Constantine Phaulkon
Senior Member
- Joined
- Jan 13, 2011
Where are the places mentioned in this article?
November 6, 2011 NY Times
http://travel.nytimes.com/2011/11/06/tr ... menus.html
TO drive around Chiang Mai, Thailand, with the chef and restaurateur Andy Ricker is to experience a particular sort of hungry man’s torment. That place, he said, pointing at a storefront or street stall, is known for stir-fried noodles, that other one for fish-head soup. We would pass right by. Elsewhere, he nodded toward a busy restaurant that he called the most famous place in town to get khao soi, a Chiang Mai specialty. Again, we drove past. By this point in his career, his standards are set. “Too sweet,” he said.
A Chef's Tour of Chiang Mai
Mr. Ricker, a 47-year-old, six-foot-tall native Vermonter now based in Portland, Ore., has become an unlikely ambassador for Thai food in the United States. Your only visual clue that he is someone who knows his nahm phrik noom from his nahm phrik ong is a glimpse at his right arm, which is tattooed with a mortar and pestle, bird’s eye chiles, and the holy trinity of northern Thai herbs — cilantro, green onion and phak chi farang (the last often known in the West as sawtooth).
I have followed Pok Pok, his first Portland venture, since it opened in 2005, tracing its transformation from a takeout shack in his garage to a sprawling, perpetually packed restaurant. I was struck by his refusal to pander to Western tastes. Instead of pushing pad thai and peanut sauce, he serves hoy thawt, an egg-and-mussel crepe found at Thai night markets, and northern-Thai-style laap. Rather than the tart, spicy minced-meat “salad” from the northeast that most adventurous American eaters recognize, this version is spiked with blood and offal, and fragrant dried spices that give it a beguilingly bitter edge. Mr. Ricker now presides over a mini-empire in Portland with four restaurants (including Ping and Whiskey Soda Lounge) that serve food you rarely see outside of Southeast Asia. (By early 2012, he plans to open two restaurants in New York City, one on the Lower East Side and one in Brooklyn.)
November 6, 2011 NY Times
http://travel.nytimes.com/2011/11/06/tr ... menus.html
TO drive around Chiang Mai, Thailand, with the chef and restaurateur Andy Ricker is to experience a particular sort of hungry man’s torment. That place, he said, pointing at a storefront or street stall, is known for stir-fried noodles, that other one for fish-head soup. We would pass right by. Elsewhere, he nodded toward a busy restaurant that he called the most famous place in town to get khao soi, a Chiang Mai specialty. Again, we drove past. By this point in his career, his standards are set. “Too sweet,” he said.
A Chef's Tour of Chiang Mai
Mr. Ricker, a 47-year-old, six-foot-tall native Vermonter now based in Portland, Ore., has become an unlikely ambassador for Thai food in the United States. Your only visual clue that he is someone who knows his nahm phrik noom from his nahm phrik ong is a glimpse at his right arm, which is tattooed with a mortar and pestle, bird’s eye chiles, and the holy trinity of northern Thai herbs — cilantro, green onion and phak chi farang (the last often known in the West as sawtooth).
I have followed Pok Pok, his first Portland venture, since it opened in 2005, tracing its transformation from a takeout shack in his garage to a sprawling, perpetually packed restaurant. I was struck by his refusal to pander to Western tastes. Instead of pushing pad thai and peanut sauce, he serves hoy thawt, an egg-and-mussel crepe found at Thai night markets, and northern-Thai-style laap. Rather than the tart, spicy minced-meat “salad” from the northeast that most adventurous American eaters recognize, this version is spiked with blood and offal, and fragrant dried spices that give it a beguilingly bitter edge. Mr. Ricker now presides over a mini-empire in Portland with four restaurants (including Ping and Whiskey Soda Lounge) that serve food you rarely see outside of Southeast Asia. (By early 2012, he plans to open two restaurants in New York City, one on the Lower East Side and one in Brooklyn.)
