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  • [MUSIC]

  • My family kind of has a bit of a,

  • an addictive personality disorder.

  • Like, my, my brother went through fucking free base

  • time and my dad was a hard core alcoholic.

  • I think he's one of the only people I've ever met

  • who was literally addicted to pot.

  • You know, we've all had our addictions and

  • I think that I've become addicted to

  • various things over my life.

  • And they tend to not be substances, but pastimes.

  • [MUSIC]

  • I got into rock climbing and I kind of

  • became obsessed with rock climbing for awhile.

  • That's all I wanted to do for about two years.

  • I was real into traveling long before that.

  • So just kind of spent my,

  • you know, just traveled for like four years.

  • And then I got really into playing in bands and

  • I really like dedicated my life to that.

  • I was really into it.

  • [MUSIC]

  • So when the Thai food thing came around,

  • you know, I really didn't think that

  • opening Pok Pok was gonna be it.

  • [MUSIC]

  • I figured that I'd open Pok Pok and

  • I could live in the house that,

  • that the restaurant was in.

  • And everything would be groovy.

  • [MUSIC]

  • I do well enough that I could afford to go and

  • live in Thailand for

  • three months of the year and hang out, and

  • go back and have a, a way of making a living.

  • Of course, that didn't quite go as planned.

  • You know, when I finally came up for

  • air after opening the restaurant three years

  • later, I think that's kind of where I was like,

  • yeah, you know,

  • I think Thai food is what I wanna do forever.

  • [MUSIC]

  • >> That's good.

  • >> Farang means blonde.

  • Like, English, American, and Australian.

  • Blond hair we call farang.

  • Actually, farang interested in cooking,

  • okay, it's common.

  • But farang who pay more attention in

  • Northern Thai food, strange.

  • Well, because Northern Thai food very spicy.

  • And, the ingredients totally different with

  • Middle Thai or Bangkok style.

  • So, anytime when this is farang like entry,

  • having very spicy one.

  • We would say, huh, how come you could eat like

  • very spicy food, and he laughing.

  • How come farang could cook not in Thai and with

  • an authentic, and how come farang long line.

  • >> I don't think anyone had ever heard of him

  • before Pok Pok.

  • I had friends who lived in Portland tell me

  • about this white guy, has like a little place and

  • you can get this like, Thai roast chicken.

  • And I was like

  • that sounds like some bullshit.

  • But then I heard more and more about it,

  • and I'm like oh, this guy seems to

  • be doing something incredible.

  • >> Unless you had spent time in Chiang Mai

  • in Thailand.

  • Now remember he had been backpacking there for

  • 20 years, he spoke the language.

  • >> Is it 125 baht?

  • >> Yes.

  • >> What he did, and I think,

  • you know, what was so fascinating, was he

  • brought a repertoire here that almost no one

  • had seen unless you were native to Thailand.

  • >> Here are the bowls for Khanom Jiin.

  • For this dish,

  • it is now difficult to find in Thailand.

  • >> The thing that I find really interesting about,

  • like, Thai restaurants in the States.

  • There's so much divide between like,

  • it's like us and them.

  • There's so much,

  • the divide, between the people who are coming to

  • the restaurant and whoever's cooking.

  • It might be a sort of an immigrant thing.

  • I have my food but

  • I'm gonna cook what I think is palatable.

  • My family opened up their spot in 1982.

  • I think something that just happened out of

  • necessity.

  • You know, like my

  • dad was in LA at the time working as a banker.

  • Like, working off a loan from this bank that put

  • him through college.

  • He decided to just open up a place, because there

  • wasn't something, it was, it was as simple as that.

  • At one point in this country you know,

  • having something like pad Thai was new,

  • it was altered, or adjusted in a way to fit

  • the sort of audience that was coming.

  • Is the menu like what we, or

  • what my family would eat at home or in Thailand?

  • Not really is the answer.

  • >> A lot of the Thai immigrants who came here

  • like 30, 40 years ago and opened restaurants,

  • they did it for commerce,

  • you know, not because they were interested in

  • spreading their culture or anything.

  • They had to make a living.

  • If you can take a bunch of these noodles,

  • a handful of fucking bean sprouts and

  • a bunch of poached chicken breasts, and

  • some peanut butter.

  • >> Right. >> And some ketchup and

  • make fucking Pad Thai that they buy for

  • $9 for a giant plate that takes you

  • like two seconds to make.

  • Why would you make this?

  • Like I get it.

  • What we're making is

  • a green chili dip called nempriknum.

  • I mean it looks just like the shit you

  • get in Chiang Mai.

  • >> Mm-hm. >> I didn't have to

  • do anything to it to make it better.

  • Fucking rotten fish is delicious.

  • >> It smells so good.

  • >> A little floral.

  • Also, a little disgusting.

  • >> It's delicious.

  • >> When Pok Pok came along,

  • it was a huge surprise.

  • It still is a huge surprise to

  • a lot of the Thai community.

  • They asked me why I do what I do.

  • How can you do that?

  • And they say, can, can farang eat like that, and

  • I say, I say,

  • yes of course they can eat like that.

  • They say [FOREIGN], but can they eat hot?

  • Yes, they can.

  • And I tell them a list of the dishes that we make

  • and they're like, oh.

  • >> Yeah this menu is different.

  • A lot of other Thai

  • restaurants don't have it.

  • You know what, Andy's is about the bridge.

  • To send a message to the American people.

  • And teach them how to eat it.

  • >> All the dishes are there.

  • Like, you go to Pok Pok and

  • all the dishes are killer.

  • They taste as

  • they would taste wherever they're from.

  • But he has the sensibility of a Thai

  • person, or the energy, or the sort of palate.

  • He's able to understand the context of

  • eating these foods the same way,

  • you know, a Thai person understands it.

  • He's a farang, but

  • he's as Thai as like any of my hick cousins.

  • >> We're gonna talk about it first, and

  • then you guys are gonna taste it.

  • And then you're gonna ask me

  • questions about the dishes, okay?

  • You guys that have the calpon go ahead and

  • start mixing it up and

  • passing it around and tasting it.

  • Hun chow or breakfast, morning food.

  • Thailand, typically at the markets is

  • where you find the best jok and palpon.

  • This is a typical morning soup.

  • It's filling but it doesn't drag you down.

  • Okay, guys,

  • we're gonna be eating a lot of food tonight.

  • Just think about we,

  • we have a huge menu to go through.

  • This is just the first menu item.

  • We got another 20 things to eat.

  • Take a bite, analyze it, call it good.

  • >> How long-

  • >> And wait, oh, oh, oh, wait, wait,

  • I didn't take a picture of this stuff so

  • that we have something to work off of.

  • >> I admire somebody who's like

  • a dog with a sock.

  • Like, that's, that's Andy Ricker.

  • My name is Karen Brooks.

  • I am the food editor and

  • critic for Portland Monthly magazine.

  • I have really taken a huge interest in him.

  • I like obsessed people.

  • I'm like my subjects.

  • This is my Andy Ricker dossier.

