Happy birthday to me!!

Today is my birthday. The big 3-2. Yay.


After discussing what we were going to do for a special birthday dinner, we decided to go on a food adventure and go somewhere we've never been.  I looked up Indian restaurants in the area just to see what was available.There were 3...one of them we've been to before and it was good.  The other 2 also had pretty good reviews when we looked them up at Yelp.  But one of them had all rave reviews and after checking out the menu, we hopped in the car and were on our way.


Its exciting trying out a new restaurant, especially with so many good reviews.  We both love Indian food and it fits very well with the whole pesca-vegetarian diet.  This place is called Swagath.  It is located in Ashburn, VA and its in the middle of a shopping center.  A shopping center restaurant? Sounds a little suspect.  But do not be fooled by outward appearances.

We were there for an early dinner so there were only a few other customers there.  The decor was neat and modern, a few oblong mirrors lining the walls above the booths and small flat screen TV's  mounted above the tables playing Bollywood videos.  The menu was extensive...not one piece of meat on there either!! They specialize in vegetarian and vegan recipes, using mostly organic and seasonal ingredients.

Garlic Naan

We ordered a basket of garlic naan, which is a thin crispy bread covered with melted butter and fresh garlic and herbs.  Then we ordered an onion masala dosa.  A dosa is like a thin crispy crepe filled with yummy stuff.  This one was filled with onion and potato curry. 

Dosa

Dosa insides

It was served with 3 sauces...a spicy red sauce, a white coconutty sauce, and a lentil veggie soup type sauce.  I don't know what any of them were but they were all so yummy.  The dosa was huge! And they accidentally brought us 2 of them! But they were nice enough not to charge us for one.    

Yummy sauces

Then we also ordered paneer butter masala.  Paneer is a type of cheese used frequently in Indian dishes.  It's white, usually cubed, and has a mild soft flavor similar to cottage cheese or a fresh mozarella.  And in this dish its smothered with melted butter and a thick creamy tomato sauce and served with rice.  It is heavenly! So much cheese and butter!!

Paneer Butter Masala

It was a lot of kinda heavy food but we did our best to polish off as much of it as we could!  As we rolled our way out to the car and back home, we knew we had found a hidden gem.  We knew we wold have to go back for more.