For the opening round in our whirlwind tour of ethnic NYC restaurants, we decided to go Thai, mainly because it was close to the hotel. Once we walked up to the place (on 9th Ave. between 55th and 56th Sts.), we realized we had eaten there before on our first trip to NYC. We remembered it being good, so we went on in and were rewarded with a nice table by the window. Because we arrived in NYC well after noon, we ended up eating lunch around 2:30. Now at 8:30 neither of us wanted a large meal, so we skipped the appetizers and fried rice and just went with one dish each. Sarah had Bo-Bae noodles with chicken, nicely sauteed with basil, onions, and peppers. I had Peow Wan, which was basically sauteed veggies with Thai sweet and sour sauce. I ordered mine with chicken as well. Not only were both meals really good, the whole dinner was surprisingly inexpensive (unlike our mediocre lunch at the restaurant lounge). Places like Thai Basil in NYC make you realize what you miss by living among the corn in the Midwest. The food tonight was every bit as good as our favorite Thai place back home (Siam Terrace), yet it came from a hole-in-the-wall neighborhood take-out joint. I’m surprised all New Yorkers aren’t seriously overweight.