  • >> Oh wow. >> To

  • show you I have been covering the man.

  • >> Uh-huh.

  • >> Since he first opened his shack in 2006.

  • I don't think anyone had ever interviewed him.

  • Okay here, so I asked him, you know,

  • why does he go to all of this trouble?

  • >> God, damn it.

  • It's just become very, very

  • fucking apparent that I'm gonna have to come in and

  • retrain everybody on how to

  • make this god damn salad today.

  • >> I said, you could buy pre-made curry paste.

  • You could buy coconut milk.

  • And he says, the thing is,

  • 90% of the people that go to Thai restaurants

  • wouldn't care if you did the extra steps.

  • So it's way easy to sell cheap food and

  • still make a profit.

  • Ultimately you're in business to

  • make a profit.

  • So why am I doing this?

  • Because I'm crazy.

  • Andy shows just how far obsession can go.

  • [MUSIC]

  • >> At this point, I have, seven restaurants.

  • One of them isn't quite open.

  • I'm bicoastal these days.

  • I live pretty much half the time in Portland and

  • half the time in New York.

  • I'm kind of used to it now.

  • I, I, at first,

  • I thought it might be a little bit difficult,

  • but, it's just like, waking up in

  • one city is just like waking up in the other.

  • My life is the same aside from the bed I sleep in.

  • [MUSIC]

  • Come on in.

  • We have number one.

  • >> Uh-huh.

  • >> And number 16 and

  • also the fried dumpling please.

  • I mean these things are like,

  • these are delicious.

  • I end up at this place couple times a week,

  • when I'm in town.

  • Often it's like, I'll get into town and

  • the flight'll be late, and

  • I'm tired, and instead of like going out and

  • doing something, I'll just come over here and

  • grab something to eat, and go back home.

  • Dana, what's tomorrows schedule look like?

  • >> The only the thing on the schedule's just

  • the moving, starting at 9.

  • >> Right. >> Until indefinite.

  • And then at 7:30.

  • >> You know literally I, I get the feeling that

  • if I hadn't brought Dana on when we did,

  • I'd probably be so paralyzed that I wasn't,

  • wouldn't be able to do anything.

  • It was what was starting to happen.

  • It's like, basically I was getting so

  • overwhelmed with everything that I

  • kind of, I would sit there and

  • stare at my computer screen.

  • And try to figure out what the fuck to do next.

  • Cuz there's so much going on.

  • And look at those noodles,

  • those are fucking killer, right?

  • >> It's so good.

  • >> All right.

  • We'll get some boxes.

  • This is the third apartment I've lived in,

  • in New York, in the last year and a half.

  • [LAUGH] I lived

  • a very kind of migratory life for a long time.

  • I kind of started accumulating shit like

  • right away.

  • Cuz I hadn't been able to accumulate shit ever

  • before, cuz it, I was always moving around.

  • I, you know,

  • I couldn't fit it into the backpack, so.

  • I mean here I

  • am putting away like 20 fucking coats.

  • But I don't really need that much.

  • [LAUGH] There shouldn't be

  • anything in the fridge.

  • [LAUGH] There's still the,

  • the shelf brackets in here.

  • My refrigerator is turned on for

  • six espresso beans.

  • My life has become exponentially more

  • busy since I opened in New York.

  • If there was a way for me to like,

  • remotely taste food, I'd never go to work.

  • I would just fucking hang out in

  • Thailand all the time.

  • It'd be great, but I can't do that, so.

  • >> I can't imagine how he

  • has that many projects going on all the time.

  • He like scouts locations all the time,

  • for new restaurants, and

  • that's part of his obsessive thing too.

  • It's like, he knows he shouldn't.

  • Like, he knows he's got,

  • he's got plenty of restaurants and

  • he's plenty busy but he can't help it.

  • If there's an opportunity to like get a space and

  • show people some new aspect of Thai food,

  • like these noodles,

  • he's opening a new restaurant in Portland,

  • a noodle shop.

  • I don't think he can help himself.

  • [MUSIC]

  • Restaurant openings by nature are, are,

  • are very fluxy.

  • [MUSIC]

  • [SOUND] So now I got to,

  • to get an all noodle concept in Portland

  • called Sen Yai opened, which means big noodle.

  • And that's just, you know, years of going and

  • eating noodles in, in Thailand.

  • Eat on the streets,

  • or, you know, small shops near the streets.

  • Noodles are something I eat almost daily.

  • You know I, I haven't really found any

  • noodle shops in America that really,

  • really specifically do these Thai noodles.

  • Pad Thai has, one, two, three, four, five,

  • six different variations and sub variations.

  • And I may back off on that, because things

  • are starting to get a little bit crazy here.

  • And it's starting to have too many recipes for

  • people to wrap their heads around.

  • >> Very few of his cooks, I think, know anything

  • about Thai food when they come to his kitchen.

  • But Andy's so

  • used to explaining to people things that they

  • don't know.

  • >> You like [INAUDIBLE] here?

  • >> Yeah.

  • >> So we're gonna do the, the duck.

  • Get close-ups, see what we've done.

  • So the noodles are centered, the duck leg is

  • sitting with the bone up surrounded by the,

  • the shiitakes and the pickled mustard greens,

  • sprinkled with the fried garlic on top and

  • the herbs go in.

  • Notice how much herbs are there.

  • Not much, okay?

  • I want you guys to all taste this.

  • Taste the cilantro, just take a whole piece and

  • throw it in your mouth.

  • This is not a garnish.

  • This is there for a purpose.

  • You need to understand what it is,

  • what you're doing when you're putting stuff on.

  • All right, you guys taking notes here?

  • Okay.

  • Where are all the, the ladles?

  • I put somebody on that.

  • >> Right here, right-

  • >> Okay, so that's not where they go.

  • >> Ladles all gotta go where the ladles go.

  • Don't hide them.

  • >> [INAUDIBLE] somebody.

  • >> Okay, thank you.

  • It's very likely that I will be a line cook.

  • That's the way it is.

  • It's likely that every one of the managers here

  • is gonna be a line cook at that point.

  • When you're dealing with a situation where you

  • have a brand new restaurant, brand new

  • concept, and nobody's done it before including

  • us, the situation can be pretty stressful.

  • Not everybody here has experience with cooking

  • this kind of food, and

  • this is, there's a steep learning curve here,

  • so, we will get it, we will be open.

  • But it's gonna,

  • it's gonna be it's going to be a hard push.

  • Right now it's kind of like [SOUND] but

  • we'll be fine.

  • [NOISE] My friend Sonny's flying out

  • from Chiang Mai to help me get all

  • this stuff nailed down before we open.

  • You have to have a,

  • a memory in your palate that's, it's difficult to

  • keep that if you're not in Thailand, and

  • you're the only place that's making this food.

  • You don't, you kinda lose perspective.

  • So that's what I have to go back to Thailand so

  • often is because if I don't,

  • I begin to lose perspective, and

  • my palette begins to lose perspective.

  • So, when Sonny does come,

  • he almost always has a fresher perspective.

