With Chinese New Year coming up, I was casting about for a Chinese restaurant to write about, though, being Chinese, I admit it's a cuisine I tend to take for granted. That's what happens when you have too much of the same thing at home, restaurant outings and special occasions. I don't go as far as some friends, who, having gained control over their culinary wanderings since coming of age, still express their freedom of choice by proclaiming, “;I quit the club!”;

That's easier said than done, because the food memories, smells, flavors and associations of time spent with family in the kitchen or at the dining table are infused in your being as surely as your DNA.

Sometimes, it takes a third party, outside your usual circle of family and friends, to take a familiar experience out of the realm of the casual, fill-your-belly Chinese food run and turn it into that something special the opening to the Year of the Tiger deserves, so I was happy to hear from one of Hawaii's master chefs and television icon Titus Chan, who invited me to sample some of the dishes at the revamped Empress Restaurant.

Empress?

The restaurant in the Chinatown Cultural Plaza hasn't registered as a top-of-mind destination in a long time, unless you're attending or planning a huge banquet. The room, though spacious, is not particularly luxurious, although latest owner Kenneth Lee, over a period of three years, has done a lot to update the restaurant with fresh paint, new curtains and furnishings. It's still a banquet room, however, subject to wear and tear.

I started going to Empress for dim sum about the time Lee took over. It was a third choice in the plaza when waits were too long at Fook Lam and Tai Pan downstairs. I was surprised that Empress's dim sum was just as good as the other restaurants. I'd come to think of it over the years as being an institution of the past, not worth the effort to climb the stairs or wait for the slowest elevators on the island.

Chan felt the changes Lee has made at Empress couldn't be overlooked, and that's saying a lot. There can't be anyone more critical than a chef, and he heaped such high praise on the kitchen I had to check it out.

JUST AS DINERS clamor to the tables for a bit of New Year luck, Empress' good fortune is directly dependent on whether they find the experience delivers the happiness they seek.

In the old days, banquets could support the colossal operation involving a battery of cooks and waiters, but as families and dollars shrink, there are fewer and smaller parties, calling for more focus on the restaurant part of the operation. It's a tricky balancing act. On weekdays, dinner time at Empress is generally quiet, but on weekends you may find yourself competing with banquet crowds.

Dividers separate the banquet space from the front of the house set aside for walk-in diners, and a couple of private dining rooms are also available for parties of 40 to 50. No matter how crazy it might get in the banquet room, service is attentive in the restaurant portion, and you won't feel shortchanged in the food department either.

The vegetarian dish, jai—with various ingredients symbolic of wealth, health, luck and happiness—is associated with the Chinese new year's day, but be assured there is plenty of feasting before and continuing 12 days after the big day, with plenty of seafood and noodles suggesting vigor and longevity.

One's immediate impulse is to simply dig in, but with Chan at the table, I learned there must be time spent in simply slowing down and appreciating the moment. The aspect of presentation and reflection is something I enjoy about other cuisines, not that of my seven-member family, where the lesson taken away from the table was, “;Eat fast or go hungry.”;

Dinner with Mr. Chan began with a treat of lobster ($19.95) that he hand-selected by weight and feistiness with the idea that it would transfer some of its vitality to the diner.

This was served over the flat egg noodles known as emein or yi mein (by request, $5). The platter-size cake of fried, dried noodles was presented for Chan's inspection before preparation of the dish, for it's only upon examining the firm, dry cake that a diner can begin to appreciate the finesse that returns it to supple form. The delicate noodles are all too easy to overcook, rendering them soggy, but here, they returned to their desired elastic, chewy state. All table chatter stopped in reverie.

The black mushrooms here, as at all other Chinese restaurants in town, are imported dry, but the cooks here have a way with returning them to a dense, meaty, true-to-life form. The transformation is quite amazing.

To draw diners in, the price of crispy skin chicken has been dropped to $4.95 from $8.95, a great deal for chicken that just may be the crispest in town, owed to multistep preparation that begins with boiling the chicken then basting with a mixture of vinegar and honey and allowing it to air dry before deep frying. Through these methods, the bird remains tender and flavorful throughout, and the skin fries up to a glassy, brittle crunch.

For those in search of success, abundance or family togetherness, there is whole fresh fish, at market prices, while whole salt-pepper prawns ($14.95) signify vitality and happiness. Their heads, still full of liquid, give evidence of freshness, as does the sweetness of the meat.

As for pure comfort fare the rest of the year, there is savory eggplant ($9.95) with mushrooms, pork and a touch of the shrimp paste harm har, plus clay-pot casseroles to warm body and soul.

Selections include braised sole fillets and tofu, braised chicken with mushrooms, or tofu (aburage) with roast pork (char siu), at $12.95 each, certainly more than enough to bring happiness and togetherness around the family table.

There's no superstition about it.