Croque of gold

We like a croque-madame at Fine Dining. There's something very mouth-pleasing about its eggy hammy breadness, although we were once bitterly disappointed by its naughty husband, the croque-monsieur in a beer garden in the Lake District.

Here's a croque-madame we had at chain restaurant Café Rouge in Cardiff Bay. It got us through a hangover and was nice and comforting and all friendly-like. We put a load of ketchup on it and it didn't seem to mind. That's your croque-madame: easy-going. So we were somewhat alarmed to learn about the croque-madame's bigger, brasher, beefier Portuguese cousin – the francesinha. Terrifying. We're not sure we could manage one of them. It would be like getting beaten up in your stomach. Although the chips look like they'd be amazing dipped in that sauce. It's got two kinds of boozes in it!

Here's a recipe...
And here's the blog, I Just Like To Eat, that we borrowed the francesinha picture from.