Food & Cooking
Read Time : 1 Minutes

Panda Express New Vegetarian Entrees: Mapo Tofu & String Bean Beef

Bertie A. Kinser

Panda Express hasn’t always been the most vegetarian-friendly, quick-service restaurant. The chain’s most iconic dish is chicken-based, plus it has practically every other meat-based protein you could want: honey walnut shrimp, firecracker beef, and teriyaki chicken sliced to order. But that hasn’t stopped the Chinese-American chain from trying.

Last year, Panda Express tested a vegetarian version of its famous orange chicken using Beyond Meat, which was received with enthusiasm and sold out at most of the test locations. “As the first national Asian restaurant concept to serve Beyond Meat with the launch of Beyond The Original Orange Chicken last year, we saw just how great the demand is for innovative plant-based dishes,” says Jimmy Wang, Panda Restaurant Group’s director of culinary innovation. To meet that demand, Panda Express is testing two new vegetarian options.
 

What are the two new vegetarian entrees at Panda Express?

The two new plant-based entrees

… Read More
Food & Cooking
Read Time : 1 Minutes

Panda Express testing two plant-based menu items with Beyond Meat’s beef

Bertie A. Kinser

Panda Express is working on its new plant-based menu offering, and it is now said to be testing two new dishes. The meals will expand the restaurant’s “meatless” menu that started with its Beyond, the Original Orange Chicken.

The American-Chinese fast food is testing two plant-based food items, and as per VegNews, these are the Mapo Tofu and String Beans. Both dishes will feature Beyond Meat’s beef. The tofu dish was described as spicy with a garlicky taste due to the added Sichuan garlic sauce.

The string beans also have a garlic sauce, but it is not too spicy. It is made with hand-cut fresh string beans and stir-fried in a wok. Panda Express is recommending ordering this veggie dish with Eggplant Tofu and Chow Mein.

Pande Express’ testing for the said vegan meals with Beyond Beef has started this week, and it will continue until Feb. 23. The

… Read More
Food & Cooking
Read Time : 1 Minutes

Lanzhou beef noodle soup at Kungfu Ramen

Bertie A. Kinser

There was something about the words “Kungfu” and “Ramen” that didn’t track. Chinese martial artists selling Japanese noodle soup? I circled around the parking lot for a closer look at the colorful food photos posted on the front window of the Tempe restaurant. In between xiaolongbao soup dumplings and a chile glazed platter of cumin beef, there was photo after photo of glistening Chinese soups showcasing epic noodle pulls.

“Hand-pulled ramen. Famous chef from D.C.,” the sign outside Kungfu Ramen read. 

A man wearing a white chef’s cap was pictured in front of another restaurant, Lanzhou Hand Pull Noodle, located in a Maryland suburb of Washington D.C. In 2019, the restaurant was written up in the Washington Post for its faithful renditions of a Muslim Chinese noodle soup, ubiquitous across China but relatively unknown in the United States. “The yellow noodles were hothouse flowers, soft and retreating. They almost dissolved

… Read More
Food & Cooking
Read Time : 1 Minutes

Rising Beef Prices Squeeze Carnivores From Buenos Aires to California | Investing News

Bertie A. Kinser

By Agustin Geist, Tom Polansek and Ana Mano

BUENOS AIRES/CHICAGO/SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Beef prices are surging worldwide, taking meat off the menu in steak-loving Buenos Aires and spoiling summer barbecues in the United States as Chinese imports rise and the cost of feeding cattle soars.

Globally, the surge is contributing to the highest food prices since 2014, according to the United Nations food agency, hitting poorer consumers particularly hard as they struggle to recover from economic shutdowns triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The rise in beef prices has been spurred by increasing demand from China, limited cattle supplies in some countries, a shortage of slaughterhouse workers and rising feed costs. The trend is starting to rattle supplier markets and impact policy.

Argentina, the second-biggest beef supplier to China after Brazil, on May 17 halted exports for a month as it grapples with runaway inflation. It blamed high demand from

… Read More