  • He also has a longer perspective than I do,

  • I mean he, he's been

  • eating this food since he was a child.

  • [NOISE] Shit, I don't

  • know which one it is.

  • I don't even know what airline he's coming in

  • on, to be honest with you.

  • I've been asking him to come.

  • He's been to Portland but

  • it's been like six years I think.

  • It's been difficult to get him to leave.

  • And he said it was because of the dogs,

  • like, he has 12 dogs, or 13 dogs at this point.

  • He'd, he'd miss the dogs too much.

  • A good way to finally convince him

  • to come was to, basically say, hey, come and

  • help me open the restaurant.

  • Oh, oh.

  • Hello.

  • [LAUGH] Where have you have been hiding?

  • >> No, I just walk around there and then I,

  • I didn't see you and then I, I thought that this

  • is international arrivals, so I come.

  • >> Yeah.

  • >> Oh, thank you.

  • How are you? >> Good, how are you?

  • >> I am a bit tired.

  • >> A bit tired?

  • Did you sleep well?

  • >> Good.

  • >> Good, right?

  • >> Good.

  • >> Okay, okay. >> Okay.

  • >> You came to Portland at the right time.

  • How many liters of chitosan?

  • >> Six.

  • >> Oh, excellent.

  • >> Six, yeah.

  • >> Angel's gonna be so happy.

  • Cuz he's making fish balls already.

  • The other six at home I think [INAUDIBLE].

  • >> I'll, I'll show you everything on

  • the schedule.

  • Crazy right now.

  • Crazy.

  • Since I've been back from Thailand,

  • I didn't stop at all.

  • I don't even think I had a day off yet.

  • >> Now it's not open yet?

  • >> No.

  • >> Okay. >> Right now the menu is

  • set because we're opening very soon.

  • Today they're prepping all day today.

  • Tomorrow morning, and

  • then tomorrow afternoon we will taste all of

  • the dishes one at a time to see.

  • >> Okay.

  • >> On a certain level he's been

  • a professional cook his whole life.

  • He'll run around and taste all the food and

  • help me recalibrate some of the, the flavors.

  • >> [INAUDIBLE]

  • >> Oh, I can smell >> The reason I come to

  • Portland, as a friend, close friend,

  • I just want to come,

  • not only to help but make the relationship closer.

  • >> So Sungya, this is Sonny.

  • >> Hi, Elizabeth, good to meet you.

  • >> Sonny brought us some piklab.

  • >> Oh, very good!

  • >> Lots of it, and also a big bag of chitosan.

  • >> Oh really? >> Really, nice.

  • >> Oh yeah this right here, this should last us

  • another year or something.

  • So >> Where is the kitchen?

  • >> Kitchen is in here.

  • >> Sunni! [LAUGH]

  • >> You never change.

  • >> He's more tie than he used to be actually.

  • >> I have to come to learn from you,?

  • >> Yeah, yeah, yeah,

  • I can teach you a little bit more.

  • [LAUGH] Make 'em perfect for tomorrow.

  • >> Okay. >> I have a lot

  • of work for you. >> Okay.

  • >> He's the kitchen manager now.

  • >> So, this is the kitchen.

  • How did the sangkhaya turn out?

  • They cooked it some more?

  • >> Mm-hm, yeah.

  • Mm, yummy. >> Yummy.

  • >> This is sangkhaya so,

  • it's like a custard made with,

  • made from pandanus leaf, you eat with a,

  • with a little fried doughnut or with toast.

  • In Thailand,

  • breakfast is whatever you want to grab.

  • And how long until you're not

  • hungry anymore, Sonny?

  • Soon right?

  • >> One hour.

  • >> Yeah.

  • >> [LAUGH].

  • >> I don't really have anybody else around me

  • that I could actually turn around and

  • go, is this right or not?

  • We can both be sitting there eating food and

  • look at each other, and one of us would kinda go,

  • he'll be like, and I'll be like.

  • You know, and

  • we just, we both kind of, share similar tastes.

  • Little bit too much.

  • >> Sour.

  • >> It should be a teaspoon of the,

  • of the vinegar.

  • >> Mm.

  • >> Not a tablespoon.

  • >> Different flavor.

  • >> And what I told you?

  • >> He's very, very sure of himself.

  • He's very, very opinionated.

  • And to give him credit, he's usually right.

  • He's usually right.

  • Or at least my palate matches his.

  • >> It does not look beautiful.

  • >> It's thick.

  • Too thick.

  • >> Too thick. It does not taste good.

  • I think that he wouldn't mind if

  • I come to criticize.

  • Like the way I've been doing, like no, no,

  • no this one.

  • No, no.

  • >> No. >> Correct.

  • >> Correct. >> We have to not

  • fight in order to get the good things to the, for

  • business.

  • >> Sonny's always like reprimanding Andy, like,

  • no, bad organization.

  • You know,

  • Andy's developed his way of cooking.

  • Like things he's comfortable doing or

  • things he's seen and, but Sonny is an amazing cook.

  • And he's always telling Andy he's doing it

  • the wrong way.

  • >> The color does not look right.

  • >> Because the, I told you the nam

  • prik pao is not correct.

  • >> No.

  • Not like that.

  • >> That's what I said.

  • >> No. >> It is wrong.

  • >> No, no, no. >> That's what I

  • told you, it's wrong.

  • >> You ever check it before today?

  • I could tell. >> No,

  • I checked it yesterday, and I said it was wrong.

  • >> Oh, okay.

  • >> Look, see the problem is

  • that sometimes they just, they don't do correct.

  • >> [INAUDIBLE]

  • >> Because you can't stand in front of

  • everybody and watch them all day long.

  • >> No, no, no, no. >> [INAUDIBLE] Maybe

  • they- >> Sometimes they

  • make a mistake.

  • >> They, they don't know the concept of.

  • >> No, no, they, they, they just,

  • they were in a hurry, they forgot about it and

  • they put it away.

  • >> Uh-huh.

  • >> Smells good.

  • >> She could not pass into the five, finally.

  • >> [LAUGH] Right now, no.

  • >> No.

  • >> We have a sibling relationship.

  • >> Yeah. >> He's like an older

  • brother to me.

  • Sometimes things start getting a little tense

  • because he's like, he's up in

  • my face telling me how to run a restaurant,

  • which he has no business doing whatsoever.

  • The other thing is that because he is so

  • opinionated and

  • so willing to express his opinions that I

  • can actually get an honest answer out of him.

  • Whereas other Thai friends might go, oh,

  • it's delicious.

  • >> Mm.

  • We are similar.

  • I love cooking and he like cooking as well.

  • And I've been trying another Thai

  • restaurant here also.

  • Totally different.

  • People here are lucky that they could have

  • noodles the same as in Chiang Mai.

  • The same as in Bangkok.

  • Homesick, never ever happened to me.

  • Because I could have authentic Thai food here

  • in Pok Pok.

  • >> Have you met other Americans that were,

  • wanted to learn how to cook like this, or?

  • >> No. >> No.

  • >> First one Andy.

