodman.

The season premiere of Parts Unknown uses reverse chronology to tell the story of the host’s return trip to South Korea after a 10-year absence. Bourdain experiences the nuances of hyper-modern Seoul which has its sights set on becoming the world’s top exporter of popular culture. Food options include Korean fried chicken, and a vintage Korean "army" stew, budae jjigae, with Spam, canned baked beans, frankfurters, ramen noodles and Kimchi.

As peace spreads throughout Sri Lanka following the end of its brutal civil war, Bourdain travels to the once divided nation to experience the reinvigorated people, food and landscapes. Starting in Colombo, the country’s capital, Bourdain discovers change in in a place he visited nearly a decade ago as he enjoys street food on The Galle Face Green, dining on light curries and lots of seafood. Taking a 10-hour train to the northern “time capsule” city of Jaffna, Bourdain experiences crab curry, a dish he calls the “holy grail of Sri Lankan cuisine,” for its spicy and fiery flavors.

Bourdain travels to his childhood home state with his brother Chris and rekindles memories at classic roadside joint Hiram’s, known for its fried hotdogs, and Barnegat Light in Ocean County. He heads further down the shore to Atlantic City and stops by the Knife and Fork, Docks Oyster House with local reporter Brian Donohue, the Baltimore Grill to see husband and wife comedians Rich Vos and Bonnie McFarlane, and tours Asbury Park with none other than famed musician Southside Johnny.

Bourdain takes a personal journey through this formerly bohemian New York City neighborhood, as he meets, shares meals and reflects with music, film and art trailblazers including Richard Hell, Deborah Harry and Chris Stein, Lydia Lunch, Fab 5 Freddy, Danny Fields, Amos Poe, Jim Jarmusch, Kembra Pfahler, John Lurie, Clayton Patterson and Harley Flanagan, whose collective cultural impact in the 1970’s and ’80’s has sustained through the decades.

The public face of Colombia has changed immensely over the past ten years and is still changing for the better. Tony will explore several regions of the country from the mountains down to the Caribbean coast to the coca leaf growing inlands formerly controlled by drug cartels.

Libyan hip-hop, Italian restaurants, tribal allegiances and post-war uncertainty in Libya. Bourdain looks at the country through personal stories, food--and the music of anti-Qaddafi rapper expats who returned to fight.

Tony and his friend, world-renowned chef Eric Ripert, explore the far reaches of indigenous Andes in search of a rare variety of wild cocoa that is said to be the "best" in the world. They move from hip, modern Lima back in time into pre-Colombian Peru.

In this celebration of Louisiana’s Cajun culture, complete with Zydeco music and a crawfish boil, Bourdain goes off the beaten path and takes part in the less familiar Mardi Gras traditions of the region’s history stemming from the French Middle Ages. Donning a conical hat, mask and colorful fringed costume, the host participates in the day long Courir de Mardi Gras in Mamou. Meals include a home cooked meal in Grand Coteau, lunch at Laura’s 2 in Lafayette with creole cowboys, and boudin & cracklings at Billy’s in Opelousas.

This episode explores how Anthony Bourdain’s unique perspective and voice altered the world of food, travel and culture and in the process reinvented how audiences watched television and engaged intimately and actively with the world around them.

Bourdain travels to the untamed land of Big Bend, Texas near the Mexican border; an area that pits man against nature and in which the land usually wins. Bourdain shares meals with working cowboys who have made peace with the rough terrain, and meets with an anthropologist who decoded prehistoric landmark, the White Shaman wall painting.

Tony takes Los Angeles--but with a twist. No Hollywood sign, no Beverly Hills. Instead, he zeroes in on a three square-mile area of the city known as Koreatown, where he finds a tight-knit community still marked by the 1992 Rodney King riots.

Bourdain goes off the beaten path and explores some of the food and history of Mississippi including downtown Jackson’s Big Apple Inn, known for its “Pig Ear Sandwich” and as a Civil Rights Era gathering place, and then travels into the Mississippi Delta to Po’ Monkey’s Social Club, a juke joint located in an old sharecropper structure.

Parts Unknown tours Bahia, known as the “African heart of Brazil” and internationally recognized for its Afro-Brazilian music, art, design and food. A look at the dance/martial art of Capoeira, the region’s legendary food vendors, Salvadoran fishing neighborhoods, and a BBQ on the beach are featured.

