i remember the moment i first realized i'd been living my whole life in black and

white. it was like discovering a color i never knew existed before. a whole new crayon box full of colors. that was it for me. from then on there was no putting the pieces back together. no going home. things were different now. asia had ruined me for my old life. ♪ i took a while to look at this beautiful world felt the cool rain on my shoulder ♪ ♪

[ laughter ] >> whiskey for farmer. >> ooh that's good. >> they make more than a hundred bottles a day so 30,000 bottles. that's a lot of -- did i do that right? >> yeah. >> or have i had too many whiskeys? >> how did this happen? how did i get here? coming into focus, the man across the table. he looks familiar. maybe if i can remember who he

was, it'll be a clue as to where i am. >> okay. right. andy. andy ricker. >> the white guy who cooks awesome thai food. >> pretty spicy? >> put that in there. >> the pokpok in new york, restaurants in new york. he has made a name for himself faithfully reproducing the cuisine of northern thailand. the good stuff. comes from places like here. rice country. change in this part of the world, you live and die by the harvest. thai food is intensely regional.

in northern thailand in particular there are many distinctive features. this is a world of fresh, delicious, spicy, meaty, salty, sour, sweet, bitter. often with a just picked herbie dimension. and always the most vital thing, giver of life, sticky rice. andy here is constantly back and forth from america to thailand. for nearly 25 years now. looking for recipes, techniques, digging deeper and deeper into an amazingly complex and widely misunderstood cuisine. and getting his ass chastised by a few aunties as he goes. on this trip andy is working on a new cookbook, investigating the eating and drinking culture

of the region. which might be why he thought of me. and why we're drinking shine for breakfast. where there's food, there's also going to be booze. and likely, a lot of it. >> oh, that's good. >> you make a chile paste with chiles, garlic, shallot, shrimp paste and tomatoes. then you mix it with pork. >> for you. okay. >> oh, yeah. pretty awesome. >> isn't it delicious? this rice is grown here in the village. you just kind of make a little spoon shaped ball with it. >> now what's the famous greeting. is it have you eaten yet or have you had rice?

>> both. >> literally it means have you eaten rice yet, but what it really means is how's it going? >> it is assumed if you haven't eaten yet things are not going well. if you've eaten rice is such a fundamental component. >> eating is synonymous with eating rice. to eat a meal without rice would be unthinkable. >> what makes their whiskey special? >> because of the flavoring that they add to it. >> conveniently our hosts in addition to providing us a fine meal just so happened to run a distillery out back. >> they use spice mixture they add to the yeast balls, let it ferment for five days. >> right. >> and then she smashes it with a wood mallet. >> thai rice whiskey. bucket of hooch. whatever you want to call it. this stuff is a delightful beverage that tastes better and smoother apparently the more you drink. >> oh, here we go. >> sneaky. sneaky. >> well. >> and then fried fish.

i believe it's called nile tilapia or nile carp. you just salt the hell out of it and then deep fry it. >> good stuff. [ speaking in other language ] >> okay. okay. >> for your uncle. yes. >> 69 years old. >> good. he drinks half a bottle every day. >> so pretty much the keith richards health and preservation plan. all right. i'm going to get healthy, too. the whiskey, i have to say, is taking hold. in some clinically fascinating ways. >> funny.

>> i lost the plot. >> oh, that's okay. >> it all comes back to me as the world shifts and tilts. >> oh, yeah. >> i've been looking out a lot of hotel windows these days struggling to figure out where i am. >> okay. being here, throwing back shots of rice whiskey with these guys. i know i'm back in thailand. not just thailand but northern thailand. once known as kingdom of a million rice fields, it's a fertile, green, and gorgeous area. home of the ancient lana people. welcome to chaian mai province

tucked up near the border of burma, laos, india not far away. all of them left their mark on the food. and if you are eating here chances are you're also drinking. >> compared to the stuff we had this morning, this is substantially more harsh i would say and less fragrant. >> the village, how do you find this place? we're in the middle of nowhere. >> a very popular place. >> a restaurant show casing one of the distinguishing elements of northern thai cuisine. the heavy use of animal protein. >> you see the local people. they're lining up here in northern thailand pig reigns supreme. most of this stuff is made out of pig. >> what did you order?