  • I would say that he's crazy.

  • >> One, two.

  • If you've never made this food before,

  • do not make shit up.

  • Do not alter the recipes.

  • This is the most important aspect of,

  • of cooking food that you're not familiar with.

  • You have to do the recipe exactly as it says.

  • So let's throw this out and start over again.

  • I mean the way that the restaurant's run

  • are direct reflection on the way that I think.

  • I'm not educated, I don't have a college education.

  • I don't have any kind of like, formal training of

  • any sort, for anything.

  • I think that everything I've approached in

  • life has been from the standpoint of,

  • learn by doing.

  • Learn by watching and then doing.

  • And when you do that you, you gain, like,

  • you gain a particular perspective, I think.

  • Especially when

  • you're partially OCD like me, right?

  • Where you, you, you, you just watched shit,

  • and you notice details right, and

  • you just, you can't help it.

  • You notice details and

  • you try to figure out how,

  • you know, how shit works.

  • And that's how the restaurants have

  • developed.

  • [NOISE]

  • There's no

  • secret to

  • success.

  • There's no formula that gives you an instant hit.

  • There's no formula that gives you

  • an instantly great restaurant.

  • You kinda, you, you get lucky sometimes.

  • And you, you know,

  • you do something you think's okay and it turns

  • out to be the biggest smash hit of your life.

  • >> There's nothing in the Andy playbook that

  • says he should have made it, except he was so

  • damn determined.

  • His dream was he wanted us to know and understand

  • what kept driving him back to this country.

  • Several things separate Pok Pok.

  • Andy came into this restaurant in

  • his early 40s.

  • If he had

  • started this restaurant when he was 25,

  • as a lot of these other chefs did, we probably

  • wouldn't have ever seen the Pok Pok empire.

  • >> Hi guys.

  • >> Good afternoon.

  • >> Allah.

  • >> You know, he worked in kitchens, but

  • not in that aspirational way.

  • Not in like I'm gonna work in this kitchen for

  • five years, and then I'm gonna open my own place.

  • He just, was like a, a line cook.

  • He's a blue collar dude.

  • >> You know, he's got an unusual story of how he

  • came to the kitchen.

  • He'd done a lot of things and been a lot of people.

  • He had lived a lot of lives.

  • >> And people just walk up to you and

  • go, hey, man, how's it going?

  • You're looking at them and

  • going, I'm fuckin' great, how are you,

  • what are you doing these days?

  • That's my stock answer.

  • What are you doing these days, cuz,

  • it could be somebody that I used to paint with, or

  • it might be somebody that was in the music scene,

  • or it might be somebody that I

  • worked in a restaurant years before that.

  • This happens to you if you live in Portland,

  • you live in a town this small and

  • you've lived here this long and you've

  • had as many different lives here as I have.

  • If you're able to leave somewhere and

  • not look back, and not feel bad about leaving,

  • it makes it easy for it to keep moving, you know.

  • Might have been a desire to

  • escape from my childhood.

  • Like I didn't, I didn't have,

  • I didn't have a like,

  • I didn't have a shitty childhood or

  • anything like that at all.

  • >> Yeah. >> It was, it's not

  • like that. I was just,

  • I think I was just bored, you know?

  • I was bored in Vermont.

  • >> Uh-huh.

  • >> I didn't like really,

  • maybe it was more traumatic than I know,

  • who knows.

  • But I, you know, basically, I,

  • I just never felt like I fit in.

  • I was born in North Carolina.

  • My parents moved out to California when I

  • was about one, where my brother was born.

  • My mom and dad split up.

  • My dad went back to California, and my mom

  • took us to Philadelphia where her mom was.

  • It was a memorable trip.

  • We showed up in Philadelphia, and

  • we moved into the ghetto, I didn't, you know,

  • I didn't, never felt really comfortable there.

  • But then we, you know,

  • then we moved to Vermont and

  • here I'm in redneckville and like,

  • I certainly didn't feel, you know, at home there.

  • Because I hadn't, I didn't even learn,

  • you know, I didn't even know there was such

  • a thing as the Pledge of Allegiance, you know.

  • You know, they started picking on me and

  • I would be just like,

  • why the fuck are you picking on me, you know?

  • So when I left Vermont,

  • it was just like after years of like,

  • being kind of, like an outsider.

  • Not in like kind of like a desperate way, but

  • just you know, I never fit in so,

  • when I left it was like, fuck, thank god,

  • you know?

  • Graduated from high school in '82.

  • Dropped acid for graduation,

  • two days later I was on a bus for Colorado.

  • Moved to Vale and I was a ski bum there for

  • like three and half, four years.

  • Just bailed the fuck out.

  • As a matter of fact, here's a picture of me

  • with my first ever girlfriend.

  • What's this, I'm not, I can't give you this.

  • Round. It looks like

  • I'm drunk and stoned.

  • I was like 19.

  • I had no testosterone at that point.

  • I was still an embryo.

  • The great thing that came out of that was I

  • learned how to be a line cook there.

  • You know, I never worked on the mountain.

  • I always work in the bottom of the mountain.

  • Wherever you worked there was super busy, and you,

  • you had to be on top of your game and

  • that was invaluable.

  • You know, after being in Vail for

  • four years, I think, some friends of

  • mine moved out to California and

  • a good buddy of mine is like, hey,

  • come out to California for the summer.

  • I was like, great.

  • I started DJing, playing dance music and

  • stuff like that.

  • And got a job as a pizza delivery guy.

  • That's where I kicked off

  • the around the world trip.

  • I left California to Australia,

  • I didn't have any money, you know,

  • I was just gonna wing it whatever,

  • I'll do something.

  • Ended up going to New Zealand and living there

  • for almost two years, working in mountaineering

  • shops and then went back to Australia to

  • go climbing and from there I went to Thailand.

  • [MUSIC]

  • My first trip to Thailand was in 1987.

  • I was a backpacker.

  • I loved Thailand the first time I went, for

  • different reasons than I love it now.

  • I think it was an overall thing.

  • I think it's the thing that, that gets

  • people about Thailand is probably the same for

  • most people is, especially back then.

  • You know there wasn't a lot of tourism.

  • The people are very friendly,

  • the girls are real pretty.

  • Boys are real pretty too.

  • And sometimes they get mixed up if

  • you're not careful.

  • They call it the land of smiles.

  • It's just the general feeling of the place.

  • It's a very welcoming place.

  • People fall in love with that country.

  • [MUSIC]

  • To this day, they go there and they feel like

  • they've had this amazing experience.

  • The food's cheap and delicious, and

  • the beaches are, like, gorgeous.

  • I spent my whole time in the south of town

  • pretty much on a little island there call Ko Tao,

  • which is now this amazing dive center there.

  • At the time there was nothing going on.

  • Those days no longer exist in Thailand.

  • You just can't you, like,

  • the big money bungalows have taken over but

  • at the time, it was, you know,

  • this was adventure travel.

  • Wow, this is from the first time I

  • was Thailand, this book.

  • So this was like the little bungalow that I

  • stayed on in Ko Tao up on the hillside.

