Palo Alto CA: Asian Box

At Kimberly's suggestion, my first stop after getting off the plane was Asian Box. It's in the Town and Country shopping center in Palo Alto. It has a mix-and-match menu of Asian ingredients. This type of menu---choose one item in each category plus some toppings---is very common in the nouveau burger establishments of Atlanta. Palo Alto has, naturally, applied it to Asian food. (I think their inspiration is largely Vietnamese. You should expect a rant from me on generic Asian food at some point.) Although they bill themselves as take-out, they also have indoor and outdoor seating.

I ordered a box with brown rice, tofu, peanut sauce, and bean sprouts. All the boxes come with a veggie mix, which you can order stir-fry or steamed. It came out in 3-4 minutes and hit the spot. It was quite healthy as well as filling. The peanut sauce had just enough heat to contrast with the richness of the peanuts. Interestingly, the default utensil was a fork but they gave me chopsticks as soon as I asked for them.

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Eating Around Georgia Tech: Ecco

Our Texas Instruments colleague Cathy Wicks was gracious enough to host several of us at Ecco tonight. This is one of those restaurants that has been on my list for a long time. Even though it is within easy walking distance of Georgia Tech, I hadn't made it there until tonight. The menu is a combination of Italian, Spanish, and French that make use of some local Georgia ingredients. The combination of those three countries is sometimes a little forced, although the georgia ingredients (fruit, cheese) were all great and perfectly appropriate. We started out with a meat and cheese board. This actually reverses the French tradition, where cheese usually follows the main course. Everything was excellent. The Georgia cheese was a big hit, as was the French cow/goat cheese. I thought the sauscisson was very subtle and very good. The waitress said that the roast pork pasta was their signature dish, so I had to try it. It had traditional broad pasta (fresh, of course)

Pressure Cooker Candied Ginger

I made candied ginger a few years ago. It's not something I would do every day but I had a lot of fun doing it. I recently acquired a pressure cooker and it inspired an interesting idea to me: why not make candied ginger in the pressure cooker? It should be very soft and flavorful. Here is the result. I peeled two large ginger roots, cut them into small cubes, and put them in the pressure cooker with heavily sugared water. The traditional method first boils the ginger in plain water to soften it and then again in sugar water to candy it. The resulting candy was very tender but still with the characteristic ginger texture. It was also sweet without being overpowering. The traditional method leaves a lot of sugar crystallized around the ginger. The pressure cooker gives a much more subtle result. The ginger stays moist even after it cools but you can dry it in the oven at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes. That inspired me to dip it in chocolate. While I was in the b

DCA: Cava Mezze Grill

Cava is a DC area chain with light Mediterranean food. Saibal encouraged me to try lunch at their airport location and I was very happy with the experience. I ordered falafel on SuperSalad with assorted other toppings. The falafel was tasty. The SuperSalad was light, flavorful, and very easy to eat. Overall, a healthy and enjoyable lunch, something you can't always say about airport eating.

Atlanta etc.: Marilyn Wolf's Food Blog and Restaurant Blog

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