Panda Express has grown tremendously since it opened its first door in 1983. Andrew J.C. Cherng and his father, master Chinese chef Ming- Tsai Cherng, founded a full service restaurant in 1973 called Panda Inn. They were in Pasadena, a suburb of Los Angeles, one of America’s ethnic melting pots. The Cherngs wanted to expand the full service Chinese restaurant but the competition would be too much in an area with a large Asian American population. Andrew Cherng saw that fast food, drive-thru restaurants was very successful in the United States. He then sought out to experiment with an “oriental” food version of that kind of idea since southern California offered a good market. Cherng moved away from the full service restaurant idea and expanded into the quick service restaurant field.

Panda Express has become one of the largest “Chinese food” restaurant chains in the United States, having restaurants in over 34 states. They are located in places like, mall food courts, supermarkets, shopping centers, key intersections, airports, and university and college campuses. It can practically be put in the fast food category now along the lines of healthiness. Panda express in addition to other Chinese fast food restaurants double the number of McDonald’s franchises. Many Americans, including Asian Americans, are gaining weight because of misconceptions about the food. Many think that it is healthy since there are vegetables in the meals. Panda Express is in the market for customers in the age eighteen to thirty four bracket, the working population who will most likely eat fast food. They are slowly raising their level to a hamburger, fried chicken, and Mexican food chain dominated market.

More importantly, I feel that Panda Express has taken a big step in the promotion of Americanized Chinese food. They have moved further away from traditional Chinese cuisine and moved towards modifying their food for Caucasian American tastes. Americanized Chinese food is taking over and “real” Chinese food is losing its authentic cultural aspect. Chinese food in America is recognized as a kind of fast food while many Chinese people are not proud to call it theirs. Immigrants from China that try this food for the first time usually do not like it at all. Much of what passes for Chinese cooking in America would sicken a traditional Chinese gourmet chef. Canned pineapples, canned fruit cocktails, corn starch, MSG, and heavy doses of sugar are found in these “bizarre” American creations. The basic formula appears to be: take the fattest piece of meat you can get, cook it in a lot of oil with the sweetest mixture of canned fruits and sugar you can make, add soy sauce and thicken the sauce to a glue-like consistency. Think about it the next time you get carryout!

Shortly after the end of the Vietnam War, the Indochina Migration and Refugee Assistance Act was passed on May 23, 1975. President Gerald Ford allowed refugees from South Vietnam and Cambodia to enter the United States under a special status. The first wave of refugees consisted of about one hundred and thirty thousand. They were first airlifted to the Philippines and Guam and then to one of the refugee centers in the United States. The second batch of refugees began during 1978 and lasted through the mid-1980s. These were people who took to sea in overcrowded boats. The ones who escaped death at sea ended up in Southeast Asia and later on admitted into the U.S. This group included many ethnic Chinese who were persecuted by the Vietnamese government.
The children of these immigrants began moving up through the schools and a new class of academic achievers emerged. Asian Americans began to carry the image of being the “model minority”. This is because despite what they were faced with, many Asian American Immigrants excelled in schools across America. A good number of the immigrant families were stuck in poverty, especially the refugees in the year’s following the fall of Saigon in 1975.
There were children that were scarred from war trying to start a new life in America. Many of them had a hard time learning the new language, causing them to drop out of school. Regardless, during this time Asian Americans were scoring very high above average on the math section of the Scholastic Aptitude Test. In addition, they had higher grade point averages than their peers. Asian Americans had taken many places in prestigious colleges to the point where the country’s best universities were accused of setting admission quotas to restrict the number of Asian Americans on campus.
The reasons for this academic success have been attributed to many different things. One of the reasons is that Asian American parents tend to make their children work harder because they believe education is the key to success. Another reason is the theory that they average higher I.Q. points through genetic differences. These explanations worry Asian Americans because it would only increase racial stereotyping and it has.
These events have led Time Magazine to acknowledge and publish an article on this subject of “Asian American Whiz Kids”. This sounds like a success story for the American dream but the title of “model minority” throws you in a pool where you lose individuality and are discriminated against.

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David Tran is the founder of Huy Fong, an Asian American company that is most popular for it's creator's invented sauce, Sriracha. Sriracha was created in the early 1990’s and was the brilliant idea of Tran as he aspired to create his own American dream after leaving Vietnam with his family in 1979. By February of 1980, Tran was settled into Boston and began to invent his world famous sauce. Tran moved to Los Angeles to be closer to his family and began to start the manufacturing of the Sriracha sauce through family homemade operations. By reusing Gerber baby food jars, the Tran family began to create their family production. Soon, Tran had gained enough success to create the signature bottle that is known today. He uses a rooster for his astrological sign and has kept the same bottle and design since the making of the sauce. David Tran’s Sriracha sauce is an American product that creates a sense of authentic Asian identity and in that perspective, the company targets the Asian community with their products. “We’re happy to see these [American] chefs use our sriracha,’ said Huy Fong’s president, William Tran, the 33-year-old son of its founder. ‘But we still sell 80 percent of our product to Asian companies, for distribution through Asian channels. That’s the market we know. That’s the market we want to serve.’”

The Huy Fong commitment to the community has not gone unnoticed. Through the years of success, his base of operations has always been in Rosemead, California. As of recent, the company feels they are too cramped in workspace for the city of Rosemead and needs to move operations elsewhere. As the Sriracha company contemplates it’s relocation, officials from the city of Rosemead rushed to hold a meeting with the founder to keep the signature company in the area as a historical symbol of growth and success. While the company’s success gains more momentum, the worldwide effect of Sriracha has not gone unnoticed. Chefs in America and all over the demographics of Asia have adopted the sauce into many popular dishes today. The specialties are a highlight and flatter the founder of Sriracha hot sauce as he comments, “‘I’m always interested in what they do,’ Mr. Tran said, his voice filled with genuine wonderment.” However, flattery is received in more ways than one as Asian stores around America started to sell similar items like “Cock brand sriracha from Thailand, Shark brand from China, Phoenix brand from Vietnam and Unicorn brand, also from Vietnam.” Huy Fong created a small dent in Asian American culture and even traditional Asian culture by his success and recipe for an “Asian American” hot sauce that would be able to bridge two cultures. Most Asian American’s have followed this craze and most likely will have a bottle in their house. Americans are even beginning to like Sriracha, eating with things such as hot dogs and pizza’s as the bottle is hitting shelves in Wal-mart, Albertsons and stater bros.