  • I had to hike, you know, every day when I, when I,

  • it was time to go to bed,

  • I'd hike up this trail for, you know, seven or

  • eight minutes to get to my little bungalow with,

  • I don't even think that there was power.

  • I think it that,

  • I just had like a lantern that they gave me.

  • Candles, you know.

  • Lots of weed.

  • >> [LAUGH].

  • >> [LAUGH] Loads of weed. [MUSIC]

  • Hang out, rip bongs, play volleyball.

  • Fuck around in water.

  • That was the life.

  • So that is what I did for almost four years.

  • Funny thing is, is that we never got homesick.

  • You know, a lot of people go travelling and

  • if they're away for

  • a few months they start feeling like,

  • wow I really want to go home,

  • but I never ever felt that.

  • I never felt it.

  • Until the very end, and it wasn't

  • homesick the way that you think about homesick.

  • It was like, I've been moving around,

  • living out of a backpack for

  • close to four years now.

  • I think I'm ready to,

  • like, have a dresser and a bed.

  • And so that's how I

  • eventually ended up in Portland.

  • I was looking for a home.

  • [MUSIC]

  • Well, when I first arrived in

  • Portland 23 years ago, you could find a place to

  • live really quickly and easily.

  • Everybody was really friendly.

  • There were these really cool grassroots arts

  • and music.

  • [MUSIC]

  • You've seen that sticker Keep Portland Weird.

  • I mean it's always been kind of a city of

  • maverick-y kind of

  • people doing their own quirky ass shit.

  • [MUSIC]

  • >> It's time to relax your mind and

  • your spirit.

  • >> Well when I got back to the states,

  • this is what I ended up looking like.

  • [LAUGH] I was sick of traveling, and

  • I wanted to be somewhere.

  • At that point,

  • I was more interested in hanging out, you know,

  • playing in bands, living with other people, cuz

  • that's, you know, that's the nature of travel.

  • Unless you, kind of,

  • you know, stop, it's all temporary.

  • >> You know, I show up in, in Portland, and

  • the dude's like, you like music?

  • And I like, yeah.

  • He's like, what do you like?

  • I'm like, well, you know, I like rock, you know,

  • and he's like,

  • well you should check these guys out.

  • They're pretty cool.

  • And he gave me like, a cassette of, of Bleach.

  • And I was like, Nirvana, hm.

  • And pretty soon after that you know,

  • the whole crazy you know, late 80s,

  • early 90s rock scene really started to

  • foment in the Pacific Northwest.

  • Hazel was blowing up and Pawn got signed to Sony.

  • It was a really interesting time to

  • be in Portland,

  • cuz I had started playing music at this point.

  • The first band I

  • was ever in was called the Moxie Love Crux.

  • Everybody in the band was a, a bike messenger,

  • except for me, and so I was, I kinda looked like

  • a bike messenger cuz I traveled that way.

  • And so we're kind of like the unofficial,

  • official bike messenger band of Portland.

  • It was a fun band to be in, but that was,

  • that was the times, you know.

  • I, I really loved playing music.

  • When I was younger playing in

  • bands was like what I wanted to do.

  • You know, I wanted to go on tour.

  • I was a fucking idiot.

  • I wanted to like open for all these big name bands.

  • I got a little taste of all that shit but I,

  • you know, it never, it never really gelled into

  • something like a career.

  • And I never really put,

  • I didn't, never fully dedicated my life to it.

  • [APPLAUSE] [CROSSTALK].

  • I'll show you a picture from the record cover.

  • [MUSIC].

  • So this is, me, Mike, and John in Mike's house,

  • was, was actually our house.

  • We all lived there together.

  • This band is like the,

  • the favorite band I was ever in.

  • >> Something called Vehicle,

  • which was kind of like a power pop trio.

  • >> Me and Mike and John were like three of

  • the most different people you'd possibly imagine.

  • But, you know, to a certain h,

  • they got along really well,

  • but, but there was some profound differences in

  • how we [LAUGH] looked at life.

  • [LAUGH] Wanted us to practice because I

  • sucked more than everybody else, you know?

  • I was,

  • I was like that fucking Capricorn, you know?

  • >> His personality, I would just say driven.

  • Good lord, [LAUGH].

  • When we lived together,

  • I don't think he ever slept even, you know?

  • It was just like, boom, boom, boom you know?

  • It was him. There's no

  • other way of doing it.

  • When the first time I met him, he was cooking.

  • He used to do these things on Saturdays.

  • It was like a, a crepes.

  • In this, he had this a little apartment up on

  • Clinton Street.

  • I was highly skeptical, Owen,

  • just because I was like,

  • I barely even knew about crepes.

  • And so he was working Zephros, I believe.

  • You know, they were kind of the heavy,

  • gourmet people of Portland, back then.

  • He was kind of in that scene as well.

  • Like kind of the northwest, kind of ritzy,

  • that was a happening scene, but

  • a totally different scene than what we

  • see over here, southeast rock scene.

  • >> Well the thing is, if you look back on it,

  • during the days that I was playing in bands,

  • a lot of people worked in restaurants.

  • Cuz that was the way that you could, you know, have

  • a job and you could leave and go on tour, and.

  • Yeah, there's me in front of Zefiro restaurant.

  • I kinda had,

  • fallen out of love with the restaurant industry.

  • I'd been working in restaurants for

  • my whole life at this point, I,

  • you know, on and off.

  • And I remember walking out to the dining room

  • and looking at everyone eating and,

  • and it made me feel nauseous.

  • I was just like,

  • this is fucking disgusting, ya know?

  • People are just like, [SOUND].

  • They're just like, taking this food and, and

  • I don't know why and it just kind of hit me.

  • It was just like, the norm,

  • we're just shoveling like we're getting these

  • massive cases of food in the back and

  • we're butchering it up and we're roasting it

  • up and pouring fucking olive oil on it.

  • You know cream and all kinds of shit and

  • we're just shoveling it onto plates and

  • people are just gorging on it.

  • And I don't know why man it just, it like,

  • it literally made me feel sick to my stomach, and

  • I was just like, I was just like fuck this.

  • You know, this is not for me.

  • I just, it was like I,

  • I had to get out of the kitchen.

  • I was just, like, this is fucking bullshit.

  • I'm not, I'm not cooking anymore.

  • I gotta do something else.

  • [MUSIC]

  • I think I was,

  • I had just started painting houses in 97.

  • I think that was the first year that I

  • went full time.

  • >> When I met him, Andy was a painter.

  • He was painting houses.

  • I first met Andy at my first location I

  • opened up for Stumptown.

  • I was behind

  • the bar everyday making coffee and

  • Andy would stumble in in his grubby painting gear.

  • >> I got to that sort of similar feeling in

  • my gut that I had with the restaurants.

  • Where I would show up at work and just like,

  • I would look at the wall, and I look at the paint,

  • and I'd look at the you know, I'd just be like.

  • I couldn't do it anymore.

  • I was just comp, I was just done.

  • You know I had to do something else.

