andy ricker. the white guy who cooks awesome thai food. >> is it pretty spicy? portland. restaurants in new york. andy's made a name for himself faithfully reproducing the cuisine of northern thailand. >> mm. >> the good stuff. comes from places like here. rice country. chiang mai province. in this part of the world you live and die by the harvest. thai food is intensely regional. and northern thailand in particular has many distinctive features. this is a world of fresh, delicious, spicy, meaty, salty, sour, sweet, bitter. often with a just-picked herby 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. >> okay. >> on this trip andy's 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 drinkin