HK Tea & Sushi

In my neighborhood, there is a restaurant called Hong Kong Tea & Sushi.  If you live in Brooklyn, you might know HK.  If you are Asian, you probably love HK.  If your last name is Moy, you probably have eaten a hundred times at HK.

Okay, slight exaggeration, but HK Tea & Sushi is definitely one of my favorite places to eat.  Although it's billed as a sushi restaurant, don't be surprised that all the waiters are Chinese.  Also, I only get sushi about half the time - the other times, I save my stomach for something really special.  Their sushi is good and there is a wide selection.  A maki roll (California, Boston, Alaska, Philadelphia...I'm running out of American states and cities) is, on average, $3.  Their special rolls are a bit pricier and because I am a cheap eater, I stay away from these.  They serve other kinds of fare that is typical of Japanese restaurants: tempura and teriyaki, uni and udon.  My favorite thing, though, (and possibly one of the contenders for what I would like my Last Supper to be) is...

 

...chicken-steak cheese baked rice for $6.50.  When the waiter carries this holy grail towards me, I feel uplifted and excited.  My taste buds tingle.  My fingers flex and extend, ready to grip the utensils...to carve into the crisp-on-the-outside-but-juicy-on-the-inside slabs of chicken...to stir the glistening, bubbling cheese into the vegetables and rice...to shovel enormous spoonfuls of this dish into my eagerly awaiting mouth.

HK has several of these casserole options (rice or noodle) with different toppings (chicken, beef, pork, curried chicken, seafood, and...ox tongue...can't say I've tried that one before). The casserole dish that it is served in is about 12" in diameter with shallow scalloped edges that are undoubtedly crusted with burnt cheese. The plain rice is mixed with diced vegetables. The rice and veggies are then covered by two generous pieces of chicken.  Then the whole thing is enrobed in a sauce that is a cross between cheese and gravy, and broiled until the edges are burnt crispy brown and bubbling.

In that moment, you don't care to know how many calories are in that plate before you.  You don't care that the chicken has probably been fried in a ton of oil.  You don't even care about the sheer amount of saturated fat in the cheese!  Well, I hope you don't.  Normally I don't eat the whole thing (it makes a delicious meal of leftovers) but I have done it before. I don't feel great after it, and it's definitely not something to do often.  But I am very excited about chicken-steak cheese baked rice and I think you guys should be too.