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Best Carcamusas in Chicago
“A lean pork stew in moderately spicy tomato sauce, traditionally served bubbling in earthenware with potatoes and bread.”
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What the real thing tastes like
Carcamusas is a culinary specialty of Toledo, Spain, generally served as a tapa in bars. It consists of a stew of lean pork with a moderately spicy tomato sauce and peas. It is traditionally served in an earthenware casserole, along with potatoes and bread. The origin of the name "carcamusas" is unclear. One theory attributes it to the owner of the restaurant Bar Ludeña in the mid 20th century, who served the dish to a clientele consisting of older men, known as "carcas," and the younger women they considered their muses, or "musas."
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In the bars of Toledo, carcamusas arrives in a clay bowl still radiating heat—a modest stew of lean pork suspended in tomato sauce with enough spice to matter, studded with peas. Potatoes soften in the same broth, bread waiting at the rim to catch every drop. The dish is tapa-sized but complete, the kind of thing that tastes older than its mid-century naming myth suggests.
Order it here when it has
- traditionally presented in clay
- complete as a tapa
- lean protein base
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