Question: What do foodies want to know when they go out? Answer: Where your olive oil is from. Question: How do foodies remember special occasions? Answer: By dining out. What do foodies usually order? Many appetisers. Foodees is a new restaurant concept opening on Tuesday, whose counters include wok, saute, bakery, cold cuts, dessert and noodle. There is also an a la carte menu which features dishes such as prawn tempura pizza with fried squid and scallops ($68) and green mango, papaya and Parma ham salad ($68). The colourful restaurant, at 33 Hennessy Road, has about 10 different definitions of what foodies are, complete with illustrations, plastered all over the walls. Exotic blend The Empire Hotel on Hennessy Road is perhaps not the place where anyone will understand the difference between French snails and their shelled cousins from the South China Sea, or chef Luc Dernaucourt's obsession with fresh oysters instead of the frozen ones used on most hotel buffets. Yet the old coffee shop has been turned into a light and trendy restaurant, and billed as 'colourful Continental cooking blended with Pacific Rim flavours' against acid jazz sounds. The buffet dinner is $248 (children $168) and lunch is $158 (children $118). Tel: 2866-9111. Fine rice wine When you have bought all the made-in-China gifts you will ever need from Shanghai Tang, the next place to stop is Wu Liang Ye on Wyndham Street. It sells Chinese rice wine from Sichuan province in two strengths - 39 per cent and 52 per cent alcohol content. By far the most beautiful are the fine glass sculptures of the two-bottle gift set, which sells for $2,200. Tel: 2893-0311 for information. Early bird eating SoHo restaurant 2 Sardines is offering a three-course set menu with a choice of two appetisers and three main courses and a glass of wine for $155 plus 10 per cent. Diners must sit down to eat between 6pm and 7pm, and leave within 90 minutes. The menu changes weekly and is available Monday-Thursday. Call 2973-6618.