Ask Mr. Gold

Q:We became addicted to spicy red merguez sausages while we were in France last summer and can’t find them here at home. Do you know where to find a good Algerian butcher?

—Regards, Judy Kameon and Erik Otsea

A: Great merguez isn’t that easy to find in Los Angeles. There are a lot of Middle Eastern restaurants, of course, but they tend to serve Armenian-Lebanese cooking — which features a spicy sausage called sujouk instead of merguez — Iranian cooking or straight-on kebabs. But if you don’t mind grilling them yourself, the guys at Chowhound.com are gaga over the house-made merguez at Hadar Orthodox Kosher Meat. And Hadar’s merguez really is good — juicy breakfast-size links with a strong lambiness and a lashing of pungent spice, not hot-hot, but persistent; the flavor bounces around in your mouth in the same way that certain pop tunes bounce around in your head. We all might secretly prefer Led Zep, but to be the ABBA of Moroccan sausage isn’t bad. Hadar Orthodox Kosher Meat, 440 N. Fairfax Ave., Los Angeles, (323) 655-0250. Got a burning culinary question? Try us: askmrgold@laweekly.com