Hmmm, something looks familiar. 
Nano-chromatic

Modern Art, The Met

New York is obsessed with cupcakes. Or maybe I am. Exhibits A, B and C below. 
Chocolate Cupcake at Chelsea Market (Home of the Food Channel!)

Red Velvet, Bubby's

Chocolate and Mocha Cupcakes, with Sprinkles, Magnolia Bakery

Acrobats Overlooking the Brooklyn Bridge
Absinthe is an acrobatic show set up at the Spiegeltent, all the way downtown at South Street Seaport. It's not easy to describe except as Cirque du Soleil for adults. Kids under 12 are not allowed. It's a very intimate theater (300 seats only), and there's a bar in the theatre, which means you're watching Rollerskating Elvis while sipping a vodka tonic (and leaning back if you're in the front row - not joking). This video will give you a better idea.  [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbfsVfpgG7A] And when you're done with Absinthe, there's time for sitting in hammocks (with more vodka tonics) on the boardwalk. And a dance floor. And bleachers for those who prefer to watch. More acrobats, of course. All against a backdrop of the Brooklyn Bridge. 
One View of the Brooklyn Bridge (Photo Credit: Stephane Parcheminal)

Eggs Benedict at Sarabeth's
Friends adviced that I must "do Sunday brunch - it's a New York thing." And so I did, and decided it would be an injustice to limit the activity to Sundays. What's not to like about brunch? When the Eggs Ben are perfectly poached (like at Sarabeth's), the buttermilk pancakes fluffy, and the local grape soda (as at Bubby's) is just the drink to wake one up, the day can't have a better starting point. Not pictured: The buttermilk pancakes at Sarabeth's, because everyone blew past two orders before I could take photos. Other memorable brunch places: Cafe Orlin in the East Village, and Brasserie Les Halles downtown, which while disappointingly empty midmorning and played (of all things) Elton John tunes, the fangirl in me appreciated the attentive service and generous pots of French-pressed coffee.

Local Grape Soda, Bubby's

The stroller set brunches at Bubby's

View Larger Map

The Cocktail Experiment had us bouncing around various neighborhoods downtown. Check out the iconized map above prepared by Google Maps user stevo832 - thanks! Thank you to the New Yorkers and visitors who sacrificed sleep and gastrointestinal health to deliver this much-needed study.

After a week of completely subjective and on-the-spot amateur reviews, not to mention running the bouncer gauntlet and getting carded, the results of the 2008 Cocktail Experiment (Autumn Edition) are in!

Before we get to the verdict, I recommend you pay as much attention to the cocktail menus, which must have been written by a Madison Avenue copywriter who needed to convince a monk he too deserved the finer things in life. (Or at least a cocktail every Friday.)

At Employees Only, one gets not just liqueur and mashed fruit in their aperitifs, but gently stirred vermouth and wild strawberries.At Death & Co, the rough coffin-heavy wood doors belie quirky cocktails like the Electric Kool Aid Acid Test (no prizes for guessing ingredients) and Mothers Ruin Punch, whose ingredients includes black market tea infused sweet vermouth. What's that? Oh, and did I mention it's served in an antique milk glass punch bowl?

Without further ado, the verdict:

Most Promising Exterior: Little Branch

Cutest Bartender: Pegu Club

Most Lethal Pour: Mojitos, Cafe Noir and the sangrias at Mercadito Cantina

Bravest Order: Hot Buttered Rum, Little Branch

Worst Drink Reaction: Hot Buttered Rum, Little Branch

Didn't Believe in Electricity: Little Branch

Used Too Much Electricity: Bar 89

Most Attitude: Little Branch hands down, with its House Rules that include "No name-dropping, no star fucking" (definition) and "If a man you don't know speaks to you, please lift your chin slightly and ignore him."

Tastiest Bar Food: Pegu Club, with Employees Only a close second

Best Cocktail: It's a tie! Earl Grey MarTEAni and Jamaican Firefly, both from Pegu Club

 

Roller Skater
My friend wanted to run in Central Park, so it was only suitable that we prefaced it with a trio of New York comfort food on the Upper West Side (Gray's Papaya Recession Special, anyone?), duly followed by a power nap in the Sheep Meadow. It wasn't an entirely slothful hour, as I was also listening to an entertaining audio tour of Central Park (the perfect birthday gift from a New Yorker friend). When the stroll finally got underway, it took 2 seconds to see that Central Park is indeed every New Yorker's backyard. Photos and map after the jump. Feel free to view them while listening to music from the Tin Pan Blues Band. We heard them at Alice in Wonderland, but apparently it's just been made a quiet zone yesterday, so they're now at the Carousel.

Testa with Pickled Pears and Thyme Vinaigrette, Babbo
Shout out to my foodie friends who recommended the place, and suggested I show up at 5:30 to get a seat at the bar. I could wax poetic about how the peach bellini took me back to a Tuscan afternoon (not that I'd know), or that testa has now displaced carpaccio as my favorite antipasti, or that the fresh sardines with caramelized fennel and lobster oil gave new meaning to the word "balanced." But I just eat, and there are more eloquent foodies out there, photographers more skilled at low-light food shots, and our server George, who displayed Wikipedia-esque knowledge of each dish. Naturally there was context to his swordfish recommendation because his father was a seafood chef. (I love how everyone in New York has a backstory.) It's been said that Babbo misses out on that 4th star from the NY Times food critic partly because rock and roll is played in the dining room. From where I sat, and in my current state of mind, Red Hot Chili Peppers works as a soundtrack to gnocchi in an oxtail ragu.

Coffee condiments

NYC Waterfalls
After 3 museums and a couple of hard-to-miss outdoor installations like 120-foot waterfalls, I will always think New York = contemporary art. And the MoMA is its homebase. Unless of course you are a Japanese installation artist invited to use the treetops of Madison Square as your canvas. Tadashi Kawamata and his crew built the tree huts over a week. Hearing chainsaws and seeing workmen harnessed to trees did not instantly make me think "art in progress," though after that it was fun following the progress on his blog.

One afternoon, after a dime tour of Wall Street, the most sensible thing to do was walk the Brooklyn Bridge. Until I saw the Miranda-and-Steve-get-back-together scene in SATC The Movie, I didn't even know one could do that. Unlike the movie, it wasn't endless summer weather while I was on the bridge, but the Manhattan skyline made the walk worth it.