Someone once jokingly said that if China wants to bankrupt you, they give you a pair of pandas. So zoos have to recoup the expenditure by selling these panda meals to you.
Panda Diplomacy
China “loans” these living national treasures from to friendly countries in what is known as “Panda Diplomacy“. Zoos around the world scramble to have one of these pair of cuddlies as they boost attendance. However zoos have to build special panda enclosures for these picky eaters. Besides the enclosures, they have to raise the special bamboos that they eat, if not imported from Sichuan.
Cute and cuddly, these once endangered bears have been successfully rehabilitated and bred in zoos around the world. However the zoos are not allowed to keep the offsprings. The only exception was Taipei Zoo, where Yuan Zai was not returned to China.
Like Kai Kai and Jia Jia of Singapore, they manage to mate and Jia Jia managed to conceive and gave birth to baby boy Le Le (乐乐); but the baby was returned to China right after he turned two.
Taipei Zoo Panda Meal
Right inside the panda enclosure is the Panda Cafe. Firstly, to qualify to become a panda meal, it has to be black and white. So the Panda spaghetti is a cream sauce based spaghetti nero with kamaboko made to look like panda. Cute, but not really a good eat.
The easiest way to get the panda theme going would be dessert, like this panda-shaped cake. The eyes and ears are make of fondant. Underneath the white fondant is a dried out sponge cake.
And then there’s the panda iced cappuccino, but I was disappointed the panda was a just a meringue floating on the coffee. I thought that they would at least draw a panda using the milk foam.
Besides the Panda-themed meals, they also offered some other choices as you can only produce that many variations of black and white food. Not exactly fantastic place to eat in Taipei Zoo. We should have gone to the McD at the entrance instead.
Singapore Zoo Panda Meals
Pandas are displayed at the Yangtze exhibit in River Safari, and a bistro was built right next to the exhibit. Sticking to black and white themes, the Panda burger was made from steamed buns we called hupcuibao that we traditional use to eat braised pork belly. The chef decided to do a fried chicken breast version to keep the menu Halal, with a side of chips.
And then there’s the steamed bun with chocolate filling. Yes, not red bean paste or taushapau, but the rather strange chocolate filling. I wonder why they picked this filling as it isn’t something Singaporeans would like.
The only other choice that would be associated with pandas would be the mapo tofu rice since pandas are also from Sichuan. The rest are just bistro friendly food.
I guessed Jia Jia and Kai Kai must be laughing to the bank with all these sales of food that have been inflated at least twice or more. Again, we should have dined at the KFC at the entrance of the River Safari.
Visited Taipei Zoo (Aug 2025), River Safari (Sep 2025)
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