With one day in NYC, I would:
• Stay outside all day. (I'd only go in to hold onto a pole greased by a thousand hands, or to make quick pit stops.)
• Walk in, through and around Central Park, 'til I wore it out.
• Later in the day, walk over the Brooklyn Bridge.
• Sit in the park along the East River and watch the NYC skyline turn on.
• Walk back over the bridge, a little slower.
• Wish I had time to stop in Washington Square Park.
• Dread the trip back to Jersey Shore.

Bonzo, if you are sleeping in a yard for a week then you'll want more indoor activities.

They're nothing, NOTHING like what you'd find at a local mall.

And now I'm off to find an egg cream.

OR, see New York my favorite way. What interests you about New York City? The artsy history? The history history? The glamour? The diversity? Things you've read in books or seen in movies? I like to pick something that I think is cool about New York and spend the day exploring. My first visit I saw all the things in my favorite childhood books (Lower East Side Tenement Museum, the Plaza, Little Red Lighthouse, Central Park, I obsessed over finding an egg cream, etc.) Next time I was doing the hippie thing and spent a weekend looking around Greenwich Village, next time was Brooklyn, and so on.

Get a guidebook at your library with walking tours of New York (I have the Frommers one) or I bet you can find something online and just wander an area and grab a bite to eat, people watch, etc.

New York is wonderful.

Also, if you like Dim Sum (and who doesn't), the best I've found is at the Golden Unicorn in Chinatown. 18th E. Broadway near Catherine. Good Dim Sum restaurants are pretty rare outside the big cities that have a legitimate Chinatown like New York, Chicago or San Francisco. Get there early -- around 11:00 a.m. Everything is delicious (although I admit I avoid the chicken feet).

If you were to ask a kid in New York during the late 1800s through the late 1960s what their favorite drink was, an egg cream would certainly be the most popular answer. However, if you were to ask a kid nowadays what an egg cream was, they'd probably think it was a Cadbury product or just look at you blankly and turn up their iPod. What a shame.

An egg cream is a three-ingredient wonder-a drink that was once a delicate, step-laden mainstay at soda fountains throughout New York, but is now a piece of food history. Not at Gem Spa in St. Mark's Place off 2nd avenue, however. When you look at Gem Spa, which is a magazine/tobacco corner store, it doesn't exactly scream "egg cream"-and if not for the self-titled "New York's best egg cream" printed on its canopy, it would be safe to assume that they didn't make anything of the sort. Despite the oddity of the situation, you just have to accept it at face value, and give them a shot.

One of the first great aspects of an egg cream is that there is no egg or cream used in one. No one is really sure how it got its name, though it is possible the very first version did include the now ironically defunct ingredients. The other vital aspect is that despite the three simple ingredients-chocolate or vanilla syrup, seltzer, and whole milk-if mixed incorrectly, the end result will be lackluster. Since seltzer no longer comes in the high-intensity spritzer bottles, the necessary fizz and foamy head are often absent from modern-day attempts. However, since Gem Spa has all the proper machinery, they are a egg cream powerhouse.

The question now becomes, "How did Gem Spa decide to vend egg creams despite being a normal-looking corner store?" Apparently, the "new" owner of Gem Spa purchased the storefront over 30 years ago from a man who was known for his egg creams. Upon selling the store, the old owner taught the new one the magic behind the egg cream-and left the traditional equipment for it too. It's all there-a syrup dispenser, a high-intensity seltzer spout, and a milk frother.

Even though the recipe has exchanged hands, and been in use for at least half a century, it's still a top secret at Gem Spa. It's so much of a secret, that the gentleman behind the counter instructed me not to take a picture of the egg cream making process-though he did let me take a picture of the finished product. The end result was perfection. When the bubbles hit my lips, I was no longer standing on the corner of a busy, touristy section of 2nd avenue, but instead I was transformed back fifty-plus years. How often can you experience that?

Egg Cream Price: $2.50

The man behind the counter - maybe the owner? - was pleased that I sought them out based on a recommendation. In fact, he was so proud of that egg cream that he wouldn't let me walk out of the store until I tried a sip and told him how good it was.

There is an entire corner of the check-out counter devoted to the necessary equipment. The seltzer machine is definitely the secret.

Thanks again for the suggestion.