Is there a slang usage for the word phrase "croque-monsieur"?

Question

We now that the croque-monsieur is a traditional baked or fried boiled ham and cheese French sandwich.

While in France many years ago, a friend of mine made a variation of the croque-monsieur in which he made using only a béchamel sauce (no meat or anything else) with lots of Dijon moustarde on dried bread or biscuits and baked until golden on top. He put enough Dijon mustarde to make it burn your nose and make your eyes water. He would have this every November 2nd (All Soul's Day).

He told me that he calls this particular sandwich "The Undertaker".

Can anyone here inform me if in fact such a slang usage for the croque-monsieur exists in French?

The Undertaker translates to croque-mort in French, which is not far from croque-monsieur, but I have never heard of a sandwiched called The Undertaker or croque-mort — SwissFr, Oct 27 '17 at 12:48
@SwissFr Perhaps you can make an answer out of your comment as a sort of play on words? — Ken Graham, Oct 29 '17 at 13:35

SwissFr · Answer 1 · 2019-09-05T11:18:59.930

8

Your friend might have done a play on words :

The Undertaker translates to croque-mort in French, which is not far from croque-monsieur, but I have never heard of a sandwich called The Undertaker or croque-mort.

edited Sep 05 '19 at 11:18

answered Oct 30 '17 at 07:54

SwissFr

1,044
8
16

A cocktail with lots of ingredients can be called un cercueil (a coffin) – chqrlie Oct 30 '17 at 22:33
That's logical for a cocktail. – Quidam Nov 18 '19 at 03:00

score 5 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 17 '20 at 09:38

Sometimes we just say "un croque" instead of croque-monsieur, but otherwise there is no specific slang word for that. However, there are lot's of variant of the original recipe that are called with names starting with "croque" (some are local names from a particular restaurant, while others are more common).

Here are a few that come to my mind:

croque-madame (locally with pineapple or tomato, but most often with an egg)

croque-hawaï (always with pineapple)

croque-signore (italian style, with e.g. mozarella, dried tomatoes ...)

Undertaker (croque-mort) sounds to me like a fancy name with a special recipe for Halloween. Your friend could have called it "croque-mitaine" (boogeyman) for the same type of play on word.

Is there a slang usage for the word phrase "croque-monsieur"?

2 Answers2