Francesinha

The Francesinha, Portuguese for little Frenchie, was invented in the 1950s in Porto by Daniel da Silva, a Portuguese emigrant who returned to his hometown after years working in France and Belgium. Da Silva had spent time observing the French croque monsieur and wanted to create a heartier, more elaborate Portuguese version using local ingredients. He layered Portuguese sausages, linguiça and salsicha fresca, with ham and a thin steak between two slices of bread, covered the whole thing in melted cheese, and developed a thick, slightly spicy sauce based on tomato and beer that gets ladled over the top of the assembled sandwich. He served the first one at a restaurant called A Regaleira in central Porto, where the sandwich became an immediate local sensation. Within a decade, Francesinhas had spread to dozens of Porto restaurants, each developing its own house variation of the all-important sauce, the recipe of which became (and remains) a closely guarded secret at most establishments.