It indeed doesn’t really fit the definition we have. It is a real source of disagreement among us between those who wants to reject it from sandwich and those who wants to review the ruling.
This edgecase is really interesting and your opinion on that matter is welcomed
Si tu me demandes de lister 100 sandwiches différents, jamais je ne citerais le croque-monsieur.
Je crois que c’est parce qu’il ne devient croque-monsieur qu’une fois chauffé.
The danger here is asking a native English speaker their opinion when it could be a very cultural distinction. A U.S. dictionary will unambiguously call it a sandwich, but that could be simply to facilitate explaining what it is to a less familiar audience; essentially ”it’s a sandwich with these unusual characteristics”.
We also have “hot open face sandwiches” though which is typically a single slice of cheap sandwich bread topped with hot sliced meat (usually turkey or roast beef) and hot gravy.
But if you want my opinion, yes - they’re all sandwiches (albeit non-traditional).
It indeed doesn’t really fit the definition we have. It is a real source of disagreement among us between those who wants to reject it from sandwich and those who wants to review the ruling.
This edgecase is really interesting and your opinion on that matter is welcomed
Si tu me demandes de lister 100 sandwiches différents, jamais je ne citerais le croque-monsieur. Je crois que c’est parce qu’il ne devient croque-monsieur qu’une fois chauffé.
But once the croque monsieur has been cooked, it can be eaten cold. The croque madame has an egg on top, not a sandwich.
Hmm. But you eat them both with a fork and knife. (And a panaché bien blanc, it’s law.)
The danger here is asking a native English speaker their opinion when it could be a very cultural distinction. A U.S. dictionary will unambiguously call it a sandwich, but that could be simply to facilitate explaining what it is to a less familiar audience; essentially ”it’s a sandwich with these unusual characteristics”.
We also have “hot open face sandwiches” though which is typically a single slice of cheap sandwich bread topped with hot sliced meat (usually turkey or roast beef) and hot gravy.
But if you want my opinion, yes - they’re all sandwiches (albeit non-traditional).