Tally Ho: Strasbourg Sausage Search
by: Steve Toth
Rumoured as the sausage capital of France, my taste buds piqued themselves in anticipation of these wondrous delights. I found sausages in sausage trolleys, some restaurants, and the Kirn.
One such trolley in the Place de la Cathédrale offered two varieties. Of course, I tried both.
Merguez is less than a half-inch thick, encased in a thick skin on the dry and crispy side, filled with lean meat, spicy, quite crunchy, very tasty, the best I ever enjoyed on many visits to France. It ranks with my favorite Kasekreiner in Vienna and the Debreziner in both Vienna and Bad Aibling (Bavaria).
Saucisse de fumée is about an inch and quarter thick, oozing with fat, squashed in a hotdog type skin. The bite is soft, the taste is bland resembling veal sausages in Zurich.
Saucisse in a Riquewihr trolley (not far from Strasbourg) resembled a mild pepperoni, about a half-inch thick, packed into a very tough skin, and very crunchy. This sausage with hot soup on a raw, windy, rainy day hit the spot.
Check the restaurant menus for saucisse or choucroute garnie a l'alsacienne. The latter is a terrific sauerkraut with lean slab bacon, pork loin, and an assortment of up to three varieties of sausages. Ask the waiter to write down the names of your favourites.
We enjoyed a simple sauerkraut lunch with bacon and saucisse de Francfort, similar to a good American hot dog. Shadowed by the grandiose cathedral, La Maison Kammerzell in Place de la Cathédrale, is Strasbourg's most decorated half-timbered house. Today this impressive building houses an excellent restaurant.
Also worth checking are Au Pont Saint-Martin at 13-15 rue des Moulins, Le Woodies at 69 Grand' rue, Buerehiesel at Parc de l'Orangerie and the Ancienne Douane at rue de la Douane.
I asked the helpful lady in the Tourist Bureau for her recommendation on great sausages. She promised that the Kirn would have the best sausages in all of France, and in fact, in all the world. Impressed, I rushed to the Kirn. There displayed were eleven different types of sausages.
Merguez which I had already enjoyed at a sausage trolley.
Saucisse a griller Toulous, a mild country-style pork sausage.
Cervelas, a garlicky, cured pork sausage.
Saucisson de Morteau, a plump smoked sausage with a wooden peg tied to the sausage casing at one end. Traditionally eaten at Christmas, hence its alternate name, Jesus de Morteau.
Petite Saucisse de Francfort, similar to the American beef hotdog.
There were also: Knacke, Munichoise, Cevelas Bern, Montbéliard, Saucisse Ménage, and Saucisse a frire genre paysaune. This was a tremendous find.
But I didn't have the foresight to bring a grill or the time to rent a kitchen. Kirn is a special food store for the homemaker. My high school French failed to communicate adequately with the Tourist Bureau lady.
My favourite in Strasbourg is Merquez, it's among the best I've tasted anywhere. If only I had access to a grill . . .
