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“The American palate is much more diverse now,” says Jimmy Wang, the head chef at Panda Express. The people she hires are highly educated in the cuisine’s history and intricacies, but they’re also flexible in their approach to food. Today, Andrea Cherng ensures that every dish that Panda Express rolls out has a Chinese story with it. American Chinese cuisine is no exception. Regional food in China, whether it’s in the north, south, east, or west, is shaped by local taste buds and ingredient availability. After all, the phrase “Chinese food” is a nebulous catch-all for any food that Chinese people eat. In many ways, the Cherngs’ ingenuity is a reflection of how Chinese food has evolved over time. (Read more: How a deep-fried wonton became Australia’s national snack) “It’s what made it possible for so many families here to become established and introduce a non-Chinese population to Chinese flavors.” “These were the things that paved the way for all the culinary originality that we enjoy today,” Andrea Cherng says. They were survivalists’ dishes, plates that were crafted out of necessity in order to appeal to the non-Asian consumer. The orange chicken at Panda Express was inspired by a similar Sichuanese dish. Simply click on the Panda Chinese Restaurant location below to find out where it is located and if it received positive reviews. “And the way that he cooked always had that Chinese heritage.” Trying to find a Panda Chinese Restaurant Have no fear we’ve compiled a list of all the Panda Chinese Restaurant locations. “In the beginning, everything was already being translated by master chef Ming Tsai Cherng,” Andrea Cherng says. When he saw that lobster and steak dinners were popular, he worked with his father, the head chef, on introducing their own interpretation to their customers. He was opportunistic and studied the competition. The rise of orange chickenĪndrew Cherng, Ming Tsai Cherng’s son, wasn’t a purist when it came to food. However, their restaurant, located in Pasadena, just north of the heart of the San Gabriel Valley, was frequented mostly by non-Asian clientele. The Cherng family was a part of this movement. The competition, as a result, became fierce. The new wave of immigrants shepherded a higher standard of Chinese food because unlike previous waves, these expats were generally more educated and wealthy. (Read more: The not-so-Chinese origins of General Tso’s chicken) Changes to immigration law in 1965 inspired East Asians to move in droves to the San Gabriel Valley, a suburban enclave of Los Angeles now famous for its Chinese food. At this time, the Los Angeles area was teeming with new Chinese immigrants, mostly from Taiwan and Hong Kong.