The world’s worst “best” sandwich

The francesinha (fran-sess-EEE-nyah) is one of Portugal’s National sandwiches and you see it on menus EVERYWHERE. It apparently was Portugal’s answer to the croque madame (which I love love love), it looks mouthwatering and was created in Porto, so OF COURSE I have to try it here. I even walked 10 miles today to make sure I could really, REALLY go to town on one.

I had such high hopes… toast, steak, multiple kinds of sausage, ham, topped with melted cheese, a fried egg and a beer-tomato sauce. Served with fries. What’s not to love?

Plate hits the table…I’m so excited. All that cheesy, meaty, toasty, saucy goodness. First bite… hmmm, ok, that’s different. Maybe I just didn’t have the right composition? (No way you’re fitting a whole vertical perfect bite on a normal sized fork.) A few more bites in, alright this is ok.

And it never got beyond that. In fact, the linguiça and fresh sausages had wayyyyy too much funky acidity to make this work. Or it’s just me.

Maybe you have to be really drunk and/or hungover to enjoy this? Seems to be proof that just because something is unique doesn’t make it automatically good.

P.S. The other famous Porto sandwich is a bifana, which is apparently a pulled pork sandwich with delicious sauce. Yeah, so I totally missed the boat there. 🤨🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️Read more