From my experiences eating in China, no.
Panda Express is OK for what it is. What it is is greasy, sweet and bland.
Real Chinese food … Well there are 1 and a quarter billion people in China, they eat a lot of different things. In my experience Chinese food that you get in China doesn’t tend to be real sweet. It can be greasy, salty, bland or spicy as heck. None of what I had was anything like what you get at Panda Express.
Why is it wrong to generalize about Chinese food in a thread in which we’re generalizing about American food? There are 300+ million people in the US; some of what they eat is really awful shit. Some is really awesome.
In China. 
“On October 20, 2015, Yum! Brands, Inc., announced that it intended to separate into two independent, publicly traded companies.[43] Yum China was spun off on November 1, 2016.[44]”
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yum!_Brands
"Yum China Holdings, Inc. (the “ Company ” or “ Yum China ” ) (NYSE: YUMC) is China’s largest restaurant company with a purpose of making every life taste beautiful. From a single restaurant in 1987, the Company now operates over 8,750 restaurants in over 1,300 cities and towns spanning every province and autonomous region across mainland China.
Yum China became an independent publicly traded company on November 1, 2016. Following our separation from Yum! Brands, we now have the exclusive right to operate and sub-license the KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell brands in China, and we own the East Dawning, Little Sheep and COFFii & JOY concepts outright. We also acquired the controlling interest in the holding company of DAOJIA.com.cn in 2017."
Because the food I had in Beijing was really different from the food I had in Shenzhen.The food I had in Hongzhou was pretty different from the food I had in Nanjing, etc. You really can’t generalize about Chinese food.
There are different styles, and Cantonese is different from Szechuan etc. The point I wanted to make was that none of it was anything like Panda Express.
This isn’t meant to knock the Panda, its a very American style of Chinese food though.
The worst Chinese food I ever had anywhere was at the employee cafeteria at Huawei in Shanghai. Oddly enough it was run by Aramark.
Straight Dope American Cheese Rebuttal #4,217: American cheese, as cut from the round (or sliced from the slab) in an old timey Maine general store or even in a Brooklyn delicatessen is perfectly fine cheese, a mild type of easy-melting cheddar perfect for grilled cheese, tuna melts, and breakfast egg/bacon/cheese sandwiches.
I favor white American cheese over yellow, through nostalgia for my New Haven college days, when the stuff appeared on cheeseburgers and many other toasted cheese treats.
I assume, and hope, you’re directing your rancor towards “Kraft singles” and other types of processed “cheese food,” which I heartily agree is awful shit.
Try making regular pasta, then making the sauce with a mixture of heavy cream and cubed Velveeta cheese. Its pretty good.
Flaming Hot Cheetos. Are they an inferior food? I’m not sure that they qualify as food. A friend once referred to Cheetos as “congealed air.”
I think a lot of Americans, besides me, love Flaming Hot Cheetos. Every time I go to Kroger, there seem to be more varieties of them. There’s one called XXTRA [sic] Flaming Hot—I am afraid to buy those.
Fortunately, Flaming Hot Cheetos are mainly sold in small bags, so I don’t eat too many at once. However, when I had a Sam’s Club membership, I bought an extra-large bag. This turned out to be a bad decision.
According to Wikipedia, nachos were invented in Mexico.
That’s the rub. Arguably, there are NO nationwide Mexican food chains. Mexican food inspired? Yes, Taco Bell qualifies and probably deserves the title.
An improvisation for tourists.
The only thing that belongs on a Ritz Cracker is that spray cheese in a can stuff.
Bacon cheddar is the best.
Evaporated milk and whatever cheese you’ve got around works spectacularly if you want that creamy cheese style mac-and-cheese (which is my preferred style; I’m not too fond of the baked variety.) The nice thing about evaporated milk is you can just stockpile the stuff in the pantry and always have it on hand.
To be honest, though, if you have Velveeta around, straight Velveeta with a bit of butter works a charm, as well, no additional dairy necessary.
There really is something about a grilled cheese on Wonder Bread (or similar) with Kraft Singles that just hits the spot. It’s weird, because I didn’t really grow up on them. My mom and dad never made grilled cheese. But somehow I ended up growing to enjoy the cheapest-ass version of it possible. I don’t like the Campbell’s tomato soup, though. Too damned sweet for my tastes. Just gimme the sammie.
I loves me some Velveeta. I don’t care who knows it. I’m really not into eating it straight, though.
I like Laughing Cow cheese triangles too.
Never met a cheese food product I wouldn’t at least try.
I’m sure I’d love a bunch of fancier real cheeses too.
I just love cheese. Any cheese.
This reminds me of a friend. He’d go to Quiznos and order a sandwich with whatever types of cheese they had available. He said that whenever there was someone new at the counter, they’d give him a strange look as they asked him what else he wanted. “Only cheese please.”
As I recall, they just charged him the price of the cheapest sandwich.
Arby’s, specifically the “French dip”. The “roast beef” is roast beef in the same way a hamburger at McDonalds is a hamburger;pretty much in name only. I’m pretty sure the au jus is just bullion cubes in hot water. The whole thing is just a big sodium bomb, and I love it. Never any gristle, or fat or burned edges. The slices are all uniform so they never fall off the bread and into the au juice when you dip it. Don’t get me started on the curly fries, which are so battered and seasoned, there may as well not be an actual potato in there.
On the excruciating car trip back to Brooklyn from Chicago yesterday, I enjoyed a small package of “Andy Capp’s Hot Fries,” which are corn-based French fry shaped snacks with no apparent cheese, but lots of powdered pepper.
I’ve never seen these anywhere but in freeway truck stops. And who could resist a snack food endorsed by a wife-beating cartoon drunkard?
He was more of a philandering cartoon drunkard. Sure, he wouldn’t hesitate to go hammer and tongs with Flo, but IIRC, he took as much as he dished out.
I went to england recently, pondered for a moment about whether I could live there, and honestly I would have to live by a place with a taco bell. Maybe it’s not great food, but its a comfort food for for me since childhood. There are 27 stores there that I can see, but that’s not a lot.