Heart and Soul

When I arrived in Chiang Mai to hang out with my friend Andy Ricker, it was the day of Loy Krathong, one of Thailand’s most beloved festivals and an occasion to dispel misfortunes and wish for a better year ahead. The release of bad energy is symbolized by photogenic rituals that see candlelit floral offerings called krathong floated down rivers as a multitude of sky lanterns drift away into the night.

Celebrated at the end of the harvest season, Loy Krathong is all about new beginnings. And so, for that matter, is Andy, who in 2020 shuttered the last of his Thai restaurants in the United States and moved full-time to the countryside of Chiang Mai, where he and his wife Kung have kept a house for several years. I had flown in from Bangkok to see how he was getting on with the next chapter of his life — and to taste some of the dishes that have inspired him for decades.

A native of Vermont, Andy first visited Thailand as a backpacker in the (charcoal-roasted game hen stuffed with lemongrass) and (mustard greens and pork ribs). The reviews were ecstatic. A James Beard Award followed, as did cookbooks and more Pok Pok outlets: in Brooklyn, Los Angeles, and elsewhere in Portland. But by 2018 — the year he closed his New York location after a respectable six-year run — Andy was burned out. What had begun as a mission to change American perceptions of Thai food had become all about profit and loss. And then came Covid-19, which gave him the excuse to do something his ego hadn’t let him: he shut it all down.