anthony: all right, look at [ horns honking ] anthony: 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 walk through this beautiful world felt the cool rain on my shoulder found something good in this beautiful world i felt the rain getting colder sha la la la la sha la la la la la sha la la la la sha la la la la la la [ laughter ] man: whiskey for farmer! anthony: oh, that s good. this guy s trying to kill us. andy: they make more than a hundred bottles a day, so 30,000 bottles? anthony: that s a lot of whiskey. andy: yeah it s a lot of that s a lot of uh did i did i do that right? anthony: yeah. andy: or have i had to
when you drink. anthony: what is this whiskey we re drinking by the way? i haven t really paid attention. andy: this whiskey we re drinking here is actually rum. [ joe singing in thai ] anthony: this guy s good. andy: that s one of the great things about a place like this you ll never have to fill your own glass. [ joe singing in thai ] anthony: that could be me someday, i m thinkin . things go just a little wrong, i go off the rails, this would be all too attractive. i could well see myself singing
the white guy who cooks awesome thai food. is it pretty spicy? put that in there. anthony: the pok pok in portland. restaurants in new york. andy s made a name for himself faithfully reproducing the cuisine of northern thailand. the good stuff that 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
and those noodles. i mean, i knew right then i mean, i m not joking. it wasn t the girls. it wasn t the beaches. the noodles, the greasy bottle of fish sauce, and the smell. it s this terrible moment where you realize, i can t share this. that s it. andy: in about five seconds we re gonna go past a woman who has a cowboy hat on. anthony: the lady with the hat stands out among the dozens of street vendors across from the old city s north gate. andy: the best khao kha moo, or stewed pork leg, in the city, potentially none finer in thailand. anthony: yeah, are we goin are we doin that still? andy: well anthony: for years, she s been serving this khao kha moo, slowly stewed pork. andy: she cooks it in a master sauce. you know, the chinese master sauce where you cook it in the same thing, it probably goes back at least a generation. anthony: it s like sherry,
doesn t really taste like blood. it just kinda tastes sweet and rich. let s see if we can change your mind about brains. anthony: delicious. i m not lying. andy: this is delicious. anthony: anyone would just completely love this. andy: if you eat too much of it you ll go blind. that s what they think. anthony: yeah, they said that about off, and i m still here. andy: it has to do with parasites and all kinds of things. anthony: what? huh? andy: can i tell you some stories about this? anthony: whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. back up there, buckaroo. parasites? andy: yeah, we ve got about two or three years ago, a whole family in nan province, all seven of them died. anthony: oh that s really you know, you probably should have told me that during the appetizer course, okay? honestly, best meal i ve ever had in thailand. ever. andy: i m super happy to hear that. anthony: i d eat it out of chris christie s jock strap on a hot summer day. this is cnn. andy: oh, god