Aditi Indian Dining: Indian Cuisine in Alexandria, Virginia

Alexandria's Aditi serves authentic, traditional Indian food in a contemporary setting, with the dining room decorated in earth tones & rich wood details. Diners enjoy the garlic naan, which is the ideal balance of pillowy and crispy. The baby spinach chaat is a recommended appetizer, containing sweet yogurt, raisins, tamarind, and cilantro dressing. Regulars enjoy the chicken tikka entree, boneless pieces of seasoned chicken cooked on skewers in a clay oven, and the lamb curry. For dessert, try the kulfi, which is rich Indian ice cream topped with cardamom.

Aditi has an all-you-can-eat lunch buffet from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. daily. The buffet has been voted as best D.C.-area Indian buffet in both quality and value, a distinction that frequent guests say is well-deserved.

Aditi Indian Dining
5926 Kingstowne Towne Center
Alexandria, VA 22315
(703) 922-6111
www.myaditi.com
www.yelp.com/biz/aditi-indian-dining-alexandria

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Paisano’s: Pizza, Pasta, and More

This Virginia pizza and pasta chain has been a local favorite since the first branch opened in Fairfax in 1997. Paisano's has grown steadily over the years with a combination of fair prices, sizable portions and good quality. The restaurant's credo is that it works to make almost everything from scratch daily, including pasta and pizza dough. Paisano’s also works hard to help out their local communities, which has endeared them even more to Virginians. Paisano’s offers a variety of crusts to choose from, with the thin crust recognized as the best. The toppings are high-quality and diverse, with some favorite combinations including the Big Paisano, loaded up with pepperoni, sausage, ham, meatballs, onions, mushrooms, and green peppers, as well as the Greek with gyro meat, feta cheese, tomatoes, onions, and black olives. The menu also offers some excellent pasta dishes, with regulars recommending the homemade lasagna and the baked spaghetti. Sub sandwiches are also exceptional.

Paisano’s:
269 S. Van Dorn Street
Alexandria, VA 22304
(703) 504-6100

www.pizzapaisanos.com
www.yelp.com/biz/paisanos-alexandria

Explore History in a Bottle at the Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary Museum

For an unusual look at life in Colonial and Civil War era America, stop into the Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary Museum. This apothecary-turned-museum first opened in 1792 and functioned for decades as a widely popular place to get herbal remedies and medicines. Records maintained at the shop reveal that Martha Washington, Robert E. Lee, and hundreds of sickly Union soldiers picked up medicines here! In fact, many of the antique bottles still hold 200-year-old bottles labeled with ingredients like mercury, dragon’s blood, and opium!

With museum hours that vary by season, the Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary Museum charges an admission fee of $5 for adults and $3 for children. Request a guided tour, or stop by for special events including lectures, dance classes, and hands-on science demonstrations.

Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary Museum
105-107 South Fairfax St
Alexandria, Virginia 22314
(703) 746-3852
www.alexandriava.gov/Apothecary

Did You Know You Can Make Ice Cream With Just One Ingredient? It’s Bananas!

It may sound too good (and too easy) to be true, but you can make low-calorie, homemade ice cream with one simple ingredient: frozen bananas! Still unsure of how it works? Follow these simple steps to learn how to make this simple and healthy dessert after tonight’s dinner.

  1. Start with overripe bananas. While you can use yellow bananas, they won’t have the same sweet flavor and soft texture.
  2. Peel the bananas and cut them into slices. It doesn’t particularly matter if they’re all uniform.
  3. Place the banana slices into an air-tight container and freeze them in the freezer, preferably overnight or all day while you’re at work.
  4. Blend the now-frozen banana slices in a food processor. If you don’t have one, a traditional blender would also work, thought it may be a bit more difficult to remove the ice cream once it’s done.
  5. Blend until a soft-serve ice cream consistency is achieved. It may look a bit like frozen banana oatmeal at first, but after blending for five minutes or so, you’ll start to see the ice cream take shape.
  6. Eat your healthy homemade ice cream! Like any good ice cream, you can also top it with your favorite sauce, sprinkles, or even fresh fruit and nuts.

How To Make Creamy Ice Cream with Just One Ingredient! [The Kitchn]
One-Ingredient Banana Ice Cream [Chop Chop]
5 Delicious Banana 'Ice Cream' Recipes [Women’s Health]

New Facebook Sweepstakes! Enter to Win an iPad Mini!

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Happy Mother’s Day!

Mother’s Day is a time to celebrate Mom! Are you doing anything special for your mother today?

Rice and Noodles Thai Gourmet: Spectacular Tastes

This popular family-owned Thai restaurant has earned a reputation in the Alexandria area for serving up authentic, flavorful food for a wide variety of palates. The menu at Rice and Noodles Thai Gourmet is exceptional, with a tremendous selection of dishes so large that you could order a different thing every day for a month. Some favorites include the drunken noodles, which have the perfect amount of spiciness and are loaded with vegetables, as well as the awesome Penang curry. There’s literally not a weak dish that comes out of the kitchen here, though. The honey glazed duck curry is a dish you won’t find at many other Thai places, but it’s very much worth trying – the rich, fatty duck pairs perfectly with the sweet honey glaze and the earthy spiciness of the curry. Get a glass of the fresh lemonade – it’s tart and refreshing.

Rice and Noodles Thai Gourmet:
6111 Franconia Road
Alexandria, VA 22310
(703) 313-0330

www.facebook.com/pages/Rice-and-Noodles-Thai-Gourmet/386776713827
www.yelp.com/biz/rice-and-noodles-thai-gourmet-alexandria

Mediterranean Bakery and Cafe: A Grocery and More in Alexandria

This exceptional local business does two things and does them very well. First off, it provides a great place to buy a wide selection of groceries and food products from a variety of Mediterranean cuisines. Walking down the aisles of this place will open your eyes to a new world of spices. There’s even a whole aisle dedicated to different blends of olive oil from different regions, each of which has its own flavor profile. Fresh olives and delicacies like preserved limes and more are also on sale. And then there’s the cafe portion of the store, which is a local favorite for succulent grilled chicken, flatbreads, and more. The house-made samosas are a can’t-miss – these Indian pastries are filled with beef, chickpeas, potatoes, and other amazingly-spiced wonders.

Mediterranean Bakery and Cafe
352 S. Pickett Street
Alexandria, VA 22304
(703) 751-0030

www.facebook.com/pages/Mediterranean-Bakery-Inc/113329705368504
www.yelp.com/biz/mediterranean-bakery-and-cafe-alexandria

Escape Room Live: Can You Beat the Clock During This Exciting Team-Building Adventure?

Whether you’re planning a birthday party or looking for a unique team-building exercise to do with your coworkers, Escape Room Live is tons of fun for all types of groups. This unique facility currently features two different “rooms” to choose from, each of which you’ll need to try to escape with the help of your fellow teammates. The Sherlock Holmes: A Matter of Time and Sherlock Holmes: Moriarty's Madness rooms each contain their own unique games, clues, and challenges to enable you to solve the mystery and win the game, but if you don’t solve the challenges within the allotted timeframe, you’ll have to admit defeat and try again another day.

Groups can either book one of the rooms or reserve the entire facility for private parties or functions, but whichever one you choose, you’re in for a truly fast-paced, thrilling adventure at Escape Room Live.

Escape Room Live
814 King Street
Alexandria, VA 22314
(800) 616-4880
www.escaperoomlivealx.com

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