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The Chinese Lunar New Year is always cause for feasting. We are celebrating the Year of the Tiger at New Kam Fong, Jimmy and Karen Lee's Chinatown restaurant reborn in Wheaton last fall.

As in any good Cantonese/Hong Kong style restaurant, barbecued ribs, roast ducks (heads and all) and chickens along with roast pork hang in a glass case beside the cash register. Pans of baked pork buns and pineapple buns plus plates of sweet rice cakes rest on a nearby counter. Beyond a sign that advertises Chinese New Year cake, fish swim in a tank and lobsters await their fate.

Foods with symbolic meanings or names sounding like the Chinese characters for fortune, happiness, longevity and prosperity, all good New Year wishes, are consumed on the New Year. Specials on a big board in the dining room include, for example, clam (profit and good omens) and fresh oyster (good fortune), each with black bean sauce.

We begin with plump pan-fried dumplings (good fortune and heavenly blessing), which are round, doughy, hearty and vegetable-filled.

From the smaller specials board at the entrance, we choose longan, peas, shrimp (wealth and abundance) and scallop. Longan, also called dragon's eye, is a relative of lychee fruit. Round and white, it adds a delicate note to the sugar snap peas and seafood prepared in a mild white sauce. Two thumbs up.

We can smell the approach of our sizzling sliced lamb with ginger and scallions, one of the big board specials. It is a favorite, with quarter-sized chunks of ginger that on first glance might be mistaken for water chestnut.

Also on the board is roast duck and taro in casserole. The covered casserole is piping hot. The duck, cut in pieces, its meat layered between fat and bones, has a splendid flavor redolent of five spice. The thick dryish wedges of taro can be a challenge, though. Here is one time we long for more sauce.

Pan-fried noodles symbolize long life and our meal would be incomplete without longevity noodles. Assisted by our server, we select seafood z-fu noodle. He describes the long flat noodles as soft. We find these slightly curly egg noodles, also known as e-fu or yi-fu, delightfully chewy and well-suited to the seafood, fish cake and yellow chives that accent the dish.

Dessert consists of several half-inch slices of a sweet spongy white rice confection not previously encountered.

Returning for dim sum the next weekend, we find Chinese spoken all around us in the almost-full dining room that seats about 100. As delicious-looking dishes are delivered to two round tables, each with 11 people, it is hard to resist the urge to ask what they are.

Fish served whole signifies prosperity for the New Year and fresh whole rockfish is a special. We start with pan-fried meat dumplings, equally auspicious but less costly. These superb staples from the regular menu are traditionally shaped but super-sized. The soy-ginger dipping sauce accents their wonderful flavor.

We share a large bowl of excellent congee with fish and scallops, drizzling the leftover dipping sauce over the thick rice porridge.

Ordering off the short dim sum menu (there are no carts here), we discover big, outstanding steamed shrimp balls. The roasted pork bread (bao) are superior as well.

A chicken feet fancier declares that the feet anointed with black bean sauce are not as spicy as some versions. Aficionados, take note: Larger preparations of the feet in hot oil sauce, with white sauce or with chow foon in black bean sauce, are available as well.

Fried stuffed bean curd is a revelation. The fresh tofu is pale yellow, silky and stuffed with shrimp. Fresh tofu is frowned on at feasts because white is the color of death; we are not traditionalists. Our server tempts us with a dish of shrimp noodle crepes. We acquiesce but the dish is bland despite the sauce.

Excellent pineapple buns, complemented by oolong tea, cap the meal. Teapots that hold the heat longer would be welcome.

New Kam Fong's extensive menu features many Chinese delicacies sure to inspire adventurous eaters. Whether for dinner or dim sum, the restaurant is a worthy discovery.

New Kam Fong

2400 University Blvd. West, Wheaton

301-933-6388, fax 301-933-6993

Hours: Sun.-Thurs. 11 a.m.-midnight, Fri.-Sat. 11 a.m.-1 a.m., dim sum 11 a.m.-3 p.m. daily

Style of cuisine: Hong Kong/Cantonese

Entrees: $6.50-$19.95

Credit cards: D, MC, V

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