José Andrés Makes One of NYC's Best Ham & Cheese Sandwiches. It Costs $17.

Also: A smoky sobrasada bocadillo at Mercado Little Spain and a famous pastrami on rye in a new location

Sandwich Sharks is a regular column aimed at feeding the hungry luncheon sharks swimming inside our bellies. Please enjoy the included Deluxe Edition “Great White” trading cards, celebrating the best sandwiches to chomp in 2023.

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Hudson Yards, that $25 billion airport terminal of a Midtown neighborhood, hasn’t added a whole lot to New York life in the four years since its debut (unless you wanted another seafood emporium with private yacht rentals). But Mercado Little Spain remains an excellent exception.

You can find me at the sprawling market — bigger than some community colleges — at least once a week, ordering a morning pastry, spending way too much money on tinned fish, watching fútbol with an eggy tortilla, or more frequently, eating a stupendously delicious ham and cheese sandwich for $17.

It would be easy to get annoyed about the price — yet another humble thing turned expensive in this damn city. But remember, this is a town where a plain-looking ham and cheese can command $29 on the Upper West Side — a development that drummed up a bit of populist outrage this spring. All of a sudden $17 doesn’t seem too bad. That’s New York City math for you, a trick calculator that always seems to round up. So be it.

And like I said, it’s an absolutely fantastic sandwich, courtesy of chef and humanitarian José Andrés.

Actually, I’ll go even further. This bocadillo (or bocata), which hasn’t received as much attention as other delicacies here, is possibly one of the greatest ham sandwiches in our entire city.