Bourdain explores the widely diverse cuisines and cultures found in the NYC borough just north of Manhattan. Bronx mainstays Afrika Bambaataa, Melle Mel, and Baron Ambrosia help guide the host through the music, food, art, and other offerings of this often misunderstood part of the city.

Bourdain visits the Bay Areas of San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose to take a personal journey – in martial arts training with Brazilian Jiu Jitsu instructor Kurt Osiander, and healing through food, featuring dinner at the original Trader Vic’s with author Sean Wilsey (Oh the Glory of it All) and at soul food restaurant Real Miss Ollie’s with Bobby Seale (Black Panthers founding member).

Acclaimed chef Marcus Samuelsson (Red Rooster, Aquavit) and his wife Maya take Bourdain on a personal tour of their native country to experience this nation beyond the headlines, first in Addis Adaba where they sample injera bread and beyaynetu platters, followed by drinking Turbo and eating Tibs with local skateboarding pioneers, listening to the traditional music of Azmari singers and legendary Ethiopian-jazz musician, Mahmoud Ahmed, a sampling Ethiopian coffee and a village feast with Maya’s family in the Gurage region.

After a 10 year absence, Bourdain abides by his promise to return, dining on chicken rendang for a reunion meal at Aunty Aini’s, taking a boat ride to Kuching, traveling back to the longhouse at Entalau to attend the Gawai Rice festival, and acquiring a new hand-tapped tattoo, prefaced by a stop in “street food paradise” Kuala Lumpur for pork noodles and black pepper crab.

The cliché East meets West rings true in Istanbul as Bourdain explores its confluence of food, culture and politics, featuring a Turkish breakfast with old friend Esra, an oil wrestling tournament, and lunch at an Armenian restaurant near the Golden Horn. Bourdain leaves the urban sprawl of Istanbul for Sedef Island and a meal with author and philosopher Gündüz Vassaf and celebrated Turkish actress Serra Yilmaz.

Chicago’s iconic Old Town Ale House and its colorful patrons are the gateway to Bourdain’s tour of the “City by the Lake,” which includes the host dining on breaded steak sandwiches at Ricobene’s with music producer Steve Albini, sampling Mapo Doufu at Chinatown’s Sze Chuan with Chef Stephanie Izard, and a home cooked meal with Chicago-raised rapper Lupe Fiasco and his mom, plus a tour of comedy mecca Second City with mainstage performer Paul Jurewicz.

Bourdain discovers a hub of international cuisines and cultures in the New York City Borough of Queens. Traveling via the No. 7 train, the host dines on morcilla (blood sausage) with Sean Basinski of the Street Vendor Project in Corona, samples Chinese food in Flushing with Swet Shop Boys member Himanshu Suri, imbibes at historic Neirs Tavern (seen in GoodFellas) in Woodhaven, eats a Tibetan dinner at Llasa Fast Food in Jackson Heights, and takes a detour to Aqueduct racetrack in South Ozone Park with his Appetites cookbook co-author Laurie Woolever.

Bourdain delves into a dining scene at a crossroads: part iconic steel city defined by blue-collar, working-class comfort food – steak and potatoes, sausage and sauerkraut – and part foodie boom-town catering to the new high-tech industry. Bourdain criss-crosses the fault lines of old and new by sitting down with, among others, professional wrestlers, a civil rights activist, and writer and Pittsburgh native Stewart O’Nan. Pioneer chefs of the city’s burgeoning restaurant scene Sonja Finn and Justin Severino host a back-country pig roast. And chef Kevin Suousa serves grass fed beef short ribs at his new restaurant, Superior Motors.

When Bourdain heads to Puerto Rico to check out the reality behind the piña coladas and fancy resorts, he finds natural splendor, delicious food and warm people, all against the background of a seemingly insurmountable economic crisis. Bourdain also learns why Puerto Ricans are so devoted to their homeland, and so determined to stay there. He samples ‘grandma food’ at a restaurant that evokes a simple traditional Puerto Rican home, cracks open the freshest crabs at a rustic spot on the beach, joins singer Tito Auger for a meal with friends and enjoys some of the best lechon (roast pork) around. A trip to the small island of Vieques rounds out his experience, with a meal at a sustainable farm and an optimistic discussion about strategies for a better future for the region and its people.