Valentine's Day with a difference is difficult amid the avalanche of roses, chocolates and cutesy dinners for two. But creativity is not totally out of the question. Less obvious suggestions for the world's most romantic day include lavender-laced cheese, megabuck cognac, and the town's sexiest pasta dish.
Love does not come more crystal clear - or more expensive - than Hennessy's Cognac Richard. In Hong Kong the suggested retail price is $16,800 a bottle. Nightclubs charge about $20,000. About 100 bottles have been sold in the territory since its launch last year. The exquisite 2.3-kilogram decanter is made by the French Cristallerie de Saint Louis, established in 1586. The cognac is a blend of more than 100 cognacs, including rare vintages more than 200 years old.
Couture cheese for the sheepish Love in a block is best served by the lavender cheese, Yuulong Lavender Estate, which is made from the distinctly flavoured milk of sheep grazed on lavender bushes. It is manufactured by Mount Emu Creek Sheep Milk Dairy in Victoria, Australia, and imported especially for the cheese counter at the Wyndham Street Deli in Central. It is one of a range of couture cheeses making their way on to the territory's finer tables, and sells for $20 for 100 grams.
In Exchange Square, romance has blossomed over a pasta dish which features caviar, smoked salmon, Champagne and cream. The dish is offered by the new Joyce Cafe.
It is more delicate than the $50 'hot date' promised by Bob Mehta at Koh-i-Noor. Mehta is serving the 'Melting Heart Shammi Kabab' - a lamb or vegetable heart-shaped pattie flavoured with saffron, cardamom, cinnamon and cloves with a filling of butter, mushrooms and cheese.
Seductive lure of designer dessert Tofu is not the sexiest food in the world. But, in its newly arrived ice-cream form, it could begin to stake its claim on the list of seductive foods. The new range of tofu ice-creams, Tofutti, has no cholesterol or artificial preservatives. Neither does it have the high fat and calorie content of regular ice-cream.