Review: Panda Express

I know it's not technically a QftB post, but the girlfriend demands a written review of my lunch today. So what the girlfriend demands, the girlfriend gets.

Today I experienced Panda Express for the first time. I must say, I'm quite impressed!

Panda Express handles things a little differently than most other Chinese places. Firstly, they don't cook the food on the spot; they have it waiting there for you in pans like you would see at a china buffet. Secondly, you don't just choose one entree. You can get two or even three entrees on your plate as part of their "standard" meal. Thirdly, you get your choice between white rice, fried rice, or lo mein noodles (yay!).

Finally, they have an event running currently where Beijing Beef and Orange Chicken are squaring off to win over the hearts and minds of the consumer for the next big thing at Panda Express. So I decided, hey, I get two entrees anyways. Let's get ready to rummmmmmble!

Restaurant: Panda Express
Location: 5th ave, between Gerrard and Hess.
Call: (614) 486-6630


Orange Chicken: Although I did not taste anything that could be described as "Orange", it is still quite a tasty dish. Think of the fried "sweet-and-sour" type chicken, in duck sauce. Crispy chicken, good amount of meat (as opposed to breading), very tasty.

Beijing Beef: A spicy counterpart to the Orange Chicken; it seems to be fried as well, before being covered in a delicious dark sweet/spicy sauce. The batch I got was perhaps a bit overcooked (it was a little chewy) but left my nose watering and my mouth wanting more.

Veggies: Orange chicken has no veggies in it. Beijing Beef contains green, red, and orange peppers, in addition to onions. The Lo Mein contains celery, cabbage strips, and sprouts. A well rounded mix!

Sauce: Not a lot of extra sauce for either entree, but the sauce that is on the meat sticks well, so it wasn't really an issue.

Rice: Lo mein! And fantastic lo mein at that. It tastes like it has been grilled, got a little "charred" taste to it. Pure win!

Spiciness: The Orange Chicken is not at all spicy. In fact it's mostly just sweet. The Beijing Beef brings my nose to water, and I'd say it's about a 6 on a 1 to 10 scale. Not burning my face off, but enough so I know it's there.

Amount of Food: I'm more than satisfied with the amount of food given. Add to it the fact that every bite was delicious and I couldn't be happier.

Price: $5.75

Overall: 8/10 - Not much to complain about, and I was very happy with my first visit to Panda Express. The beef was a little overcooked, but flavor wise everything was great.

Cookie: Light colored, but not light on taste. Surprisingly sweet and flavorful.
Fortune: People enjoy having you around

Quest for the Best: Nong's Hunan Express

All epic journeys start with but a single step. Starting today I vow to find the greatest General Tso's chicken in Columbus. I will not falter, I will not fail. I will be judging the dish on many facets, which are listed below. Without much more further ado whatsoever, I present to you the first installment!

Restaurant: Nong's Hunan Express
Location: 1634 Northwest Blvd & King Avenue
Call: (614) 486-6630


Chicken: Off-taste for chicken, like more dark meat than usual? Not sure, just tastes a little strange. Not very much of it either, which I suppose isn't such a bad thing since it's not that great.

Veggies: Carrots, Broccoli, Mushrooms, Cabbage, Water Chestnuts, Snow Peas. Ample and crisp!

Sauce: Thick, darker than some other Chinese places, appropriate level of spiciness.

Rice: Fried rice, no add-ins, small traces of egg. Standard fare.

Spiciness: Right on target. Not too spicy, not too mild. Made my nose water just a tiny amount. Perfect.

Amount of Food: Rice was more than sufficient, in fact I threw some away. As I said, there was a bit of a shortage of chicken (only got about 4 pieces) but the meal as a whole filled me up. Good amount of veggies.

Price: $6.95

Overall: 4/10 - On a General Tso's chicken dish, it's all about the chicken. While I couldn't complain about the veggies, rice, or sauce, the chicken was both odd tasting and minimal. And for $6.95 at lunch, that's not going to cut it.

