Fragile Like a Rock? Saskatchewan’s Sandwich

In Saskatchewan, there’s a sandwich with many names–or at least many variants of the same name. Some menus in the area spell it Frajolaki, as I have; others spell it Frazolaki. Still other restaurants spell the name Fratzolaki, a spelling that seems to be more common in Regina than in Saskatoon. It might also be called a “Fragolaki” (I’m looking at you, Flamingo Restaurant in Melville, SK) or according to at least one report, a “Fraggle Rocky.” “Fratzolaki” may be the closest to being etymologically correct–the origin of the name appears to combine a Greek term frantzola meaning an elongated bread loaf (it makes me think of the term “French bread” used similarly in the Midwestern American English I grew up speaking, though the similarity appears to be coincidental) and the diminuntive suffix “aki“–see for example souvlaki meaning small skewer–to make frantzolaki, a Greek word for a bread roll. According to local lore, the sandwich was invented sometime in the late 1970s or early 1980s…