The famous delicacy of Porto, can be compared to football and politics: everyone has an opinion to give about: where to eat, where are the best, which ingredients are the most delicious, which sauce is tasty one. And no one is wrong, because it really is a very personal dish. There is no original recipe.

Everybody does it on their own way. There's nothing that says "this is the real recipe". Anthony Bourdain said when he visited Porto in 2017: "meat, cheese, fat and bread: the immortal combination". We all know how the composition of a francesinha should be, but do we know what it’s the real story and why it got its name?

At a young age Daniel David Silva, motivated by extreme poverty, moved to Belgium where he found work at one restaurant.

The distance spoke louder and he returned to the land that saw him born, with the will to create something related to "food". It was then that he tried to serve in Porto the idea of the "croque monsieur", a typical French sandwich, but which did not create much enthusiasm for those who tried it.

Convinced that he could improve the original recipe, he started adding ingredients, namely the hot sauce. His idea was to adjust the taste to the culture of the people of Porto, who are used to substantial food, with strong and hot flavours.

One day he presented his improved version to a group of friends who stopped by his restaurant. There was no name, just a sandwich covered with cheese and filled with a delicious full-bodied hot sauce.

This is when the name "Francesinha" came up, in which he reminded a friend the idea of “French girls” at the time more liberal and confident than the Portuguese’s woman.

The story said that after this name, there was no point in trying to call it something else, because “Francesinha” had already start a story.