California Pizza Kitchen, Arlington, Va.

Last night was a quick meal sandwiched in between shopping stops. Leo needed to get a couple of things at Pentagon City—more specifically from the center across the street and the center behind—so away we went. After making some purchases across the street, we decided to stop in California Pizza Kitchen for a quick bite to eat.

While I had my usual iced tea, I tried to talk Leo into having a Top Shelf Long Island Iced Tea, but he wouldn't do it. Instead, he got an appleberry sangria. The dark, deep burgundy drink served in a large wine glass and garnished with a big lime slice was pretty tart and very fruity.

Leo chose the Thai linguini with shrimp for his supper. The linguini was covered in a spicy peanut-ginger sauce and was topped with scallions, carrot shreds, minced cilantro, peanuts, and bean sprouts. He pronounced it "consistent" with CPK's type of restaurant.



After consulting with our very helpful waitress, I selected the chicken Waldorf salad, with the change of having regular walnuts instead of their standard candied walnuts. The classic Waldorf was dressed up with crumbles of Gorgonzola cheese and thin slices of juicy chicken breast, then tossed with a large bowl of mixed salad greens and a light dijon dressing. I actually liked it quite a bit.



For dessert, we split a chocolate banana royale cake with a scoop of Haagen-Daz vanilla bean ice cream. This was an interesting chocolate cake, split and filled with banana cream, frosted in a sort of chocolate ganache, and then the cake and ice cream were drizzled with banana crean and hot fudge sauces. Half was just right.



After eating, we went across the street behind the mall to the World Market, where the shelves are packed with pink champagne and sparkling wines. Do you get the impression that wine marketers might be pushing pink bubbles for St. Valentine's Day?