A round up of exciting sandwich news and links from around the web.

• The Great American Smokeout 2009 is today and hopes to help people kick their tobacco habit. The American Cancer Society suggests restaurants and work places to offer “cold turkey sandwiches” to remind people it’s time to quit. [American Cancer Society]

• The excellent With Love Letters series continues, this time featuring James Beard Award-winning chef Marc Vetri. When he’s not at Vetri, Osteria or working on his new concept, the chef enjoys a Geno’s cheesesteak whiz wit’. [Uwishunu]

• Tweeting fiend Tommy Up let it drop last night that his burger joint PYT will begin a burger of the week special. First up: The Thanksgivin’ which features a turkey burger, topped with stuffing, cranberry relish and smothered in gravy, served next Monday through Sunday (they are closed on Thanksgiving day). We’ve heard rumors of a Wagyu beef burger with pickled daikon and wasabi mayo hitting the menu in coming weeks. [Tommy Up/Twitter]

• Royal Tavern’s Beer and Burger Bash was such a hit last night, that an encore production will play out this evening. Grab special burgers and craft beers starting at 5pm. [Uwishunu]

It’s been an interesting season so far for football fans, with upsets, surprises and plenty of drama to boot. But one thing keeps us prepared for both a win or a loss, and that’s amazing game day sandwiches. One man, Mark Krajnak of JerseyStyle Photography has managed to pull together his love of food, football, and photography to create an amazing series of dishes for the past three seasons.

Focusing on the Philadelphia Eagles, Mark creates dishes that are reflective of the team they are playing that week. A “red, white, and blue burger” topped with salsa and stuffed with blue cheese to represents a game against the Washington Redskins, and a plate of pulled pork sliders to tackle the Carolina Panthers.

Mark’s photos and recipes are shared every week on one of our favorite Philly sports blogs, The 700 Level. Head over there for some great sandwich ideas for the rest of the season!

The term “food porn” generally refers to stunning close-up photos of food, but over at Heavy.com, they’ve adopted the more literal definition and conducted a national survey to determine which sandwich America most wants to… um… make babies with. Dubbed the search for America’s sexiest sandwich, Heavy.com enlisted the services of a market research firm to survey ordinary Americans about which type of sandwich would make the best sexy time.

The survey offered the choice of copulating with six different photos of sandwiches, including a BLT, a Meatball, a Ham & Cheese, a Meatloaf, a Chicken Salad and an Open-Face Roast Beef. The winner, earning 1-in-3 votes, was the Ham & Cheese sandwich. According to one of the respondents, “It seems like it would like to cuddle afterwards.”

So we ask you, what sandwich gets you hot under the covers? A roast pork? A hot pastrami? A French dip? Let us know what gets your heart pounding in the comments.

What Is America’s Sexiest Sandwich? [Heavy.com]

Remember getting berated for playing with your food when you were little? Finicky eaters turned creatives can find a new home at Insanewiches, the site that boasts “loony” sandwiches as an art form.

Some of the creations stay true to the standard sandwich form factor, like the Loaded-Tater Sandwich which utilizes two hash browns instead of bread. Others, however are downright strange, like the Rubix Cubewich and Flip-Phone Cellwich. Can’t say we’d be running to eat that cubed ham, but we definitely respect the imagination behind these creations. Still, the Nike Dunk inspired hamburger is tops in our book.

Are you a sandwich artist? Submit it to Insanewiches and tell us all about it in the comments!

With close to a million daily email subscribers, three books and a handful of packaged food products bearing her seal of approval, Lisa Lillien, better known as Hungry Girl, has built a following of women looking to shed some of the fat and calories from their food.  Praising packaged deli meats and fat free mayo, Lisa is proudly not snobbish about food, identifying low calorie and low fat options on supermarket shelves that anyone can find and incorporate into their diet.

Her favorite sandwich items and recipes range from the safe (Arnold Sandwich Thins) to the adventurous (Baconnaise Lite) to the extreme (cheesesteak lettuce wraps).  Though some her tips and tricks are fairly obvious (add lettuce, tomato and onion to your sandwich,) other points are pretty valuable (add chopped herbs, sun-dried tomatoes or hot sauce to flavor your mayo.)  And though some people may turn their nose at the thought of using Hillshire Farms Deli Select Ultra Thin Slices, an army of Hungry Girl followers are excited about eating sandwiches today, and that’s something we can get behind.

[Around the Web: Hungry Girl]

What is it about the simple combination of bread and gooey melted cheese that makes it so satisfying? Every year since 2003, people from all over the world gather in Los Angeles at The Grilled Cheese Invitational, to cook, share, and eat the most creative grilled cheese sandwiches they can muster. The event has become so popular, that regional invitationals have popped up in San Francisco and Austin, Texas.

Taking a cue from The Grilled Cheese Invitational’s tagline, Bread, Butter, Cheese, Victory is a documentary in development by filmmaker Stephen “Paynie” Payne. Although specific details haven’t been released yet, it seems the film will tell the story of grilled cheese, and the people who come out to the event to share their love of it. Also featured are interviews with notables such as Buzz Aldrin, and Eric Idle of Monty Python fame.