>> grilled pig tail. >> then we ordered northern thai herbal pork sausage. >> oh, yeah. i'm on that. >> brain. some pigs brain. >> yeah. i'm not a big brain fan. a custardy sort of texture coupled with this sort of nutty taste. frankly i'd rather have a big handful of nuts so to speak. >> it's mixed with curry paste and herbs and stuff thrown into a banana leaf and then grilled. they do not cook the blood. >> they put it into a hot soup? >> no. this is raw blood. >> really.

>> there are two kinds you can get. one is the addition of keon, basically the partially digested juice that's made from what a cow eats grass. juice. >> oh, geez. no. >> exactly. i did not order that. we're not having that. >> okay. we're not having that. >> we're not having that. >> okay. >> i'm thinking we'll stick to the plain blood soup thank you very much. >> the way they make it is they take the raw blood and xrscrunc it with lemon grass for a long time. >> why? >> it kind of kills the gamey flavor of the blood, helps with coagulation, and adds flavor. then they make chopped lob, the minced meat salad that's raw. >> yeah. >> that goes in. a whole bunch of deep fried innards. [ speaking in foreign language ]

>> here it is. you're not kidding. like csi soup. i'm eating out of an open wound. actually that's completely delicious. utterly delicious. >> and it makes you look like a vampire. it's quite spicy. you can taste the chiles. it doesn't taste like blood. it kind of tastes sweet and rich. let's see if we can change your mind about brains. >> delicious. i'm not lying. this is delicious. >> anyone would completely love this. >> you eat too much of it you'll go blind. that's what they think. >> yeah. i'm still here. >> it has to do with parasites. >> huh? >> can i tell you some stories?

>> back up, bucka roo. parasites? >> two or three years ago a whole family, all seven of them died. >> that's really, you know, you probably should have told me that during the appetizer course. okay? >> honestly, never. >> i'm super happy to hear that. >> on a hot summer day. this is cnn. 24/7 i'm sorry- i'm just really reluctant to try new things. really? what's wrong with trying new things? you feel that in your muscles? yeah...i do... drink water. it's a long story. well, not having branches lets us give you great rates and service. i'd like that. experience a new way to bank where no branches = great rates. ally bank. your money needs an ally. that's keeping you from the healthcare you deserve. at humana, we believe if healthcare changes,

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♪ >> in chiang mai you can move in and out. from the quiet green of the countryside to just a few miles away the madness and chaos of

chiang mai city, second largest in thailand. spirituality, reflection, the serene beauty of the rice paddy, village life, maybe next episode. this time it's all about consuming medically inadvisable amounts of food and drink. if thailand is one of the best countries to eat in -- >> cheers. >> then chiang mai is a particularly good city to find yourself hungry. >> those are frog. >> that's the frog. >> basically taking that frog, grill them first. hack it up. fry it with garlic. >> almost an inverse relationship. like the more hideous looking the dish the more delicious it is. >> as you probably noticed by now the food is not green curry

chicken. there are complex layers of flavor, sophisticated balances, spicy, sour, a little bitter, salty, herby, color, and texture are important. crispy, soft, cold, hot. it's exactly this interplay between elements that makes northern thai food so thrilling and so addictive. >> this place is called lob, the dish they're known for which is the mince meat salad. >> what is that material? >> that is one of the many stomachs of the cow. might be the third stomach. it's bitter. this has a little bit of bile. the gentleman over there, uncle, is the lob master. they win lob competitions. >> oh, yeah?

