Panda Express Invites People to Sing for Their Orange Chicken

It's a match made in heaven. If you're hungry for the American Chinese cuisine that includes Orange Chicken and also love to sing along to pre-recorded musical tracks, Panda Express has a deal — or a dare — for you. Tomorrow, June 27, from noon to 2 p.m. at its Westminster location, Panda Express invites diners to sing for their supper. Just stroll up to the tent outside the restaurant, choose a track from a selected list of hits, sing your heart out for thirty seconds and get a voucher for a free meal worth up to $15.

Customers will also get a voucher for a free small entree with the purchase of a plate meal that can be used for a future visit. 

The giveaway is only at the Westminster location, and only for the two-hour window tomorrow...but the Panda poobahs promise there will be different promotions coming to other locations. The song-sation is to bolster the company's "Have You Eaten Yet?" ad campaign, a phrase that is familiar to any Chinese or Asian American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander who's grown up with moms who cook.

The television commercial for the campaign shows a group of women holding Panda Express takeout boxes, who start singing to a kid working on his homework.

We are your aunties, we love you but we don't always say it out loud...Instead, we put delicious food in your mouth: 'Have you eaten yet?'

The song goes on for a minute and,at the end, the kid says, "Actually, I haven't. Thank you."

It's a familiar dynamic in Asian households, where elders (mostly women) express their love by asking if you've eaten yet and serving you a feast. Then again, those aunties are often the first to exclaim when they see you, "Oh, you're getting fat!"
Panda Express is the largest Asian American restaurant chain in the U.S., with 2,400 locations across the country. As with Taco Bell, it may serve food that's "traditional" or "authentic," but when someone is hangry for the chain's famous Orange Chicken (which, by the way, is not something you can find in China), you have to "run for the border," as the old Taco Bell ads used to proclaim. Only for Panda Express, you run for the far eastern border.

Panda Express was originally an offshoot of a popular Pasadena, California, Chinese restaurant, Panda Inn, which opened in 1973. Panda Express opened in 1983 in a Glendale shopping mall and has been expanding ever since.

Karaoke, a portmanteau for "karappo okestora," which means "empty orchestra" (brilliant, huh?), was reportedly invented in the 1970s by a Japanese musician (conflicting reports have a Filipino inventor), who created a machine that would play backing tracks for bar patrons to sing along with.

Put karaoke and Panda Express together, and "Have you eaten yet" starts bouncing around your head, and then the restaurant's consistently cooked selection of American Chinese fare can start bouncing around your belly.

The "Have You Eaten Yet" Karaoke Contest promotion runs from noon-2 p.m. Friday, June 27, at the Panda Express at 8461 Church Ranch Boulevard in Westminster. For more info, go to pandaexpress.com.