I woke up this morning with a powerful taste for currry -- prompted, I think, by reading Tyler Cowen's work on ethnic eating in Discover Your Inner Economist -- and decided that I had to have some for lunch. I poked around the web early this morning looking for a decent place in Chelsea in New York City, where I knew I'd be spending the day. One of the challenges of New York, though, is that there's so much good food that it can be tough to sort through all the assorted reviews and recommendations you find online.

So I did two things. I emailed a friend of mine who teaches at the School of Visual Arts, also in Chelsea, and asked for her guidance. And then I posted this message in my Gmail chat line: "Desperate for a good Thai place in Chelsea."

Within a couple of hours I had an email back from my SVA friend with a recommendation: Spice on 8th Avenue, an instant message from a colleague-of-sorts from West Philadelphia also recommending Spice, and an email from another friend who I hadn't realized also worked in the neighborhood and has been searching for a good Thai place. The first email gave a great suggestion, the IM seconded the suggestion, and I was able to flip the recommendation over to my friend who had been looking for Thai. And I made plans to have lunch with her sometime to boot!

And the verdict? I'm a seriously less adventurous eater than Cowen. It can be tough to experiment as a vegetarian -- I ordered the crispy cabbage and vermicelli spring rolls with lime mustard sauce and the panang tofu curry, for $7 plus tax. The verdict? The spring rolls could have been more flavorful and the tofu crisper, but both the lime mustard and panang curry sauces were delicious. (Photo by christmascarol under a Creative Commons license.)