La Tasca Spanish Tapas Bar and Restaurant, Arlington, Va.

Continuing our Restaurant Week adventures with the "extending" restaurants this week, yesterday, Robert and I ended up in Arlington at the La Tasca Spanish Tapas Bar and Restaurant. They have decided to make their Restaurant Week deal the Wednesday weekly special, so one can lunch now on Wednesdays for $20.09 for all you can eat tapas. Don't know how long that will continue.

Robert's a regular at this place. I've not been there for two or three years since I last went with my friend Jose, but the place is under different management now, and I enjoyed the leisurely afternoon ordering little plates one at a time. For those of you who've never before been to a tapas bar, the tapas are little individual plates of food, and it's kind of like making a meal out of a series of appetizers at a regular restaurant.

Robert started out with one of the daily specials with shrimp and large scallops covered in diced tomatoes and peppers and presented au gratin with melted white cheese the name of which escapes me. Next he had the solomillo de cerdo Iberico al Cabrales, a little slice of grilled pork tenderloin that had been wrapped in bacon and served in a white Cabrales cheese sauce, that he says is one of his favorite dishes there. Next he got the langostinos a la plancha, some jumbo shrimp with the heads on that had been grilled with sea salt. For a vegetable dish, he ordered the espinacas salteadas, a very interesting salted, sauteed spinach dish with pine nuts and raisins. Somewhere in there, he also ate an order of pan de ajo con queso, or garlic bread with cheese. For his dessert, he got the flauta rellena de crema de platano y carmelo con helado de chocolate, a deep-fried banana in puff pastry served with chocolate ice cream.

I began with the calamares andaluza, a nice, tender, fried squid calamari with garlic mayonnaise, then I had the montado de lomo, which reminded me of an Italian bruschetta topped with grilled pork loin. Next I had the buey al Jerez, a very tasty grilled flank steak with sherry mushroom sauce and served with diced fried potatoes. My dessert was the crema Catalana, in essence, a crème brulée with strawberries.

While Robert just drank Scotch with his meal, I tried a glass of the sangria blanca, made with white wine, brandy, peaches, and cinnamon, and a glass of sangria tinta, with red wine, triple sec, apples, and oranges. They had probably half a dozen other kinds of sangria, too. I like their sangrias—they could become addictive!

La Tasca is a small chain in the Washington-Baltimore metro area, so there are a number of other locations with similar menus for your Spanish dining enjoyment. In addition to tapas, they have a number of paellas on the menus, too, for those wanting a fuller dinner.