DINING Tien Heung Lau Restaurant, 18C Austin Avenue, Kowloon Tel: 368-9660, 366-2414. Open: Noon-2pm, 6-10pm I BEGIN with an admission. I was the ''visiting food critic'' who accompanied Harry Rolnick when he reviewed the exciting Hangzhou-style and ''deceptively named'' Shanghai Village Restaurant in Causeway Bay.
Searching for an equally wonderful place on the north side of the harbour, I found the older and better-known Tien Heung Lau restaurant.
You know a place means business when it presents an introductory offering - what the French call an amuse geule or something to titillate the throat - consisting of lotus root that has been pickled with a slight lemon and peppery flavour.
My dinner partner and I decided to focus on fish and seafood dishes, since the lake itself is such a grand resource for the Hangzhou cooking featured by the restaurant.
We began with the vaunted tea shrimp, listed almost self-effacingly on the menu as ''fried shrimps''. These are tiny freshwater creatures, marinated and then lightly steamed in longin (or Dragon Well) green tea leaves, with an abundance of the leaves, still slightly al dente, scattered over the shrimp.
This is a connoisseur's dish, and the subtly smokey aroma imparts a marvellous flavour.