Aladdin’s Mediterranean cuisine treks to India with some new, spicy offerings to complement the Arabic and Greek fare.

They’ve also added a lunch menu of wraps and salads.

Slow down on east South Padre Island Drive between Rodd Field Road and Nile Drive to spot one of the few restaurants in town dedicated to Middle Eastern food, coffees and desserts.

The family-owned and operated restaurant cafe has built a following with its homemade sauces, marinades, salad dressings, hummus and a growing favorite — chicken briyani — a spicy Indian entree with a colorful presentation.

The Indian menu changes weekly on Wednesdays for lunch and dinner. A stable lunch menu from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays offers made to order gyros, wraps and all-you-can-eat soup and salad.

Friday and Saturday feature live belly-dancing, and hookah pipe smoking is available on the patio. Flavored tobaccos cost $10.

Aladdin’s caters events and hosts private functions.

Diane S. Morales

The list was compiled by the Global Language Monitor, a non-profit group that tracks the frequency of words and phrases in the media, on the Internet and throughout the blogosphere.

New York led the list in 2008 for the fifth consecutive year with Rome retaining the second slot, Paris third again but Milan overtaking London for the fourth position. London came fifth.

But more surprising was the rise of some smaller fashion centers, with Sydney jumping from 12th position to seventh in the list and Dubai moving up 12 spots to No. 12.

Among the newcomers, New Delhi broke into the top 25 at No. 24 and Madrid came in 15th. Stockholm in Sweden was also new and the only Nordic city on the list, while Cape Town in South Africa also made an appearance.

Tokyo remained the capital of the Asian fashion industry at No. 10 in the list but slipped from sixth position a year ago and was now being challenged by Hong Kong just one slot behind.

Sao Paolo and Bangkok dropped off the list.

“Our yearly rankings clearly reinforce recent trends: the Big Five (New York, Rome, Paris, Milan, and London), far and away dominate the world of fashion, especially in the eyes of the print and electronic media, as well as on the Internet,” said Millie Lorenzo Payack, a director at the Global Language Monitor.

“At the same time, the second tier of the cities in the world fashion rankings are coming on strong. And, by the way, money spent on media outreach can, indeed, make a difference; witness Dubai.”

Following is the list of the top 25 fashion cities with the previous year’s ranking in brackets:

1. New York (1)

2. Rome (2)

3. Paris (3)

4. Milan (5)

5. London (4)

6. Los Angeles (6)

7. Sydney (12)

8. Las Vegas (9)

9. Berlin (11)

10. Tokyo (6)

11. Hong Kong (8)

12. Dubai (24)

13. Shanghai (14)

14. Singapore (10)

15. Madrid (New)

16. Moscow (16)

17. Santiago (19)

18. Melbourne (15)

19. Stockholm (New)

20. Buenos Aires (22)

21. Johannesburg (23)

22. Mumbai (18)

23. Cape Town (New)

24. New Delhi (New)

25. Barcelona (13)

(Writing by Belinda Goldsmith, Editing by Miral Fahmy)

(To read more about our entertainment news, visit our blog “Fan Fare” online at http://blogs.reuters.com/fanfare)