That's not a hot dog...

Germany may be the place known for its wurst, but I am a particular fan of what stands in for hot dogs as Paris street food. The merguez sausage is thin, unassuming, and perhaps not terribly attractive, but full of flavour, especially if it has been slowly cooking in a giant round steel pan with onions, peppers, lamb and chicken kebabs, and probably a year or two of built-up daily leftover grease. It looks like this when served on the French version of a hot-dog bun which is really just half of a day-old baguette (though the missing bite was my doing - I just couldn't wait.)Merguez is tough to get in the US, though I've never quite figured out why. Perhaps it's too tasty... I'll see if I can get the butcher in my neighborhood to make me some. It has good spice without being too spicy, though I imagine that depends on the maker more than anything. Perhaps that's part of the charm - you can't be sure what exactly you're going to get but you know it will be delicious!