>> they're killing it. they're supporting the whole family. the woman who just took your order. >> right. >> her family and her husband who is the guy who is the cashier, the uncle -- geez, when it gets really busy the rest of the family comes and helps. >> it was said you hate the word authentic. what does that word mean? >> depends on the context. in the united states you say traditional thigh restaurant that has become to me a standard thai restaurant in america. that menu. when you come here authentic is if you're the daughter of the woman who made this then to you this is the most authentic version of that dish. if you're from nan province you still make lob but it doesn't taste like this. a little bit different. >> this lob is amazing.

friday night and chiang mai comes alive. >> we love you! andy has promised a compressed eating and drinking grand tour of the city. a bounce from one place to the other until we simply can't take it no more. next stop? it ain't flavor town. it's someplace beyond that, man. way beyond. >> welcome to thailand and happy stay here in chiang mai! >> on your mark, get set, go. >> cheers. >> this may surprise you. but i am not an alcoholic. i don't drink at home ever. there's no beer in my 'fridge. if i'm not working, i'm not hanging out in bars. but if i was an alcoholic, and i did hang in bars, i'd hang here. >> some care yokaraoke maybe? >> even though the very mention

of karaoke makes my blood run cold with fear. ♪ >> you order french fries? when i did. >> apparently it is an indigenous specialty. >> in thailand this is probably one of the most popular items. you always have food to eat when you drink. >> what is this whiskey we're drinking by the way? i haven't really paid attention. >> the whiskey we're drinking here is actually rum. ♪

>> this guy's good. >> one of the great things about a place like this. you'll never have to fill your own glass. >> that could be me some day i'm thinking. things go just a little wrong, i go off the rails. this would be all too attractive. i can well see myself singing happy birthday in german at a hotel bar in jakarta or bangkok. >> this is a fantastic discovery. this is going to stick in my head now. ♪

shingles affected me tremendously as a pilot. the pain in my scalp area and down the back of my neck was intense. it would have been virtually impossible in that confined space to move to change radio frequencies. i mean it hurt. i couldn't even get up and drive let alone teach somebody and be responsible in an airplane. as a pilot that meant i was grounded.

♪ >> chiang mai at night. we are well on our way. to where, to what, i don't know. i don't much care. but i do know it's time to eat. in thailand it's almost always a time to eat. and, yes, and drink. we shall be doing that, too. >> the inevitable ice and beer. way to drink beer in southeast asia. >> beer, you say? oh, all right. in the interests of research, of course. >> you got beer. you got ice. you got some grilled meat.

>> snackage? yes. i would like snacks. >> they've got pork chin and intestines. you got a spice dipping sauce. ah. this is a chinese liquor. >> all right. >> oh, tastes like medicine. >> yes. it also tastes like a dirty sack. >> when did you come to thailand first? >> i believe it was 1987 and i came as a backpacker. >> right. >> it was all about smoking dope on the beach. >> right. >> eating mushrooms. chasing girls. and drinking beer. i had a three-month ticket and i ended up staying away for 40 years. here we go.

so what was the dish? there was a dish in every traveler's life where they just said, okay. my previous life is not going to be enough for me anymore. you know? >> it was a particular mushroom. they make soup out of it. it was unlike anything i'd ever had in my life. >> when i first came out to this part of the world, the noodles, i mean, i knew right then. i'm not smoking. it wasn't the girls. it wasn't the beaches. the noodles. the greasy bottles of fish sauce. and the smell. this terrible moment where you realize, i can't share this. that's it. in about five seconds we're going to go past a woman who has a cowboy hat on. [ speaking in other language ] >> the lady with the hat stands out among the dozens of street

vendors across from the old city's north gate. >> the best stewed pork leg in the city. potentially none finer in thailand. >> are we doing that? >> well -- >> for years, she's been serving this. slowly stewed pork. >> she cooks it in a master sauce. the chinese master sauce. >> right. >> it probably goes back at least a generation. it's like sherry. a little bit of the original batch still in there. >> exactly. >> she's hacking with meat all day. and there's like not a drop on the frilly --. >> this is a sauce that goes with it. kind of like a sour chili sauce. then some of these mustard greens too. >> really tasty. >> this place is famous as hell. half the people here are tourists, probably chinese tourists.

let's do it. >> you want to stick your feet in some fish water? >> no. >> no. >> all right. let's go, guys. >> i didn't stop at a sports bar. i need to have some chicken wings and have some fried mozzarella sticks. >> more beer. more food. >> if you go on the sidewalk it'll take us like ten minutes to get 50 feet. kind of stay to your right and don't get killed. >> what was i saying? oh, yes. beer loves crispy. beer loves salty. beer loves fatty. spicy. salty. fried. together? happiness. >> oh, okay.