  • And the only the only other thing I

  • really know how to do with any kinda, you know,

  • consistency is cook, or bartend, or wait.

  • But I also knew that I

  • didn't wanna ever work for anybody ever again.

  • That was just, there was no way that I

  • was gonna punch somebody else's clock.

  • So, that kinda left me

  • with opening a restaurant.

  • oh, here's a picture of me with my friend Chris,

  • the second time I went to Thailand.

  • This is the trip where I

  • learned about northern Thai food.

  • [MUSIC]

  • I had just gotten back in touch with my

  • friend Chris who I'd grown up with in Vermont.

  • And he was in Chiang Mai.

  • Chiang Mai is like this very,

  • very beautiful, sleepy college town.

  • It's one of the nicest places in the country and

  • Chiang Mai is kind of

  • considered the cultural capital of Thailand.

  • People there,

  • generally speaking, tend to be much more laid

  • back than the people that are down in the big city.

  • It was just very quiet and nice, and

  • you know, a lot of the roads are still dirt.

  • The friends of ours said,

  • well, have you had Thai food before?

  • And I said well yeah, you know,

  • I've had this and that.

  • And they took us to some places where we had some,

  • sort of, more Thai type stuff.

  • And then she said, well look,

  • this is the season for

  • which is a kind of mushroom.

  • It's like,

  • it's kinda like a bitter puff ball type mushroom.

  • And I know a place where they make gang or

  • curry or soup out of it.

  • This really good, we should go and try it.

  • And I was like,

  • hell, that sounds great, let's go try it.

  • And the guy brought out this, this soup and

  • I looked at it and it was like very brothy.

  • There's was no, nothing to do with coconut.

  • There were a lot of herbs.

  • There were these really dark colored mushrooms in

  • it but the soup itself had a lot of spices and

  • stuff in it.

  • It was kind of bitter, really herbaceous.

  • There was like spice profile that I

  • couldn't recognize at all.

  • The whole thing altogether was like

  • really, really surprising because A, it didn't

  • taste like any Thai food that I'd ever had before.

  • Cuz it wasn't Thai food,

  • it was Ahamnoom, the food of the north.

  • Different people, different ethnolinguistic

  • background although they're in Thailand.

  • Not only that, but it was unlike anything I'd,

  • I'd had anywhere else in the whole world before.

  • Holy crap, this is delicious.

  • What's going on here?

  • Are you saying that you can only get this

  • at this time of year?

  • She said, yeah, you're very lucky to

  • be here right now cuz it only really comes up this

  • time of the year and only for a couple of weeks.

  • I was like, okay, so

  • that means that this is local and it's seasonal.

  • And it's regional,

  • because you can't get this in,

  • in southern Thailand.

  • So therefore, Thailand must have regional,

  • local, seasonal food.

  • Yet if you look at a menu here in America,

  • it's the same 50 dishes all year round, and

  • it never changes.

  • And none of those things that are seasonal,

  • regional are included in that.

  • And this was a huge revelation,

  • though I didn't realize it at the time.

  • It was like,

  • that was my moment where I was like, okay.

  • There's way more to Thai food than I ever thought.

  • And that's what started the journey.

  • [MUSIC]

  • The northern Thai people live in this really,

  • you know, this beautiful mountainous region.

  • Their in the jungle.

  • It's cooler typically at

  • certain parts of the year.

  • And the people there don't have

  • a lot of money.

  • They are very resourceful, so

  • the food tends to be really direct.

  • [SOUND].

  • Really spicy, fermented.

  • Mm.

  • A lot of offal from buffalo.

  • [FOREIGN] Buffalo fetus.

  • Bitter is definitely one of

  • the things that you taste from herbs,

  • from bile from various different animals.

  • Chicken, frogs, lots of pork.

  • >> [FOREIGN].

  • >> Pig tits, that have been grilled and chopped.

  • Super delicious, really good.

  • We're right here along the highway as

  • you can see at a [FOREIGN] one of my

  • favorite places in Chiang Mai, maybe one of my

  • favorite places in all of Thailand.

  • And it's just a dirt-floored restaurant

  • with little in any way of ambiance except for

  • what's created by the lights on the trees.

  • And they serve a dish here they're famous for

  • which is grilled meat that's been hit with

  • a hammer.

  • How many years has this restaurant been open?

  • >> 13 years. >> 13 years already in

  • this one location.

  • As you can see it's a very,

  • very rudimentary kitchen.

  • And this is a very, very

  • simple method of cooking food very old style.

  • Gin means beef or meat in northern Thai.

  • Pook means to hit.

  • So the beef gets grilled so it's, it's quite well

  • done but still a little bit juicy because he

  • brines it in and I think probably, it's an MSG.

  • And then beats it with a hammer until it shreds.

  • Puts it on a plate and it gets served with

  • a nimpicou or a colongal chili dipping paste.

  • Spicy, crunchy, meaty, salty.

  • This is the pork version of the gentu.

  • It makes me wanna drink more whiskey.

  • Which is what the whole, this is all about.

  • Okay, Boom, so everyone is gonna wanna know,

  • what's the deal with these worms or grubs?

  • >> This is silkworm.

  • >> Silkworm, this is silkworm.

  • >> Deep fried,

  • last chance to make good thing on their lives.

  • [LAUGH].

  • >> The humor here.

  • >> I don't think he wishes he had a Thai

  • grandmother because he wants to cook her food.

  • >> [LAUGH] >> He's really intent on

  • celebrating the people who cook this food.

  • He's just like a, a student of, of the like,

  • street vendors and

  • always reminds me that he's not an expert.

  • And I'm like, well you're the most expert person I

  • could imagine in,

  • you know, in, about Thai food.

  • He would, he would argue that, that's absurd and

  • he'd still like foreigner,

  • he's still an outsider, and

  • he's still trying to understand.

  • >> Hello.

  • [FOREIGN].

  • >> What would you like to have today?

  • >> Today I will have chicken Khao soi.

  • >> [FOREIGN].

  • >> This is one of my favorite dishes in

  • the whole world.

  • And this restaurant is my favorite place in

  • Chang Mai to get it.

  • So boiling to order, freshly made noodles, and

  • then when they make the soup, they add the,

  • the coconut cream to order.

  • Yeah, you can smell this.

  • This is a very,

  • very fragrant there's a lot of dry spice,

  • very Muslim smelling.

  • It doesn't smell like a lot of the khao soi's in

  • Chiang Mai.

  • Thank you.

  • I like to add a little bit of

  • pickled mustard greens.

  • Some chile.

  • And a little bit of fish sauce here.

  • Mm.

  • Coming to Khao Soi

  • has definitely had influence on how we

  • formulate our own khao soi back in Portland.

  • Typically I will go to several different places,

  • try them all, and

  • I end up making a sort of a mixture of all the good

  • things that I like about the different places.

  • >> Pok pok is a very accurate representation

  • of what it's like to eat in Thailand.

  • Crazy amounts of Thailand photos.

  • I'm helping Andy write his first cookbook.

