I like Chinese food. Too bad Chinese restaurants are not as available up here as when I lived in Southern California. There are some in town, but Mrs. L.A. does not like to go out to eat. She says I cook better than any of the restaurants. Only I don’t cook Chinese food. The last time I did was four or five years ago (a shrimp and ginger thing, as I recall. Unless it was chicken. It’s been too long) and it turned out very well. Actually, I’ve made fried rice a couple of times, but that’s not really ‘Chinese food’ to me. There’s a Chinese all-you-can-eat buffet in town that’s very good for a buffet. Mrs. L.A. says she can’t eat enough for it to be worth going there. So the choices are: The Chinese place at Cost Cutter supermarket (I don’t really like it), the Chinese place in the food court at Safeway 10 miles away (Mrs. L.A. says it’s only good if it’s fresh – I find it too salty), a restaurant about four miles away from the house (again, Mrs. L.A. doesn’t like to go out – I wasn’t impressed when I picked up lunch to go there last month), or Panda Express in Bellingham if I’m driving by.
We were in B’ham yesterday picking up my car and going to the hardware store, and Panda Express is in the Lowe’s lot so I brought home food. When I was in SoCal, Panda Express was a place to get a quick lunch; not a place to get dinner. That’s still my impression. Last night I got the ‘family meal’, which was expensive – especially after adding egg rolls, spring rolls, and cream cheese rangoon. The kung pao chicken was boring. It was OK when I ate a chile with a bite, but in two servings (yeah, I had seconds of the main dishes) I only got two chiles. The orange chicken was… Well, orange chicken. Boring. They had spicy shrimp and vegetables from their ‘premium’ section, and that was pretty good. I thought it was ‘just right’ for a fast food place, but Mrs. L.A. found it too spicy. The fried rice was boring, and so were the chow mein noodles. Mrs. L.A. liked everything. I didn’t dislike anything (and I did like the shrimp), but man I wish we could go out for some good Chinese (or American Chinese) food! Chow fun with sea cucumber! Fried whole fish! Moo-shoo pork! Salt & Pepper shrimp with the heads still on!
So Panda Express. Small menu, can be overpriced, boring food, but tasty enough to mostly satisfy a craving. (Not a craving like Wienerschnitzel Chili Cheese Dogs or Jack In The Box tacos or Yoshinoya beef bowl; a craving for a certain type of food.)
It’s one of those places I really don’t like, but occasionally I go there anyways because of a lack of options in the same price range. Convenient to my office is Subway, Wendy’s, and Panda Express; I can’t eat just Subway and Wendy’s all the time so I’ll go to the Panda Express for something different (not that I’m going to one of these places every day; I usually just eat a sandwich or ramen at my desk).
Everything there tastes the same. I hate celery and mushrooms and I can’t eat shrimp, so I’ve got their menu down to the fried rice, orange chicken, Beijing beef, and teriyaki chicken. It all tastes the same. Their fortune cookies are awful. Not that I’m particularly a fan of fortune cookies, I’m not, but theirs are especially shitty for whatever reason.
I eat at Panda Express with some frequency. Not because it’s anything but mediocre flavor-wise, but because it’s one of the few places near the office where I can get a lot of vegetables at lunch, without having to have salads, or go to a sit-down kind of place.
Other than that, it pales in comparison to our local takeout/delivery Chinese places.
Mrs LA likes it, but you find it bland. You mentioned a lack of heat being an issue (maybe not the only issue, but its the only one I can suggest help towards).
This place sells dried Tien Tsin Chiles by the pound.
Would your food experiance improve if you bought a bottle of virgin olive oil, added some of these in, let the heat infuse, and then added a splash of heat to taste when needed?
(I don’t know the restaurants by you, I doubt you’d want to open one to just to fill a niche market, and its the best work around I can think of for you. Sorry.)
That’s the price you pay for living where you do. You are also lacking serious soul food, BBQ, decent taquerias, ethnic foods in general, etc. Panda Express is your penance for moving. It’s Chinese the way Taco Bell is Mexican.
Around Bellingham, try Xing’s Panda Palace on Sunset or New Peking on East Maple.
Half a dozen years ago I wanted some fast Chinese food and I saw the Panda Express sign on the freeway. I couldn’t find it, so I ended up at Xing’s. I recall it was very good. I’ll have to remember to go there next time.
I solved the BBQ and Mexican food problem by cooking them myself. (Also, Mrs. L.A. discovered a good BBQ place in Lynden.) But I still wish we had a Del Taco up here, even if they don’t have the Macho Meat burrito anymore.
When I’m out doing chores, and feeling hungry when heading home, I’ll sometimes stop at Panda Express, only because it’s convenient. But when I get the stuff home I always doctor it up . . . especially adding lots of veggies. Since I have to control my blood pressure, the veggies help dilute the salt in their food. Then I might add some ginger or whatever else I feel like adding. So I use Panda to supply the protein (no rice or egg rolls) and I control the carbs and seasoning.
There’s one down the street from me as well. I’m not that big a fan of it either, but for what it is, it’s not terrible for a once-every-other-week meal.
What I don’t like about Panda Express (or the Chinese food at the supermarket) is that most of the dishes involve indigestible lumps of chicken in a gloppy sauce. There’s little difference between the orange chicken, the sweet & sour chicken, black pepper chicken, Kung Pao chicken, etc. It’s just a matter of what color the sauce is, and every time I eat it, I regret it, as the food just sits in my stomach for hours.
I do enjoy the kind of Chinese food you get where you get spicy meat soaked in what is probably corn syrup thrown over rice. But it’s not the kind of thing I think people are being just snobby to reject.
About half an hour ago Mrs. L.A. asked if Panda Express has a drive-through. I told her it does, but next time we want Chinese food I’ll go across Sunset and get it from Xing’s.
But tonight, she’s put the leftovers into the oven to warm.
My company is moving into a new facility, and they are building a few fast food restaurants in the parking lot. One of them is a Panda Express. I’ll check it out, because it’s going to be so convenient.
I’m not going to expect anything major, I guess.
I eat there occasionally. I like their food well enough. I agree the fried rice is bland but it’s better than most burgers. I don’t go there to replace a good restaurant but for fast food I can find a good alternative to the usual fair.
I hate it. At least the ones around here, the food is consistently too oily, too sweet, and the vegetables overcooked nearly to mush. Actually, it’s a lot like Chinese food in China.
I kinda like Panda Express. It’s better than a lot of mall Chines food, and priced low.
My big problem is that it’s disappearing from my area. They closed down the Food Court at the Prudential Center in Boston, and they closed down Meadow Glen Mall north of Boston. There are two at Logan Airport (which isn’t worth going to for fast food) and a couple in Cambridge, but it’s out of my way.
Yes, I have been working in China for the past 8 years, and Chinese food in China is just not that good. IMHO. Very salty, swimming in oil, and they put sugar in almost everything.
Yeah, that. I’ve heard Panda Express described as like Real Chinese Important Banquet, but disappointingly “lite.” Not enough oil and not enough sugar. They approach my limits for both. Oh, and without the live monkey brains, but I think someone is greenin’ some American executives I know.
And without the staggering amounts of booze. The typical PE doesn’t have a liquor licence.
