California Pizza Kitchen

I went to the Linux Meetup last night, which was held at the California Pizza Kitchen (the one at Northwest Hwy and Preston). I hadn't been to a California Pizza Kitchen before, so I wasn’t sure what quite to expect (though I figured pizzas would factor into it somehow).

After looking over the menu and asking the advice of my dining companions, I settled on the Santa Fe Chicken pizza:

Grilled chicken breast marinated in lime and herbs, caramelized onions, Mozzarella cheese and cilantro. Topped with fresh tomato salsa, sour cream and guacamole.

The deciding factor for me, in the end, was the guacamole (I’m an avocado fiend — they’re not only super-tasty but full of the “good fat”). And, from the description, it may sound fancy, but it more-or-less worked out to be a chicken quesadilla on pizza dough (and I don’t say that as a bad thing).

I was a little concerned about the caramelized onions. I didn’t used to like onions, but I don’t mind cooked onions these days (as my taste buds are dying). And, the onions turned out to be fine; they added a pleasant dimension to the dish.

The pizza, over all, was very good. But, the dough was a bit disappointing. I suppose I was expecting more of a crispy Italian-style crust, but this one was doughy and almost chewy. It was also just standard white-flour dough, and I figured that perhaps other doughs may have worked better (such as perhaps rye or wheat dough).

The only other area of improvement for the pizza — off the top of my head — is that I think sliced avocados would have worked out better. I recognize the utility of guacamole, since it can be both scooped and poured, but food textures are significant to me and I would have prefered the texture of whole avocado slices.