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. Introduced in the United States in the early 1980s, Tofutti was the brainchild of an orthodox Jew and New York restaurateur, David Mintz. He developed the non-dairy ice-cream as part of a quest to satisfy his customers' Jewish dietary requirements, which ban serving meat and milk together. The Tofutti range in Hong Kong includes Tofutti Better Than Yoghurt, and Tofutti Cuties, which are snack-sized 'ice-cream' bars in vanilla or chocolate. Tofutti is available exclusively from Health Gate in Central. Be prepared at dinner for two If Valentine's Day does include dinner a deux, it cannot hurt to brush up on your wine knowledge. Emergency measures can be taken tomorrow night at The Marco Polo hotel's La Brasserie, which is holding a guided tasting dinner, hosted by Philippe Faure-Brac. Mr Faure-Brac was voted the world's best sommelier in 1992. The six-course dinner, with wines to match costs $595 per person. Reservations on 2113-7925. Burned by those sweet favourites Honey, cocoa and licorice are getting a bad rap. But only if you smoke them. The three ingredients, it seems, are commonly used by tobacco companies to flavour cigarettes. Doctors and the anti-smoking lobby say the three are toxic and carcinogenic when burned and inhaled. This information has emerged in the US as part of debates on new tobacco industry regulations. The law will require companies that sell tobacco to list the ingredients in cigarettes. Tobacco companies are outraged and say the regulations will force them to disclose trade secrets.