Cookie: A little thicker than most fortune cookies I've had, and much more flavor. THIS is what a fortune cookie is supposed to be! Brand: Fortella Co, Inc. (Chicago, IL)
Fortune: You will live long and enjoy life.

American Family Insurance is greedy

Latin Fest is this weekend. I'd like to say a few things about it.

- I'm fairly certain the webpage was designed by the Bubble Yum corporation. Honestly, who goes with teal, pink, and bright yellow?

- The picture of the boy on the front page is a ridiculously bad photoshop. No, I don't have to tell by the pixels. Maybe it's a joke by the webmaster?

- $1 tickets on Friday? Awesome! Pure win! I pay $1, I walk around, browse vendors, eat some sweet food, hear some music, take in some culture. Vendors get paid, I get entertained, it's win-win.

- $30 tickets on Saturday? Epic fail! Wait, I get to hear two bands I've never heard of! Sweet! Well maybe they are famous in the Spanish community!

- Lucero Terrazas - first act of two on Saturday. In theory, she's half the show, so she should be worth about 1/2 of the second act (if I know anything about how concerts work, which I obviously do). So say 10 bucks to see her? Lets see what google knows about her... expecting wikipedia page... dont see it... links to her stop at about page five. Must not be that great. Did they just get a spanish girl to make this pose? That's not gonna trick me at all. Anyone can make that pose. Look, I'm doing it right now.

- Who doesn't have their own wikipedia page?! Look, even I've got one. Seriously, this chick is just some stripper they found down at Columbus gold who could sing Feliz Cumpleanos and maybe do a sweet booty shake. It's not that hard to make it in show business with a little T&A.

- Los Huracanes del Norte - Hey hey, this looks a little more respectable. Google knows about em, wikipedia knows about em. But are they 30 dollars good? Eh, not to the average person at Latino Fest. I mean, there's a large population of latinos in Columbus, but how many of them are willing to drop 30 bucks for these guys? It's not like Christina or J-Lo or even Ricky Martin (she bang! she bang!)

- The group members of Los Huracanes is pretty stacked. Check it out:

* Heraclio "Rocky" Garcia
* Jesus "Chuy" Garcia
* Guadalupe "Lupillo" Garcia
* Francisco "Pancho" Garcia
* Antonio H. "El Guero" Garcia
* Jose Luis "El Chapete" Mejia
* Rocky Jr.

Rocky Jr?! Tell me thats just not the most awesome thing you've ever heard. I imagine a midget running around punching people with his maracas left and right. I hope I'm right. I am a little sad though that Jesus Garcia doesn't have a nickname involving tap dancing though. Those spanish people will never learn.

Will I go to Latin Fest? I'd say it's a solid maybe, depending on whether or not I can get some people to join me. $1 margaritas to go along with my $1 admission? Hopefully. See you there!

She bang!

Sometime I could use help in setting up my PC so that when in Outlook and I go to see Deleted e-mails & then want to return to the deleted email again, I end up at the Inbox. Same thing happens when go to Send.

Thx
(redacted)

I work as a systems specialist. Which is a fancy way of saying I do tech support for a building at Ohio State. The above is an email that we recently received asking for... something. I don't get it. I still have to acknowledge it. So, I'll head up there and slap them silly soon enough but in the meantime...



WHAT THE FUCK!
/facepalm

PC LOAD LETTER? WTF is that?!

Today's random wikipedia page: Paper size

I've always wondered what the difference between A4 and Letter sized paper is. Well, not always. But a good portion of my morning was spent wondering. At least the last couple of minutes. As it turns out, a "letter" sized paper is actually just slightly shorter than an A4, but it's very close. However, the printer knows. Oh yes, the printer is well aware of your attempts to feed it A4 sized paper when it expects Letter. This is the premise of the message PC LOAD LETTER.

The problem with PC LOAD LETTER is that each word can be misconstrued. The actual meanings?

PC = Paper Cassette
LOAD = Place the paper in the paper cassette
LETTER = Letter sized paper please, not A4!

See, it's so simple now. Remember, check your paper size and you won't have to sing Die MF Die MF Die in an empty field.