The humble sausage can now be bought in all international variations, filled with flavors representing every part of the globe.

Whole Foods stock all manner of sausages, in flavors like Thai spices, and meats like chicken and turkey, or even fish. Personally, I find them lacking in fat, so when you cook them they're dry and mealy.

Elsewhere, venerable delicatessens and butchers stick to the tried and true.  

Vace's make their own mild and hot Italian sausages, as does The Italian Store, 3123 Lee Hwy, Arlington, 703 528 6266.

Canales Quality Meats, in Eastern Market, has andouille, the white French sausage you will either love or hate, that you should fry with some sliced apples. 202 547 0542. Boudin can sometimes be found at Dean & DeLuca and Whole Foods. Garlic-flavored Toulouse sausage is sold by both stores.

For home-made halal spiced lamb sausages, visit the Lebanese Butcher, 113 E. Annandale Rd, Falls Church, 703 533 2903.

Nick's Sausage Company in Hyattsville makes specialty sausages with a focus on Italian types. Call them on 301 927 5388 to find out what mixture is being turned into stuffing. 

Americana Grocery's range of sausages includes morcilla blood sausage, Mexican, Argentinian, Salvadorean and Spanish chorizo. VA: 13215 Occoquan Rd, Woodbridge, 703 497 6100; 6128 Columbia Pike, Falls Church, 703 671 9625; 10897 Main St, Fairfax, 703 934 0100. MD:8541 Piney Branch Rd, Silver Spring, 301 495 0864; 1500 University Blvd E, Hyattsville, 301 434 8922;  900 Annapolis Rd, Bladensburg, 301 864 4870.

For a British breakfast, you can buy frozen bangers, and sometimes Cumberland sausage links, from The British Connection, 119 S. Royal St, Alexandria, 703 836 8181. But Whole Foods' pork and sage sausage is a good substitute.

You get the most flavor from British-style bangers if you roast them slowly in the oven or really slowly over low heat in a saute pan with a cover, turning them often over 25 minutes. It makes them all sticky on the outside, perfect for slamming hot into a hunk of fresh baguette slathered with nose-tingling, eye-watering Colman's English Mustard. 

If you want to make your own sausages, Yeager Spice sells animal casings, as well as natural collagen casings that don't need soaking. You can also find them at Wegmans.

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