HKE and the next Jonas Salk

So this week was my turn to pick and I decided on our favorite lunch spot, Hong Kong Express (or as it has come to be affectionately known, HKE). There are so many reasons to love this place as a lunch-time haunt. First off, it is the closest place to eat in relation to our office; it's across the parking lot so walking there, even in the oppressive summer heat, is no issue. Also, they have a great lunch menu with lots of options, and the price is faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaantastic. $3.99 for an entree, rice, and eggroll. The food has always been very good. On top of that, you can dine in, carry out, or get delivery.

More important is the woman who runs the counter. We've eaten there often enough that she knows us now, but every time we eat there she and Mr. Clay have the following exchange:

Counter Lady: What kind rice you want?

Gaseous Clay: I'd like brown rice please.

CL: Lunch comes with steamed or fried rice. NO EXTRA CHARGE.

GC: That's okay. I'd like Brown rice please.

CL: Brown rice is .99 EXTRA (pointing at the sign that says "Borwn Rice .99 extra")

GC: That's fine, I'd like brown rice.

CL: Okay, you get brown rice.

Apparently we have found the universe's gatekeeper of brown rice. Essentially, she is one of the greatest people ever to walk the face of this planet. Just ahead of Ted Knight and right on the heels of Jonas Salk. However, this day there would be no such exchange due to the rules we set up in advance.

We decided that we should go away from our regular items in order to appreciate or not on a somewhat cleanish slate. First, we talked about ordering away from the lunch menu, but that would have gone against one of the points of this blog...a place to eat for lunch. Going off the lunch menu would have been a decidedly dinner move. Then we thought about ordering something on the lunch menu that we had never tried. Okay, that's better. Then Mr. Clay came up with the best idea. One of the distinguishing characteristics of american chinese restaurants is how they do rice dishes or noodle dishes. Honestly, people either like rice in the company of their amer-asiatic quisine, or they prefer a much longer and slippery vehicle for carbohydrates. Our challenge? One orders a noodle dish from the lunch menu, the other a rice dish.

The lunch menu had two items that fit the bill: Chicken fried rice and chicken lo mein. If those aren't the most basic of staples in an american chinese restaurant, then I don't know what is. Mr. Clay ordered the noodle dish, and he also ordered the sweet and sour soup (in a currency-for-service exchange that bordered on classic; well done Mr. Clay), and I got the fried rice (no soup, though I've had it there before and it's good but not great).

We both took pictures of the interior. Obviously, mine is above. Some things that you need to know about the HKE:

1. It is in a busy strip mall in front of our office building.

2. It is in a corner space which would seem to be an ideal place for getting noticed on a major thoroughfare.

3. Unfortunately, there is a grocery store in the mall, so there is an extra large parking lot and you can't really see the place from the main thoroughfare.

4. There are (unfortunately for the restaurant) several good sized trees lining the road that runs down the side of the building and obstructing passerby's view of their sign.

Lunch arrived fairly quickly and I was happy with what I saw. There was a very generous amount of food on the plate (especially when considering the price), and it wasn't just rice. Plenty of traditional fried rice basics were represented. From carrot and white onion to good sized pieces of scallion and green peas, and of course the eggroll was tucked in at the top of the plate. Also, it wasn't too greasy. That's the pitfall of many of the fried rice dishes I've eaten in restaurants, too much oil makes the dish inedible. I have to say that I was very pleased that something that would seem like a very basic item came out so well.

I'm always concerned when a restaurant does the outlandish well but doesn''t get the basics right. It usually means that restaurant isn't going to last. However, there were no worries for HKE. It was a seriously good chicken fried rice and the eggroll was up to the usual standards.

We got a 3rd plate in order to have a communal tasting station. I won't go into details, but the noodles had great heat if a bit too sweet. GC orders things with extra spice, but I'll let him tell you his own story. All in all, I was very pleased with lunch. I got a short but blazingly hot walk; I had a great meal, and to top it off I had a blast spending five bucks (including a drink)!

To be honest, we eat here all the time, and we'll likely order our usual items the next time we eat here. However, this exercise makes me feel better about HKE's culinary output. Greatest workplace lunch-time restaurant I've ever had (except Record Grill, which is a story for another time).