Fuck Pad Thai with Pok Pok's Andy Ricker

Published: Jan. 25, 2016, 11:30 p.m.

If you’ve been to Portland, you’ve been to Andy Ricker's Pok Pok—or maybe you went in LA or NY—heck, it could have been visiting the kiosk in the Portland airport during a layover. Andy is obsessed with local, regional Thai food that you would never find in any Thai tourist destinations. In fact, you’d only find it after spending years in Thailand making a ton of local connections and really embedding yourself in parts of the country that most of us never get the opportunity to. Andy has made it his mission to bring that food to the American market. And he’s done so in a way that’s absolutely remarkable. The guy has eight restaurants in three cities, a book, a line of food, he was top 10 best new restaurants in America by GQ Magazine, restaurant of the year by the Oregonian, he’s won a couple of James Beard awards and been featured many times in lots of different media outlets— from Vice Magazine to Anthony Bourdain’s "No Reservations.”