What apparently started a novelty dining experience to raise awareness for the visually impaired has now devolved into the newest category of food pornography.

According to the N.Y. Times,

"The trend seems to have started in Zurich and has since spawned permutations all over the world, with diners donning blindfolds, sitting in unlit rooms and, lately, being served by waiters in night-vision goggles. The idea is that by depriving one sense (sight), other senses are heightened.

"The first pitch-black restaurant, which opened in Zurich in 1999, had less frivolous intentions. The goal ‘was creating jobs for the blind and handicapped people,’ said Adrian Schaffner, the manager at Blindekuh, or Blind Cow.

"A project of the Blind-Liecht foundation, a support group for the visually impaired, Blindekuh has an all-blind wait staff who serve Swiss cuisine in total darkness."

But now, the Times reports that,

"in Greenwich Village, a group called Dark Dining Projects holds dinners roughly monthly at CamaJe Bistro, where diners pay $75 per person to be blindfolded inside a small bistro with red walls (not that anyone can see the décor)."

Does not being able to see the food make it psychologically safer? Or more daring?