Chow Vegan

Intrepid eater that I am, I had to stop by to see what’s all the buzz about the newly opened Asian Box in Palo Alto. Well, that and I happened to be near their location in the Town and Country Village on business around lunchtime. As usual, I was super hungry and I needed something quick but still fresh and healthy.

Enter Asian Box.

Inspired by the food and flavors of street stalls in Asian and using local and sustainable ingredients, your customized to-go box is made to order from various options – a base of rice, salad or rice noodles, a choice of protein, choice of wok steamed or wok spiced vegetables, toppings and house-made sauces. Everything is vegan except the obvious animal items, and the No-Oil Fish Sauce. And it’s all gluten-free too!

My box had Rice Noodles with Coconut Curry Tofu, Wok Spiced Vegetables, All Box Toppers (jalapenos, bean sprouts, peanuts, herbs, pickled veggies, lime, etc) except the Caramel Egg and Miss Jones’ Sriracha sauce for $6.95. I also got a side of Tofu Spring Rolls for $3.25 (told you I was super hungry).

So good! I love the layering of all the different flavors, it’s very fresh tasting and very quick. Although I may have beaten the lunch crowd in, as I was leaving hordes of cars and students from the high school across the street were swarming into the area.

Ordering at the counter, the people are super friendly and patient in explaining the different options. With their open kitchen, you can see your food being prepared and Executive Chef Grace Nguyen, formerly of the famed Slanted Door and Out The Door, in action.

The overall decor is modern and minimalist with its one long table inside but there’s also seating available outside. It’s definitely more of a to-go kind of a place with eco-friendly packaging I should add. It’s fast food eating at its best.

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I’m a little late to the food truck scene only because there wasn’t any conveniently located close by me. Then a few started appearing in the parking lot at Hiller Aviation Museum in San Carlos and now there’s like a herd of food trucks there each Wednesday – a rotating mix of various trucks, some with veggie options, some with nothing vegan.

One of them, happens to be the Nom Nom Truck. Ever since rooting for Nom Nom on The Great Food Truck Race, I’ve been wanting to eat there. Finally, I had my chance. Asked what’s vegan, I got two vegetarian tofu tacos without the spicy aioli for six bucks.

Alarmed at first, I thought I had mistakenly gotten chicken. Upon closer examination, it was marinated tofu with a nice meaty texture. Piled into two soft tortillas and topped with pickled veggies and fresh cilantro.

If it wasn’t so windy and cold on that particular day, I would have eaten the tacos right then and there. As it was, I went home and made my own spicy aioli out of Vegenaise and Sriracha sauce (bottom photo). Nom, nom, nom!

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While down south for the holidays, I picked up take-out from Bliss Cafe. They’re a tiny, all vegan place in downtown San Luis Obispo, CA. The “yogi style, karma free” menu offers wholesome raw and cooked food, sourced locally and organically whenever possible and as close to zero-waste as possible.

Since I couldn’t decide on what to get, the Peace Plate ($10) seemed like a great choice. I got to try a little bit of everything – eggplant parmesan, grain of the day with a chutney, curry vegetable and a side salad.

The eggplant parmesan was delicious – the flavor of the marina sauce and eggplant really comes through. The grain of the day by itself was nicely seasoned with bonus spiciness from the chutney.

The side salad wasn’t your typical pile of lettuce with a token piece of tomato thrown on top. It’s like a real salad – lettuce, carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, red cabbage in a creamy dressing with a bit of nutritional yeast taste.

I also couldn’t resist trying a dessert – a pecan banana cream pie ($6). I’m not exactly sure of the name but it sure tasted good. Light and not overly sweet, it’s more than enough to satisfy a sweet tooth.

Very reasonably priced for the amount of food received, I had enough for two meals. The people working there are also super nice. So happy to have such an awesome vegan option in SLO town.

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Over the holiday weekend, I was down south visiting family. Deciding where to eat out is always a challenge, between everyone’s various taste preferences and schedules, we quickly ate through the usual places. Time to try someplace new.

We ventured into Klondike Pizza, located in the downtown village of Arroyo Grande (about halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles on the Central Coast). It’s got a fun, flunky, family-friendly Alaskan atmosphere. Where you get a basket of peanuts while you’re waiting for your food, and toss the shells onto the sawdust floor. It’s probably the most fun I ever had shelling peanuts.

For lunch, I got the Veggie Pizza – mushrooms, zucchini, black olives and tomatoes. It comes with onions and the much dreaded bell peppers which I had them leave off as well as the cheese. Instead of red sauce, I got garlic sauce – olive oil, herbs and lots of minced garlic.

They also make their own dough which is vegan. The crust is thick, I prefer thin crust. Still, I’m very happy to have a vegan option without any fuss. It’s not listed as vegan anywhere on the menu, but the super nice people working there confirmed it.

After waddling out of Klondike’s extra full, we crossed the street to Doc Burnstein’s Ice Cream Lab for a little sorbet (there’s always room for dessert). For some sweet vegan baked treats, Eclair Bakery is also just down the street.

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Last weekend, I checked out WonderCon at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. This year marked the 25th anniversary of the annual comic book, sci-fi, and popular arts event. (Yes, I’m geeky that way. But not as geeky as the people who dress up in costume and walk around in character. Bless them, they certain make the whole experience that much more interesting.)

Rather than eat the convention center food and wonder about the veganess of it all, I took a short walk over to the Loving Hut located in the food court of the Westfield Shopping Center.

