NEW Orleans brings out the worst in weak-willed gourmands. A food-lover's paradise, every stroll around the block is another reason to grab a bite.
The Creole and Cajun specialities from some of New Orleans' most famous temples will be easy to get this weekend. The Bostonian Restaurant in the Ramada Renaissance is celebrating Mardi Gras by pooling the best dishes from several Louisiana kitchens.
Try blackened prawns from Court of the Two Sisters, sausage and chicken jambalaya from Olde N'Awlins Cookery and seafood boil (crab, shrimps, crayfish, clams and mussels) from Charley Jaeger's Seafood House.
Top it off with pecan pie and cinnamon-flavoured coffee, spiked with brandy and curacao, known as cafe brulot around Brennan's. The beignets (feather-light square doughnuts) from the 80-year-old Cafe du Monde will also be there.
What will be missing is the mad dash to the airport in New Orleans where tradition dictates that warm beignets get stuffed in your face in the backseat of a taxi. The moustache of powdered sugar is a dead giveaway of good times of weekend debauchery.
The Mardi Gras menu is available on Friday and Saturday night. Set dinner costs $350. For reservations, call 375-1133. RAMADAN, the period of fasting for the Muslim world, is under way. And hundreds of religious are rejoicing around sunset at the Kowloon Mosque, Nathan Road. A dinner of congee curry and samosas, dates and fresh fruit is being served. Sunset determines the hour, usually 6.30pm (see Information).
CARDIOLOGISTS may shudder, but not dessert-lovers. What the French consider an ultimate temptation in desserts, creme brulee, is having its own promotion.