So we headed out from the Shipps' almost on time -
10:15ish and encountered little traffic but a
number of accidents that added 2 hours to our
journey. It's amazing how these so-called drivers
can't handle a few drops of rain, and instead of
going calmly at a reasonable pace start to freak
out and weave and dance and skid and ... kapowie.
We had three or four northbound and saw a couple
southbound. Took us 6 hours not counting pit stops.

The pit stop of note was at the Wonder Seafood
Restaurant in Edison, NJ, about halfway into our
day. I'd heard about the place and how authentic
it was, with the fish bubbler up front, plain not
too awfully clean tables, rude, slow service, and
great Hong Kongese style food. We got there 45 min
after plan, and the good thing was that the lunch
crowd had thinned out, but there was still service
for another hour. We got seated at a 4-top between
the cashier and the fish tank; a menu was plopped
down, and we waited and waited. Eventually the
manager (proprietor?) came by and took our order.

Har gow were fresh and pretty standard - eacn
containing a ball of 3 medium shrimp glued together
with either the normal cornstarch stuff or meat
glue, the wrapper just the right floppiness and
translucency. No soy sauce was served with this,
just a dish with mustard side by side with chile
paste (salty!), which would have been okay if the
shrimp had had a little salt - instead, there was
a pile of MSG. This was 12 mediums, probably 30s,
for $3.50.

Crispy salty shrimp were good and an excellent
deal (12 20-counters for $6.95); whole heads and
tails and shell on, not deveined, in cornstarch
coating, fried at not quite a hot enough fat, a few
slices of hot peppers (a mix of fresh and pickled,
an oddity), topped with deep-fried shallot. The
shrimp had almost certainly been caught within the
past 24 hours. Only issue there was that they were
not fully purged, but that was minor. You eat clams
and oysters digestive tract and all, right?

Beef fun were good but not as expected. The floppy
noodle sheets were perfect; the sauce was perfect;
the filling was perfect ... but only for me - it
wasn't beef at all, rather fine-ground pork at at
least 50% fat. Also $3.50 for 3.

I figured we needed a vegetable dish, so out came
dumplings filled with chopped steamed pea tendrils
mixed with supposedly shrimp and scallops; actually
there was an ample dose of shrimp bits and no
discernible scallop. These were deeply underseasoned;
Bonnie liked them, so I let her have three of the
four, and I took the third fun. Also 3.50 for 4.

The damage, counting tax and tip, pretty much the
right amount of food, just over $20.

An hour from our hotel I decided to take a Lasix
to get rid of all the obviously extra sodium.
Unfortunately the hour took two hours.
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