no beer. >> what are they drinking? >> they're drinking water. >> kidney cleaning water. so good. so important to a healthy lifestyle. >> i'd imagine. >> midnight. that's what you do after a few drinks. maybe a lot of drinks. what you need maybe you didn't know you needed it but you do is this. >> this is what the vast majority of thai people who live in america who come to thailand and visit and go back end up getting busted at the airport for trying to bring in. we get two kinds. >> this is a combination of chilis, garlic, shrimp paste, dried fish. >> and this. >> colloquially known as midnight. >> made from roasted green chilis accompanied by god's preferred delivery systems for beer friendly goodness.

yeah. >> yeah. >> a whole bunch of deep fried little salty meaty delicious things. yes, please. mm-hmm. >> yes? something i've loved from first mouthful i've ever had, right here in chiang mai all those years ago. thai pork sausage. hum. >> crispy, meaty, salty. >> good. i love it. rub it all over my body. the sausage is so amazing. someh somehow this is totally what i need right now. oh, it's so good. of great-tasting ensure. 24 vitamins and minerals, antioxidants, and 9 grams of protein. [ bottle ] ensure®.

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tlae come to me, my love, right now. you big nasty unfamiliar thing. oh, it's so good. your body isn't a temple. it's an amusement park. enjoy the ride. but that was before i had a daughter and a respectable job at cnn. when that little voice in my head said, call it a night. quit while you're ahead, i probably should have listened. wait. where did we leave off? ah yes. now i remember. bouncing to one bar after another. we're going that way. >> which way? >> that way. >> okay. good. andy have i clearly made our way well beyond the threshold of

acceptable conduct. but we call it a night? quit while we're ahead? no. >> we're going to head over to see a time honored tradition. >> ladies and gentlemen. >> the lady boy cabaret. >> yeah. let's do that. ♪ >> all right. here it is. >> lady boys as they're known in thailand have led to many embarrassing moments for the amorous cowboy too buzzed to know or care much about the details. >> my first experience with this kind of atmosphere in thailand

happened in 1987. i met this girl and i was like stoked because i was like she's into me. and at some point she sat on my lap and she's like oh, i have to go now and do something and she gave me a kiss and i'm like, i'm in. and the show started. >> you forgive a guy for making a mistake. >> totally. >> many lady boys frankly are pretty spectacular looking especially the ones who have breasts. >> you know, the women are harsh -- there should be a guy thing. >> they should have a sports bar. >> brilliant idea. >> bring it to new york. >> lady boy show in a sports

bar. you're going to watch football, drink a lot of beer, and around beer number eight, bring out the lady boys. just my luck. at a show like this, what happens? and she said --. i end up kissing the one lady boy in thailand who looks like ernest borgnine straight on the lips. of course, i am completely oblivous to the day glow white lip stick all over my face. out of context, photos of me here tonight end up on the internet. this could look bad.

awesome show. ♪ ♪ oh, yeah. ♪ ♪

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this train has long ago come

off the rails. one bar after another. it's time andy and i head to an appropriate followup to a night like we've had. more food. quickly. this has become an emergency situation. there it is. >> noodles, dude. >> this is actually not a noodle dish. it's something served with rice. >> how can you have noodles with no noodles? >> this is what we need. whatever it is. >> it's something devised for drunken people to eat. >> well that's us. >> something to sop up the royaling tide sloshing around in my stomach. i need to sober up in case ernest borgnine calls. she said she'd call. i feel so used. >> they love to eat pork here. >> look at all the chilis. a lot of chilis here. we got these fresh red ones.

