From this photo I know we also had dinner at Kin Khao, one of New York's top Thai restaurants, located in SoHo. We go here pretty frequently because the head chef, Ray Wat, used to be Somchai's boss when Somchai first moved to Bangkok. Somchai was at university and also washing dishes for Ray at his Bangkok restaurant. Somchai did such a great job that he was promoted to waiter, but on his first day he spilled a huge tray of food all over an understandably unimpressed family, and he was sent back to the dishes. Ray moved to New York a while ago and runs this very popular restaurant that manages to be authentically Thai but also trendy, and keeping its popularity notwithstanding that it's been an "in" restaurant for a couple decades. We sat with the chef as he plied us with heaps of free food, oversaw a very busy kitchen serving a full restaurant, and managed to drink himself silly.

Here are a couple of photos of SoHo, which is my favorite part of New York. I could walk to my office on Wall Street in about 30 minutes, and the place really feels apart from NY. Its architecture is pretty uniformly iron cast facades from the early 1800's and cobblestone streets, which is unlike anywhere else. It was the center of the art world and had lots of funky shops and bars, but it has definitely lost its edge and is now populated mostly by luxury label stores. It still looks great, and is a great place to walk around, particularly on a weekday or early morning before the tourists arrive. If you do make it there, check out Cupping House or Balthazar for breakfast, (Balthazar's also good for dinner) Mercer Kitchen for dinner, (or Raoul's or Lucky Strike for late night dining with a cool vibe), and great Thai food at Kin Khao and Kittachai. In fact, the chef at Kin Khao is an old friend of Somchai's from Bangkok, and the chef at Kittachai just opened the place a few years ago after working for the Four Seasons in Bangkok for a long time. The photo on the right is of Broome St, where my apartment was, on the top floor of the building with the Perry Art Gallery (whose flag you can't miss in the pic) in it.