  • When Andy and I first started working together,

  • one of the first things he said was,

  • if we do this book together,

  • you have to come to Thailand.

  • He wanted me to have that experience that he had.

  • That he wanted to show me that Thai food was

  • entirely different in Thailand.

  • And I was actually writing pitching

  • an article to the times, the travel section,

  • going to Chiang Mai with Andy and

  • sort of retracing his steps.

  • The steps that led him toward Pok Pok.

  • [MUSIC]

  • I went to the roast chicken guy, Mr.

  • Lit, the guy that Andy befriended and

  • they've been friends for 20 years.

  • [FOREIGN] Mr. Lin, how are you?

  • Good to see you.

  • >> Good to see you too.

  • >> Yeah, one of my favorite places in

  • Chiang Mai.

  • Mr. Lin has been owning this restaurant for

  • 33 years already and these

  • are the best roasted chickens in Chiang Mai.

  • >> 1977 I started my own business.

  • In the beginning we have almost 100%

  • Thai customers.

  • And now it's about 80% foreigners [LAUGH] who

  • come here.

  • Some foreigners even take some Thai

  • people to introduce them to our place also.

  • One day ten years ago Andy took him here to

  • have dinner with friends.

  • He came up to me and

  • asked a few questions about that, how I made

  • my chicken, that he was thinking about opening

  • his own restaurant in the United States.

  • So I cooperated, and willingly.

  • >> SP Chicken was probably the original

  • influence for Pok Pok in Portland.

  • I thought that the machine that they used to

  • cook it was very interesting.

  • I just thought it was a very clever way of

  • cooking chicken, and I didn't see anybody else

  • doing it in the states, and I wanted to replicate

  • something special, not just anything from Thai,

  • but something very special.

  • Mr. Lit's been doing this for

  • 33 years, so he can tell if a chicken is

  • ready just by touching it.

  • >> Very important thing is the,

  • the machine itself.

  • It's very important.

  • >> And this is the same machine that I use in,

  • in my restaurant in Portland, and Mr.

  • Lit helped me to understand how it works.

  • Taught me how to use this properly.

  • When Pok Pok in Portland first opened it

  • was just a small shack in my driveway with one of

  • these rotisseries in the back with a very

  • small menu, only eight items, I believe.

  • So we started the whole

  • business based on grilled chicken and papaya salad.

  • More or less that was the whole concept.

  • [MUSIC]

  • [CROSSTALK].

  • Wait, I have to take your picture.

  • You just have to stand so

  • I can get Pok Pok in the background.

  • Perfect. [LAUGH] Pok pok,

  • changed but the same.

  • And it, actually, this building is very old.

  • The first, the front part was built in the 1800s,

  • 1890 something.

  • Yeah, I used to sleep in the upstairs dining room.

  • Used to be my bedroom.

  • [LAUGH].

  • >> This is the original one.

  • It's 2005 and the little shack right there,

  • that was the original area, you know.

  • Yeah, that was it.

  • It was a sushi retail shop.

  • >> I used to love the place where

  • Andy put Pok Pok.

  • Actually one of my

  • favorite little sushi places.

  • It was kinda like a sketchy shack where this

  • old dude hung out in.

  • >> Uh-huh. >> And he just had it

  • all ready to go.

  • And then he bought it,

  • and took, so that was gone.

  • I'm like, oh, nice job, you know.

  • No, no, no.

  • [LAUGH]

  • Division Street was just any old busy street.

  • No restaurants really there.

  • >> Super busy.

  • Mm-hm.

  • We lived in a neighborhood,

  • southeast Portland,

  • Andy was one of the first on Division to,

  • open up restaurant.

  • And now it's, getting to be known as, you know,

  • one of the restaurant roads in Portland.

  • Since then,

  • Southeast Division Street has grown quite a bit.

  • [MUSIC].

  • >> So they're building this one.

  • As soon as they finish building this one,

  • building this one also.

  • Well in 2005,

  • I was just coming off of being a house painter for

  • eight years.

  • Food wasn't a big deal at that point.

  • There were a couple of places around.

  • But Portland was just like

  • totally under the radar,

  • totally underserved, just packed with opportunity.

  • Still is packed with opportunity.

  • >> This was my

  • annual restaurant guide called Diner.

  • And as you can see the sub head

  • sparks are flying in Portland's food scene.

  • Around 2005 Portland was, was just a rumor.

  • I mean, a drone couldn't have

  • found Portland's food scene.

  • It was just kind of a stop over,

  • a place for Indie music in a small food uprising.

  • A very small, but

  • wonderful farm to table movement.

  • Around 2005, 2006 a young generation of

  • chefs just walked away from the white tablecloth

  • world to create something of their own.

  • They were supper clubs.

  • They were pop up restaurants.

  • They were sort of a come-as-you-are,

  • do-it-yourself, food first kind of gastronomy,

  • and I thought, this is really fascinating.

  • People could find affordable real estate

  • over on the east side.

  • In most cities, if you have to get a bank loan,

  • million dollars, that already limits the number

  • of people who can open a restaurant.

  • If you can just find a little space to have your

  • little dream, what that means is the line cook,

  • maybe even the dishwasher can go, hey, I've got

  • an idea, I'll go get a storefront, I'll do it,

  • and Andy Ricker was very much part of that.

  • >> Okay this is June 30, 2005.

  • First day, just took possession of 3236

  • Southeast Division where I'm probably going to be

  • spending great deal of my time for

  • the next several years while I build it out and

  • try to do what I've been planning to do.

  • Little funky, needs a lot of work,

  • but I think I'm up for the task.

  • You know, have to ask me in about six months from

  • now whether I thought it was a good idea or not.

  • And the kitchen where I can see this

  • being the restaurant kitchen eventually.

  • Then moving back into what

  • will eventually become the lounge,

  • which is now rather a dirty basement.

  • It needs a lot of love.

  • My best friend,

  • Adam, came over after I found the space and,

  • you know, I showed it to him,

  • and he's just like, you're fucking crazy.

  • You can't put a, you

  • can't put a restaurant in this place.

  • You're gonna lose, like, all your money.

  • It's gonna be a huge failure.

  • You just can't do it.

  • And I was, like, well, no.

  • [LAUGH] There's lots of opportunity here.

  • You're just not seeing it.

  • He, he was convinced that I was gonna

  • ruin my life basically.

  • >> Now, at this point it was barely more than

  • a chicken shack in the front yard

  • of Division Street next to a dilapidated

  • Victorian home.

  • This looks like a place like Matt Dillon in

  • Drugstore Cowboy.

  • The flea bag hotel.

  • This is breaking every rule of location,

  • location, location.

  • No operating funds.

  • I mean, nothing about it

  • on any level should have worked.

  • I thought, wow, this place is amazing.

  • There were just, like, six dishes at that time.

  • Look, look at him.

  • This is, what, how you usually saw him,

  • was just poking his head out of his little

  • take-out shack window with his knit cap.

  • And people would just be out there,

  • you know, fighting the flu bugs and

  • shivering outside, to go eat this khao soi.