we've got these green ones sliced and stir fried in there. and we've got small green peppers. [ speaking in foreign language ] >> oh, whoa. >> that's hot. ooh. >> i breathed in. got hit with the chili down the side of the throat. >> yeah. you know when you hit really super hot and you feel like having a brain hemorrhage, like an ice cream headache but a pepper headache. >> yeah. your vision starts to tunnel out. >> you're half way through and aware your hair is going to burst into flames. that perfect balance of pain and pleasure and more pain. brain flooding with endorphins and all is well with the world. until tomorrow morning. ooh. so i've had a couple cocktails. maybe you should totally get

tatooed tomorrow then. >> magic tatoos. >> time for bed. ♪

♪ ♪ >> so i woke up in a state of confusion and deep concern after inadvertently making out with ernest borgnine last night. i have spiraled into some identity crisis. inadvertently, making out with ernest borgnine, i would like to say. it was very traumatic.

i need to go to a strip club and watch a football game, mow the lawn and barbecue all at the same time. i'll mow somebody else's lawn. i don't mean that in a figurative way. i can't talk. it hurts to talk. you know, every region has sort of an iconic dish. you're talking northern thailand, chiang mai, this is it. hearty broth of curry, coconut, noodles and spices. i'm all over that. oh, yeah. mm. needs some more onions. the boys at the bar tonight are going to be in for a surprise if they move in for a smooch. damn, that's good. i am a big believer in a healthy nutritious breakfast. it's the most important meal of the day. my doctor said that. of course, he also said that just about everything i love and hold dear is killing me, so what does he know? attention, hippies. this is a salad. green papaya salad, that's not really a local thing.

but i couldn't resist. spicy papaya salad. some khao soi. now i've got to find a catholic church. bless me, father, for i have sinned. i kissed a man on the mouth. oh, it burns like the fires of hell. burn away sin. maybe you left them in the bathroom again. it's just the strangest thing... the warning signs of alzheimer's disease, may be right in front of you. it's alright baby. for help and information, call the alzheimer's association or visit alz.org/10signs ♪ they lived. ♪ they lived. ♪ they lived. ♪

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♪ >> meow. >> andy's favorite spot in chiang mai, a family-run restaurant named auntie deng's hammered meat. and the jokes pretty much write themselves, folks. >> no, every year, every year. >> andy's been coming here forever since it was only auntie deng's lightly slapped meat. he's practically family. [ speaking foreign language ]. >> hammered meat, here anyways, beef or pork that's been charcoal grilled, then

pulverized into ropy threads to give it a distinctive texture, then served with spicy chili and galangal dip. [ speaking foreign language ]. >> oh, so i guess that i have been accepted by the family, and i will be living in the house here next door, and my job is going to be to smash beef with the hammer every night, probably for the rest of my life. >> this woman has expectations, dude. >> i'm in deep, deep trouble. it's pretty obvious. >> what if they pounded it before they cooked it? >> it wouldn't look like that if if they pound td before they cooked it.

>> right. >> right. >> classic. that's good. chewy. hmm. still chewy. still chewing. delicious. >> and because andy is a vip and future potential son-in-law, dad is sporting his 40 amulets of protection, brings out the chef's special, a bitter soup with buffalo tendon spiked with bile. >> that doesn't sound good, but it is addictive right away. >> deep and dark. you getting some of that heat? yeah. >> you know, we talked about once you experience some of the sensory pleasures of the east, your previous life just isn't adequate anymore. ♪ >> when the journey is coming to an end, when the movie's over,

what's left to do? oh, yes, wrap things up. i think we've learned something here in chiang mai. i can't summon exactly what that might be right now. >> i was thinking of this whole mohammed said don't tell me what a man knows or what he says, tell me where he's traveled. you learn stuff. >> maybe it's to remember to bring something to remove makeup before hitting the cabarets. >> like the first time i spent a long period of time in thailand, that sort of brightness, the spiciness, the simple elements making kind of this bright explosion of flavors, i got back home, i immediately like wished i could be back in thailand. >> or maybe just say screw it and have a good time. >> it's quite beautiful. thank you so much.

[ speaking foreign language ].

chances are you haven't been to this place. chances are this is a place you've never seen. other than maybe blurry cell phone videos, old black-and-white newsreels from world war ii. chances are bad things were happening in the footage you saw. myanmar, after 50 years of nightmare, something