I ordered the Grilled Philly Sandwich – marinated soy protein with BBQ sauce, vegan mayo, tomato and lettuce for $8.95. It was good. The bread is nice, warm and crispy; the insides had a meaty texture with good flavor. It came with a little container of cole slaw which had a nice twang to it and a couple of orange slices.

Since my order was to-go, I got a pager that lights up when the food is ready. But it didn’t take long at all, probably between five to ten minutes. There’s also a small buffet besides the sandwiches and salads on the menu. I actually like this location better than the Loving Hut in Palo Alto. And it’s definitely way better than eating at the convention center.

Yeah, I’m having a bit of a pizza binge over here in Chow Vegan land. You would think I had my fill of pizza after reviewing three Tofurky Pizzas in my last post. But hey, it’s pizza! And man, I haven’t had deep dish pizza in years, decades even.

Needless to say, I was very excited to try the vegan deep dish at Patxi’s Chicago Pizza in Palo Alto. I got the small 10″ Stuffed Vegan – spinach, crushed garlic, red onions, and Daiya vegan mozzarella cheese on a whole wheat crust.

After waiting 30 minutes for the deep dish to cook, it didn’t disappoint. The crust is nice and crusty, you can’t even tell it’s whole wheat. The Daiya cheese is nice and melty. Creamy too.

One slice and I was pretty much full. I haven’t had this much cheese in ages, it seemed really rich. Maybe because I’m used to eating lighter, cheeseless pizza. Next time I would leave out the onions and add other veggies instead.

Patxi’s also offers thin and extra-thin crust pizza which I would like to try sometime. All of their sauce and dough is vegan and made fresh daily.

Located in downtown Palo Alto, I’ve been racking my brain trying to think what was there before the pizza place (I use to live right around the corner). The decor is nice, the servers super friendly and the vegan pizza is clearly noted on the menu. A great addition to the list of places to eat vegan in Palo Alto.

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While down in Southern California, Legoland in Carlsbad popped up on the itinerary a couple of times. For lunch there, I usually go for the salad bar at the Fun Town Market Restaurant. As you can see above, I really loaded up my plate.

After all that walking around the park, I need every single morsel. Because of the high turnover, the salad bar seems very fresh. The workers are constantly refilling the different items. I’ve even seen marinated tofu cubes, not on day 1 when I took the picture but they had it on day 2. It’s about 10 bucks a plate.

Usually the family eats over at Fun Town to accommodate me, the vegan. For one meal, we tried Upper Sports Deck Cafe for a change. When asked about vegan options, the waitress mentioned the Gardenburger and the entrée salads without the meat.

I got the burger with no mayo or dressing, it came with waffle fries, also for around $10. I think the patty may be vegan but I’m unsure about the bun. Also ordered the hummus with vegetables appetizer to share.

While Legoland has vegan options, it seems like Disneyland has more to offer. Although, probably the healthiest option of all the theme parks, is the Fun Town Market salad bar.

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Visited Disneyland again this year and got to try different places to eat as there’s quite a few options nowadays.

At the Mexican place, Rancho de Zocalo over in Frontierland, I ordered the Soft Tacos Monterrey for $9.99 – two tacos with sautéed vegetables on top of rice and beans in a flour tortilla (pictured above). Included is more rice and beans on the side along with a dollop of guacamole, salsa and shredded lettuce. Request no cheese and no sour cream.

The veggies in one taco had zucchini, squash and onions; the other had mostly onions and horror of horrors, bell peppers (I’m not fond of bell peppers). I’m not sure if it’s possible but if I ever eat this again, I’m going to try to request less of those bell peppers. Other than that, it’s not bad. The rice is nicely spiced and flavorful and everything seemed fresh.

It’s served cafeteria style and the service is fast moving once you get to the front of the line. I had to say “no sour cream” quickly as I saw the plater reaching automatically for the sour cream spoon. Everything is open so you can talk to the order-taker and the plater.

Tried the veggie burger with fries at the Village Haus in Fantasyland, $7.99 (pictured above). It was just ok. The patty tasted like a brand that I had before but I can’t quite put my finger on it. I didn’t confirmed that it was vegan. I thought I read somewhere that the veggie burgers are vegan but maybe I’m getting it confused with Walt Disney World (which apparently has better and more vegan food).

Over at Disney’s California Adventure, it was lunch at the Lucky Fortune Cookery in the Pacific Wharf area. They have fast food Asian Rice Bowls with tofu and one of four sauces over seared Asian vegetables and steamed rice for $9.49. I asked if any of the sauces were vegan and was told none of them were at first.

Then the super nice chef came out to talk to me and showed me the labels for the sauces. All of them except the Thai Coconut Curry is vegan. I went with the chef’s recommendation of the Teriyaki sauce (pictured above).

I thought it was good. I especially liked the soft tofu. The only thing is, it comes in a rather tall to-go container, making it hard to eat as the rice is all at the bottom and most of the sauce ends up there too.

Also had dinner at Blue Bayou in New Orleans Square again this year. Yes, they still have the Portobello Mushroom and Couscous Maque Choux, it’s still vegan and it’s still $27.99. I didn’t really think the price would go down but glad it didn’t go up. Although I only got a stack of two portobellos, last time I got three. Comes with a salad, but be sure to ask for it to be made vegan.

Didn’t get around to the veggie gumbo or veggie po’boy on this trip, but there’s always next time.

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