  • Did you try that?

  • Once you eat it, there's no going back.

  • You eat his food and

  • you're, like, like, oh my God.

  • And I can't wait to have it again.

  • >> I think it was a hit, right at the beginning,

  • right when he opened up.

  • I call Andy the Colonel Sanders of

  • Southeast Division Street because of the amount of

  • chicken he's pushing out of that shack there.

  • Literally had no idea it

  • would become what it became, and

  • it became something [SOUND] like that.

  • I got scared a couple of times financially at

  • the very beginning, but

  • it never felt like, you know, this was a mistake.

  • >> By the next year,

  • I named Pok Pok the restaurant of the year.

  • >> Most people the idea of,

  • a restaurant of the year, and

  • in that time was a white tablecloth place, valet

  • parking, not a chicken shack in a front yard.

  • I mean, Portland drives on people believing

  • you can make something amazing happen for

  • almost nothing.

  • And, I think Andy sort of helped break that mold

  • and show if you invest in what you believe in,

  • then genius cooking can happen anywhere,

  • as long as people have access.

  • >> You know, Portland has a really unique

  • business environment for someone opening and,

  • and thriving within this industry.

  • You know, it's very ent,

  • entrepreneurial toward new ideas, ideas that,

  • you know, aren't established before.

  • And I don't know, there's something very unique in

  • the air out here.

  • >> You know, the ultimate goal is to

  • deliver this food that I'm in love with.

  • And in order to do so, it's unorthodox food

  • served in unorthodox manner for

  • the U.S. is to find a way to make that work and to

  • do it in a space that the rent isn't too high cuz I

  • don't wanna charge too much money for the food.

  • In order to do that you have to

  • move into odd spaces in odd neighborhoods and

  • hope that you kind of have something that's

  • compelling enough that people will come to you.

  • >> I think it's rare that people actually get to

  • the point of opening the doors without

  • softening something, and I

  • don't think he attempted to soften anything.

  • >> But the food's delicious.

  • I mean, I think that's like the key thing,

  • is that he's not just like shoving orth,

  • orthodoxy down people's throats,

  • he's making delicious food,

  • you know he's pairing it with like good drinks.

  • So you can go there and have fun,

  • but he's not wavering from what is vision of,

  • of authentic Thai food is and,

  • and he's finding acceptance with that.

  • There's a much bigger question here, though,

  • which is should a white dude be making the food

  • of, of a Southeast Asian culture and

  • making a business out of it.

  • And, you know, that's, you know,

  • that's a fair enough question to ask.

  • >> Really?

  • >> Well, as long as you also ask, you know,

  • about, the American guy who's doing Spanish food.

  • Or the American guy who's doing Italian food.

  • Or the American guy who's doing Indian food.

  • Or, whatever the fuck it is,

  • that, honky's making that isn't his own.

  • Do, am I relegated to making,

  • you know, hot dogs and fried chicken for

  • the rest of my life because I'm an American?

  • It doesn't make any sense.

  • And I've spent

  • 20 something years studying this food.

  • And I feel like it's okay for

  • me to make the menu that I have.

  • I learned so much and I owe so

  • much to the people there and, and to that culture.

  • It's hard to find a way to really pay that back.

  • And to me the best way to pay it back is to say,

  • you know, don't, you know, don't look at me,

  • look at, at the food.

  • Like I'm not, it's not me.

  • And- >> Mm-hm.

  • >> I go to great pains and lengths, and

  • I sincerely believe this is not.

  • People say, we love your food.

  • I'm like, but it's not my food.

  • It really isn't.

  • My, my answer is always like, but

  • it's not my food.

  • [MUSIC] This food

  • exists somewhere else.

  • It's one thing for a six foot half balding 50 year

  • old honky to do it.

  • It's another for a Thai woman to do it.

  • There's a woman in Portland named Nong.

  • Nong's Khao Man Gai.

  • There's only one dish on the menu.

  • She's an old employee of mine.

  • I'm super proud of her.

  • >> I'm ready.

  • [LAUGH] My name is Nong.

  • And we are at Nong's Khao Man Gai,

  • Portland, Oregon.

  • Khao Man Gai is what I make.

  • Chicken and rice.

  • That's it.

  • That deal.

  • [LAUGH] I move to Portland from Bangkok,

  • Thailand, in 2003.

  • And when I first move here, I, I feel that

  • people that, that live here are above me.

  • American is above me.

  • You know, example, on the menu it say yellow curry.

  • I knew that at home it has potato.

  • And I was like, whoa, have potato.

  • But like you know I can't say anything because

  • afterwards, like, people that lived here before me

  • now I see that not everybody will have

  • opportunity like me to work at Pok Pok.

  • I have somebody like Andy explain to

  • me like the culture.

  • I, I learn a lot from Andy.

  • You can do it, you just have to do it.

  • >> One guy in Los Angeles named Kris Yenbamroong,

  • born and raised in America but

  • he's not from Thailand.

  • He speaks Thai.

  • He's raised in Los Angeles, and

  • his parents own a Thai restaurant and

  • conventional American Thai food.

  • The other side is Night Market but

  • he wants to make real flavor.

  • >> I was running my

  • family's restaurant next door, and

  • was just sort of failing miserably at it, just

  • like the biggest I've ever failed at anything.

  • I took over the space next door,

  • basically out of spite, and

  • eventually just thought, hey you know,

  • I was like this could be a blank slate for me.

  • Like, there's already a kitchen.

  • I'll do all the food for Night Market myself.

  • I've already tried to do it

  • the sort of compromise way.

  • Why don't I just do it the way I think it

  • should be done.

  • >> Some mang da.

  • Mang da is water bugs.

  • That's gonna be a [FOREIGN].

  • Sort of like a Northern style, like, chili dip.

  • You use these guys right here to,

  • to scent the dip.

  • Sort of like you would use truffles,

  • except it's, it's water bugs instead of truffles.

  • It's definitely not wings,

  • you know what I mean?

  • Like, maybe 20 plates of wings, and

  • one plate of [FOREIGN].

  • I don't know, I just mean,

  • I mean having that one person order it,

  • you know, like a couple people a night, and

  • that's still cool by me.

  • Without, like, being too snooty or

  • philosophical about it.

  • It's like, if you don't make this food or

  • continue to make it, it's gonna die away.

  • I mean, I just hope that if there's more people

  • doing it you know, that they're people like Andy.

  • You know, you talk to him and

  • you know he cares about the food.

  • Andy talks a lot about giving Thai food a voice.

  • The last year or

  • two, more restaurants are opening Thai style,

  • serving the real flavor.

  • Somebody opened one in Seattle,

  • Washington D.C., Miami, so

  • maybe if you come to visit me in ten years,

  • Pok Pok is just going to be another of many.

  • Like, right now still we're one of very few in

  • America, but

  • I think in ten years, something like that,

  • every city is going to have something like that.

  • So you see, slowly, the real flavors is changing,

  • and good, I think it's good.

  • Mm, bones.

  • [MUSIC]

[MUSIC]

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