Beware of merguez: One bite of the spicy Tunisian lamb sausage (pronounced mare-GEZ) sends the soul hitchhiking on a magic carpet ride to North Africa. Unfortunately, for city-based gypsies looking for an excuse to bolt, it’s not impossible to find merguez in Chicago. Some butchers will concoct a version on request. No two styles are the same, but basics include ground lamb, anise, cumin, coriander, garlic and a peppery Tunisian hot sauce called harissa. In neighborhoods in New York or Paris, where the flag of Tunis or Morocco adorns taxi dashboards and cash registers, the sausage is sold as a snack. Grilled, glistening and tightly encased, it crackles, bursts and spits high-fat flavor at the first bite.
But versions in Chicago are leaner than those savored in magical locales. Look for it on the bar menu of Tizi Melloul (531 N. Wells St.; 312-670-4338), where feisty-tasting slices, homemade, arrive on fresh chick peas with a splash of harissa ($5). Brasserie Jo (59 W. Hubbard St.; 312-595-0800) serves the appetizer as grilled half-links over fluffy couscous ($7.95). It’s also a grilled appetizer ($5) at L’Olive (1629 N. Halsted St.; 312-573-1515).
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