HOTELS:BLINDFOLDED DINING has moved from 9½ Weeks with Kim Basinger and Micky Rourke - a hot Oscar prospect for his performance in The Wrestler - to the Papillon restaurant, in Manhattan, to Oxford, in England, and now to the Westin Hotel, in Dublin, where they call it, rather politely, a "sensory dining experience".
The notion is that dining with a blindfold on heightens your awareness of a meal's flavours, smells and textures. With no prior knowledge of what's on the menu, and no idea of what it looks like, you have to focus on what's happening in your mouth.
Exhilarating for some and perhaps creepy for others, it's an idea so enticing that the last such event at the Westin sold out. So if you're looking for a weird gift voucher, book your ideal dining partner in for a sensory experience on January 20th.
Be extra nice and include an overnight stay in one of the Westin's legendary beds - which may actually be the point.
If chewing in the dark is not challenging enough for you, why not buy your loved ones or workmates vouchers for blindfolded driving, a speciality at BrookLodge Wells Spa, in Co Wicklow? Relationships are built on trust, after all.
Call 01-6451000 or see www.westin.com/sensorydining for more information. Tickets cost €75 per person