UPDATE: Cava has closed and is relocating to a new location in downtown Toronto.
Andorra is a tiny little country nestled between France and Spain in the Pyrenees mountains. Escudella is often referred to as Andorra’s national dish. We wanted to eat traditional escudella for the Andorra stop, and while it wasn’t readily available on any Toronto restaurant menus, we found a few spots that were willing to put their chefs to the test and put it on their Saturday evening menu. Typically eaten in winter, this dish is a big meaty hearty stew that will make meat-lovers very happy. We found the perfect place to make us escudella… Cava at Yonge and St. Clair. A restaurant that proudly invites diners to “Just Let Us Cook For You” is exactly what we needed. And you should definitely let Cava cook for you… look at what came to the table leading up to the main star of the dinner…
Escudella means bowl and it is traditionally cooked up for family gatherings like a Christmas feast. It’s a huge stew prepared as a one-pot winter meal, with a variety of vegetables and a selection of different meats such as veal, meatballs, chicken, pig snout/trotters, and delicious butifarra sausage which is a very juicy pork sausage that is an important part of Catalan cuisine. Even though it was a beautiful mild April evening, we were very happy to see this steaming hot stew arrive at the table. It was perfect.
It was served with lovely vegetables that were a crisp and fresh complement to all that hot, juicy, delicious meat.
It never fails to amaze me how even after eating an enormous amount of savoury hearty food, you can still have room for something sweet, like churros con chocolate.
Thanks Andorra… you inspired a wonderfully creative meal and thank you Cava for doing the research into the dish and making it for us. Cava is located at 1560 Yonge Street near St. Clair, and it has the loveliest patio I can’t wait to return to this summer. It was incredible! Rosie 🙂