Who Says There Isn't Any Good Chinese Food in Gainesville?

Here it is, my first restaurant review:

In the 2.5 years I've been living in this mediocre town, I've been on the lookout for some good Chinese eats. Unfortunately, I have for the most part been disappointed. I know, there's decent sushi, fair Vietnamese, palatable pan-Asian, and all the remaining representative variants of Indochine-cuisine; however delights specific to the Cantonese tradition are apparently in short supply. What is in great supply, alternately, is some sort of pseudo-mock-Chinese food, which is for the most part gummy, oil-lubricated, and possessing in counterintuitive flavors (if that makes any sense).

Or so I believed. About a year ago I discovered Szechuan Panda on 13th ave - the one Golden Buddha in a land of otherwise bronze bulls. Not only is the food the best around, but in addition to offering delivery service, there is also the buffet o'plenty (with such Asian treats as banana pudding, pumpkin roll, and all you can eat boiled crab legs). Yet to my dismay, all was not perfect in this dining paradise. Indeed, something suspicious was encroaching upon my moo goo gai pan.

Yes, it seems that if you too are a friend of the Szechuan Panda (or have just not had the pleasure of trying it yet), you best hurry on down for its days my be numbered. According to the Gainesville Sun, "roaches, slime may force Szechuan Panda on 13th to close". Shocked? Amazed? How could this be true? How could such delicious food be prepared under such unsanitary conditions.

Perhaps it's the case that the roaches and slime actually made the food so good. Or perhaps the slime was actually that 'cream of sum yung guy' dish I've always heard about but never found on a Chinese food menu. We might not ever know what exactly what was being cooked up in that kitchen... (however, the owner did admit that "Chinese cooking was not conducive to meeting [health] regulations.")

Anyway, you can read more here:

http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/search?crit=panda

In the meantime, there might not be good Chinese food in Gainesville for much longer. And for those of you who are wondering why I took the time to write about this 'news'... it's because i really have eaten at the Panda, and I know a lot of you readers have too. OMG! I mean, how totally gross!