Will I be successful and become vegan? Will I have the "big one" and die before I make it? Will I become vegan but get run over by a car? Will I find recipes or make up new recipes that wow me and my readers? Will I find ways to eat out and stay vegan? Stay tuned!
Thursday I met a friend at SWAD Vegetarian for Southern Indian food. The online reviews for the restaurant are great - even the bad one was good (some yahoo said that it was obvious that the owner did not care about "American" customers because everyone in there was from India and the food was just too spicy for him or "the average American diner"). :-) Even though I spent two weeks in India several years ago I'm not very sophisticated about Indian food (of course I had Delhi-belly most of the time there and was sick as a dog). I did know that Southern Indian food is nothing like Southern US food (brilliant right?)so I was ready for an adventure.
The menu is not very helpful unless you are actually from India because even though it's in English it's not interpreted, for example, Pani Poori is described as "seven poori served with mint..." so if you don't know what poori is...
My friend Keith asked the woman at the cash register, "We've never been here so what would you suggest? Not too spicy." We were a little nervous about the spiciness cause every table gets a big plastic pitcher of ice water. She smiled knowingly and pointed at the special. Called the Thali Special and defined as Poori (4) or Roti (4), Vegetables, Rice, Raita, Pickle, Dal, Papad, Salad & Sweet. I noticed that the special was the most expensive item on the lunch menu at $9.95 but what the heck - we were there for the adventure!
You probably know that Poori and Roti are types of bread so we enjoyed that - I remembered when it was delivered to the table because back in India when I was so sick it was bread and rice that sustained me! Of course we could pick out the salad and the rice but after that it was "the yellow one" "the one with peas in it" "the yogurty one" etc. It all gets a thumbs up EXCEPT for the smallest bowl which had something dark and medicinal tasting in it. I wish I had read this review before I went
I probably would have ordered the same thing but I would have known what I was eating!
Will I return to SWAD? Yes! But before I go next time I will Google the items on the menu so I know what the heck I'm ordering. The four people at the table next to us had what looked like a big spinach quiche and they were moaning and groaning about how great it was.
Gotta love Austin if you are vegetarian aspiring to be vegan!
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