Hsin Wong is like home away from home for my daughter and son-in-law. We have enjoyed many simple but satisfying home-style meals there after work. It wasn't difficult to persuade Ah Dee to join them today for his first time there.

Sunday is the busiest day for restaurants in Chinatown, but fortunately Ah Dee had arrived early enough to stake out a table large enough for 3 serious diners. They started with a complimentary house soup made of meaty pork bones with small chunks of cassava. Then they moved on to shrimp with candied walnuts and mayonnaise (made with a bit of pineapple juice), a steamed carp-like fish with fermented bean paste, green peppers/eggplant/tofu (all stuffed with shrimp), a steamed pork patty with reconstituted squid and "thousand year-old egg", and something their creative waiter dreamed up on the spot -- a Chinese cabbage steamed with garlic and shredded dried scallop.

The kitchen forgot to send out the fresh steamed scallops on the half-shell until the end of the meal. However, that was not a problem at all. Where good food is concerned, better late than never!

Hsin Wong Restaurant, 72 Bayard Street, New York, New York 10013 (212) 925-6526