It's a heatwave!

With a heatwave hitting most of the country this week except Oakland, where it was a lovely 63 degrees Tuesday, I started thinking about how I might raise the temperature here with hot sandwiches. I'm talking about sandwiches that have hot fillings, are warmed up on a grill of some kind, or are just spicy -- and any combination of the three. It's a wide spectrum, arguably running from hot dog, through panini, to cheesesteak.

Close readers of the newsletter recall I've been known to burn the roof of my mouth on a fried chicken sandwich fresh out of the fryer. So to save my palate, this week we're running down some recent MSD entries of sandwiches that bring the heat, one way or another.

Breakfast Sandwiches
A hot egg is not just a winning sandwich filling, it's a conduit for your favorite hot sauce. Add some bacon into the mix and you've got a bona fide lunch. This BEC from the Clark Street Diner in Los Angeles is made with buttered, griddled toast, which sounds amazing to us but shockingly isn't to everyone's tastes.

The Cubano
The Cubano is one of our all-time favorite types of sandwiches. It's a full meal and checks all the Salt, Acid, Fat, Heat (and carbs!) boxes like all the great dishes do. This one from Rumba Cubana in Jersey City looks perfectly pressed.

The Chicken Parm
What could be better than a fried chicken sandwich? Covering that chicken with tomato sauce and cheese, obviously. A good chicken parm might put me out of commission for a few hours, but from the looks of this one from Companion, in Venice, CA, it would have been worth it.

The Crab Cake Sandwich
While we're breading and frying things, why not crab? This crab cake sandwich from the recently-opened Mon Superette in Oakland also comes with a spicy, Vietnamese slaw, and is served Japanese sando-style. A dangerously good grab-and-go option.

Got a favorite hot sandwich? Drop it in the MSD.

See ya next week!