Although we hope to sometime have the chance to make it out to The Grilled Cheese Invitational in California, this documentary will help to tide us over until then. We’ll keep you posted on further details and a release date as soon as they are made available.

The Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board has created a new marketing campaign called The Cheese & Burger Society: an organization promoting Wisconsin Cheese as “the Grand Poo-bah of every cheeseburger grilled at a backyard barbecue or flame-broiled at a roadside diner.”  The website provides mouth-watering photos of 30 different burgers, each with a little story and recipe narrated by actor Patrick Warburton (Seinfeld’s Puddy).  Each burger also features an info sheet on the various cheeses, including pairing suggestions with beer, wine and liquor.

The burger toppings range from the traditional to the over-the-top.  Some of the featured burgers include the Boss, with Wisconsin asiago, arugula, prosciutto, red onions, olive tapenade, tomato and basil on a rosemary ciabatta; the Southern Belle, with Wisconsin gruyere, BBQ sauce, pickles, onions and cole slaw on grilled sourdough; the Brooklyn, a burger that thinks it’s a Reuben; and the Sheboygan, that pairs a burger with bratwurst and sauerkraut.

You can even enter for a chance to win a stainless steel grill or Wisconsin cheese basket.  Check em out on Facebook and let us know which burgers look the best for your Labor Day BBQ.

On the web: Cheese & Burger Society

According to Gourmet Magazine, meat and cheese between bread, is like second nature to humans. We couldn’t agree more. The sandwich journey spans from Momofuku chef/owner David Chang’s pork belly buns to a tuna nicoise sandwich and the Monte Cubano, an amalgam of two classics working together for a greater good. If you find the photographs as drool inducing as we do, you’ll be glad to hear that each sandwich is accompanied by a recipe.

Sandwiches Of The World [Gourmet]

Coconut & Lime is firing up the panini press for a series of recipes this week, and taking some beautiful pictures along the way.  Rachel Rappaport’s mouthwatering recipes are making us hungry for crispy pressed sandwiches like Sesame-Ginger Pork and Prosciutto di Parma with Capicola.  We will be checking back throughout the week to see the tasty combinations that Coconut & Lime is sure to put between grilled bread.

We caught up with Coconut & Lime’s creator Rachel Rappaport:

Unbreaded: Can you give us a little background about C&L?
Rachel Rappaport: I started Coconut & Lime back in 2004 as a place to share my recipes with friends. It slowly grew until the point where I now do it full time. I really enjoy creating my own recipes for food and sharing them with my readers. It is a lot of work but worth it when I see how well my recipes are received by people who make them in their own kitchens!

UB: You’ve made a lot of sandwiches.  Can you give us some lessons learned?
RR: While I enjoy buying fancy meats and cheeses to make my own gourmet sandwiches, I really love making sandwiches out of leftovers from other meals. It makes the idea of eating leftovers much more palatable; it is almost as if you weren’t eating leftovers at all.

UB: If you could eat any sandwich in the world right now, what would it be, and from where?
RR: Luckily my favorite sandwich is easily obtained at our local Italian deli. It is called the Old World Italian and has great Italian meats and cheese and an olive spread that is truly divine.

UB: What’s your favorite sandwich to throw together in the middle of the night?
RR: Grilled cheese! Made with sharp Cabot cheddar and occasionally some Canadian bacon or tomato.

Via [Coconut & Lime]

Kids are notoriously picky eaters, and no measure of pleading, bargaining or reasoning can convince them to taste something they’ve decided they don’t want to eat.  Some kids are placated by simply removing the crust from a sandwich; others need a little extra cajoling.  Enter Mark Northeast, a web designer and dad in the UK who has come up with a delightful and creative solution that has kids and parents looking at food in a whole new way.

Mark made his first Funky Lunch in May after picking up his son from pre-school.  There’s nothing like a rocket-shaped sandwich to transform a grumpy kid from “I don’t want to eat,” to “More please!”  As the weeks went on, Mark’s lunch creations grew in scope and complexity.  His sandwich art now includes animals (giraffe, lion, pig, caterpillar), cartoon characters (Hello Kitty, Spongebob, Nemo, Sid), Pac-Man, and even a grand piano.  Funky Lunch is now on Facebook and Twitter, and Mark has been contacted by publishers looking to expand his vision and bring his incredible sandwich creations to a broad audience.

I’ve become a bit obessed by it all and believe I can actually do some good with it.  My mind starting racing thinking of not only new sandwich ideas but also how I can mass market this in a positive way. My son now eats tomato because of Funky Lunch, he ate Spongebobs Tie and is now happy to eat tomatoes, provided they don’t look like a tomato (ok so we can work on that)!

Some people think I’m a bit mad at the idea of creating these sandwiches especially with the effort that goes into some of them, but I believe even the simplest ones will have an effect on a child not wanting to eat, so why not try.

Funky Lunches are adorable and brilliant, but clearly a labor of love and not for the average mom or dad who can barely spread the peanut butter on bread fast enough.  But if you are looking for a way to get your kid to try new foods, look no further than Funky Lunch for inspiration.  But be warned: your kids may never eat a regular sandwich again.

Funky Lunch Sandwich Design