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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. Asian Box on Urbanspoon
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