I’m almost always disappointed by Panda Express. It usually gives me indigestion (don’t want to go into too much detail.)
I always save my coupon and write a random number on the bottom for which they reward me with a small carton of food. I then have to decide which item packs the densest.
Panda Express is a 1. Well, maybe I was too quick as there are even worse Chinese places. But for fast food American Chinese, it’s pretty bad.
I started my China journey by washing dishes at age 15 in an American Chinese restaurant: Ken’s Hot Sing Palace. It had all the standard doo doo plate stuff. That was in the 70’s and now Yelp gives it 4 stars.
Yelp highlight: Tastes like Panda Express except more greasy. Nothing really stands out. 
There I got my first paycheck, learned my first Cantonese swear words, and ate some of the food that the cooks made for themselves and it was pretty awesome. I went back about 10 years later after my Mandarin skills were pretty good, and old Ken pretty much only spoke Cantonese. But I showed off in the kitchen with his other cooks and no one could believe that his 15 year old white bread no crust dishwasher had a university degree, was living in China, spoke good Mandarin and didn’t mention that the food was strictly for gweilohs.
I edited while composing, which is never a good thing, and first wrote “I’ve eaten at Panda Express,” when I decided to change it to “I ate there one time,” and didn’t check before I pressed enter.
Obviously a mistake, although it reminds me of my days in the classroom.
Isn’t Panda Express just pre-made goop that comes in bags that they just reheat at the mall? I didn’t give it a 1 because I’m sure there is far worse out there.
No doubt there is some very fine Chinese food served in China. I’ve never been to China, but I have been to other countries and my take-away point was that nowhere in the world do common people enjoy “very fine _______ food” at every meal or even every day. At least in more-or-less industrialized nations, people eat mediocre crap most of the time due to time constraints, or financial constraints, or just being too effing tired to cook or even go out constraints. That said, the couple times I had Panda Express it was mediocre Chinese-ish crap that was filling and not unpleasantly flavored. The best Chinese meal I ever had was many times better, but it also costed many times more, required reservations, and took up the whole entire evening. I don’t need every meal to be an event.
I don’t know that I entirely agree with you. There are certain cultures that put a higher value on good food, even when it is cheap and convenient. Singapore is a foodie heaven and you can get amazing food from little pushcarts on the street. In fact there are dining guides for street food.
I’ve not had it in years. But I used to love it. Still find myself craving it when I happen to pass by or hear it mentioned (actually salivating now).
But on the scale of American style Chinese, I give it a 6/10.
Well, if they have an inflatable panda, that’s different.
Yeah, there are worse places. At least every Panda I’ve been to has warm food. I’ve gotten cold beef broccoli from food courts before.
Every culture has foodies, I’d say. Whether a whole culture could be said to put a higher value on fine food is questionable.
I absolutely disagree. France, for example is a nation that is famous for its love of food, not just at an elite level, but across the spectrum. The same is true for Italy and Singapore. There are countries where eating goop out of styrofoam just isn’t as accepted as it is in other countries. Cultures have attitudes about food just like they do about art, humor and sex.
Every culture values its own foods and has its own delicacies. You’ve given me examples of cultures you claim place a higher value on food. Perhaps you can give an example or three of cultures that place a lower value on food?
America, Russia, and Moldova.
America, England and Scotland would have been my choices.
Care to expand on that a little?
Panda Express is to actual Chinese food what Taco Bell is to actual Mexican food, or that Pizza Hut is to actual Italian food.
Basically, it’s a bastardized, fast-foodified version of a version of the original adapted by immigrants to American ingredients. In other words, it’s a fast-food version of Americanized Chinese food.
Not bad at all, but not even remotely authentic. I gave it a 6, although that’s more for being tasty and for not really claiming to be something it’s not.
And I routinely eat at relatively authentic Chinese places (thisone, for example), so it’s not like I haven’t had something fairly authentic before.
Haggis. 
I’ve had it and it isn’t bad. Even if it was, it is something that is part of Scotland’s culture and cuisine. They value it and can, no doubt, tell you what differentiates a good one from a bad one and where you can get the best.
Typically when I see a “_____ culture doesn’t value fine food” statement, any of several possibilities are coming into play:
- The notion comes from historical factors that are no longer true. English cuisine gained its reputation for being so fabulously bad during periods of wartime and post-war scarcity.
- The writer tends, for whatever reason, to look down on the culture and cuisine of his own country. A certain type of American is very prone to this.
- Ignorance. I have no great love of Russia or Russians, but anybody who has ever sat down at a table full of beautiful, delicious zakuski before the real food even appears could not say with a straight face that they do not value fine food.
I’m not sure that holds true for China. You can do ultra-high end dining in China, but 90% of the food I ate was at cheap student eateries, street bars, food carts or dining halls. Almost every day, I’d marvel at how unbelievably delicious it was.
Even when the food wasn’t lovingly prepared (my school’s dining didn’t even trim the tops off veggies before dicing them- you’d have to eat around the pepper stems and tomato ends), the use of extremely fresh food paired with strong flavors was pretty much always delicious, day after day. It’s not like the US where “cheap food” means reheated Sysco crap and fresh foods are expensive. It’s basically the opposite.
I have never had a* bad* one, but they are decidedly “meh”. Mr Chaus used to have HUGE portions, which was nice. Some Panda do have generous portions.
I voted 2. Gross, cheap crap. But good when drunk.