February 13, 2015 New Restaurant Panda Buffet, Las Cruces

February 13, 2015 New Restaurant   Panda Buffet, Las Cruces

I enjoyed a rare experience today.  I discovered a new wonderful restaurant.

My entry into food writing was as Texas Monthly’s Fort Worth and Arlington restaurant reviewer in the late 70’s.  I would travel around Tarrant County trying different restaurants, mostly small BBQ and Chinese restaurants, as well as the better known fine dining restaurants and write seven to ten 250 to 300 word summaries describing the food and restaurants each month for Texas Monthly's restaurant guide.  It was a challenging and interesting job.

On the way to a day-long deposition in Las Cruces this morning, my client, Scott Boyd, told me about a good Chinese buffet, so when we took our lunch break, I asked him if he would take me to the Chinese restaurant he had recommended and we drove to Panda Buffet.  I thought I saw the name Panda Express Buffet, on the sign but I must have been mistaken.

  

Panda Buffet is located in a strip center at 2812 North Main, which is currently in the midst of road construction, so as difficult and unattractive a location to reach as possible. 

When we walked into the restaurant I was immediately struck by two facts: that the restaurant was full of customers and that it was a converted buffet restaurant with the characteristic long waiting line looping around the outside of the restaurant separated from the dining area by a five foot high wooden wall.  In this case the line area has been filled with booths, but the wall still remained.  I felt I was in a bit of time warp.  

Scott immediately walked to the back booth next to the kitchen and the steam tables, which is where I would have chosen to sit, so I was encouraged by the fact that he knew what he was doing.  This is the spot you want to be sitting in a Chinese buffet, so you can see what fresh dishes are coming out of the kitchen.  It soon became apparent why the restaurant had chosen this location.  It must have been because it had a large kitchen, because a stream of fresh containers of food seem to flow out of the kitchen to satisfy the restaurant full of customers. 

When I checked the two tables of hot choices and a table of dessert choices it was apparent that everything was freshly prepared.  From the first table of six items, I took a piece of white fish sitting in a container of light broth, a fried wonton stuffed with cream cheese and several stir fried dumplings from a container also containing a dipping sauce in a small container inside the steam table compartment.  I liked the idea of placing the special dumpling dipping sauce in the same compartment with the dumplings.

  

I went to the second table of ten items and saw fresh BBQ pork and took some.  The vegetables all looked fresh, so I tried several vegetable and meat dishes, including shrimp with fresh zucchini and a traditional beef and broccoli.  Then I saw a unique dish that I had not seen done as well anywhere else that sold me on the place, stir fried mung bean sprouts with green onion in a light chicken stock sauce.  This was the tip-off that this was a really good restaurant because they took the time and care to cook their vegetables well and creatively.   At this point I was blown away, so I ventured back to the first steam table where there were four large soup cauldrons, three of soup and one with red sweet and sour sauce and discovered that a Hot and Sour Soup.  I dipped the large ladle into the soup and brought up a load of wood ear and soft tofu chunks, so I dipped a bowl of the soup, which I enjoyed eating it with my meal.  The hot and sour soup was pretty spicy with red chili flakes, so I began using the soup as a sauce to dip items into, such as the shrimp.  

I soon reached the point of satiation, but decided to take a second bowl of soup with more tofu because I had a three hour drive ahead of me and the prospect of no dinner, because Suzette was also on the road to Santa Rosa and back today.  I ladled a generous portion of tofu from the soup without remorse because there was lots of tofu in the soup.  

After enjoying my second bowl of hot and sour tofu with its good balance of sour (Chinese Vinegar) and hot (red chili flakes), I could eat no more until Scott jumped up when a new container of orange chicken came out.  At buffets I often take a portion of orange chicken as my dessert because it usually is coated with a heavy cloyingly sweet glaze that seems too sweet to eat as part of regular meal, so I decided to try some as my dessert.  What amazed me today was that the Orange Chicken did not have the typically overly sweet glaze; instead it had a light glaze containing slices of fresh orange rind and a slightly fruity flavor of oranges.    I do not think I have ever seen a Chinese buffet include delicately thin slices of fresh orange peel in its orange chicken, plus some of the stir fried bean sprouts a chunk of the BBQ pork in the middle and a few stalks of broccoli so you can see what I mean about the vegetables and sauces.   Here is the picture:

note the slice of fresh orange peel on the lower right

The small detail of using fresh thinly sliced pieces of orang peel, as well as the fresh stir fried bean sprouts with green onion, told me that this restaurant had a chef who cared about using the freshest ingredients and was focused on presenting the vegetables’ freshness in his or her dishes. 

I can only say that this was a totally satisfying meal and one not to be forgotten.  It also seems that others on Urbanspoon share my enthusiasm (<a href="http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/196/1800680/restaurant/Panda-Buffet-Las-Cruces"><img alt="Panda Buffet on Urbanspoon" src="http://www.urbanspoon.com/b/link/1800680/minilink.gif" style="border:none;width:130px;height:36px" /></a>) 

I am now encouraged to renew my effort to discover a Chinese buffet in Albuquerque that presents fresh ingredients cooked with care for their freshness.

Bon Appétit